1. Intellectual Development During the First Year
Chapter 10
Intellectual Development During the First Year

3. Learning in the First Year
Five senses are the building blocks of learning
Baby’s brain is fed by experiences
Perception – babies’ ability to learn from the senses

4. Four Signs of Intellectual Development
Remembering – information from senses can be interpreted in light of past experiences (2 or three month old stops crying when someone enters the room because they remember that this means they will be picked up)
Making Associations – baby connects one thing to another (As above adult entering means comfort is next)

5. Four Signs continued:
Understanding cause and effect. The idea that one action results in another action or condition (If baby closes eyes it gets dark; sucking causes milk to flow if baby stops so does the milk. By 7 to 8 months they have a better understanding of this concept: pulling toy, dropping bowl on floor over and over reassures her this will happen every time; instead of getting frustrated parents need to remember they are simply learning about their world and repeated actions strengthen connections between nerve cells in the brain.)

6. Cause and Effect

7. Four Signs continued:
Paying attention – baby’s attention span (length of time one can concentrate on a task without getting bored) increases.
Bright babies have short attention span and lose interest sooner than average or below average babies this is the opposite beyond infancy, where children with above average intelligence have longer attention spans)

8. Piaget
Swiss psychologist found intellectual development followed a pattern.
Children learn to master one thinking skill before they can master another
Children who don’t get chance to apply their developing skills may never reach full potential
Learning stages appear in same order in all children but age at which it develops may vary

9. Four Major Periods Sensorimotor Period – Birth to about 2
Primarily learn through senses and their actions
Object permanence – about 10 months realize objects continue to exist even when out of sight

10. Six Stages of Sensorimotor Period
Stage 1 - birth to one – practice inborn reflexes; does not understand self as separate person
Stage 2 – 1 to 4 months – Combines two or more reflexes; develops hand-mouth coordination
Stage 3 – 4 to 8 months Acts intentionally to produce results; improves hand-eye coordination
Stage 4 – 8 to 12 months – Begins to solve problems; Finds partially hidden objects; imitates others
Stage to 18 months – finds hidden objects; explores and experiments; understands that objects exist independently
Stage 6 – 18 to 24 months – Solves problems by thinking through sequences; can think using symbols; begins imaginative thinking

11. Four Major Periods Continued
Preoperational –
Two to seven years – think in terms of their own activity and what they perceive at the moment.
Begin to understand abstract terms: love, beauty
Concentration limited to one thing at a time.
Children may believe moon follows them around
May pretend to solve problems
May not be sure what is real or make believe

12. Four Major Periods Continued
Concrete Operations Period –
Seven to eleven years – Children can think logically but still learn best through experience
When problem solving children still rely on actually being able to see or experience problem
Understand that pouring water from one container to another does not change the amount of water
Understand operations can be reversed: subtraction undoes addition
Can classify information

13. Four Major Periods Continued
Formal Operations Period –
11 years through adulthood – children become capable of abstract thinking; problem solving by thinking; infer meaning; form ideals
Can think what might have been the cause of an event without experiencing that cause

14. Piaget
Some argue the boundaries of his stages are too rigid; children have shown ability to understand concepts before the stage set
Piaget showed young children learn in their own ways, not as adults do.
Older children use symbolic thinking – using words and numbers to stand for ideas
Younger children rely on concrete experiences
I have three blocks means nothing to a young child. Young children need lessons presented with objects or activities – verbal instruction is a minor role

15. After reading article on Spears:
If you were Jamie Lynn’s friend and you knew she was thinking of becoming physically intimate with Casey, what advice would you give her?

16. 10-2 Helping Babies learn
Babies learn about their world by the care they receive:
Events: discomfort =crying=cuddling + being fed
Repeated patterns = connections and learning

17. Encourage learning Provide experiences that are age appropriate
Give: time, attention, positive feedback, love, and don’t forget to talk, talk, talk
Which of the above do you think would be hardest for you to give?

18. Best Learning Environment
Allow the baby as much freedom of movement at home as possible; in order to do this the environment must be safe
In your journals with the room you selected, write 4 safety concerns that room might have for your child once they are mobile?

19. The Importance of Play For children work is play as well as pleasure
Toys are tools
Tasks strengthen muscles
Refine motor skills
Learn about world

20. Appropriate Toys
Birth to 3 mos. – Bright colors and interesting sounds to stimulate development of senses
Mobiles, interesting wallpaper, pictures etc.
4 – 6 mos. – sense of touch focus – small enough to handle but too large to swallow- teething rings, cups, rattles, plastic toys
7-9 mos. – things to handle, throw, pound, bang, and shake – blocks, balls, roly-poly toys, pots and pans
10 – 12 mos. – things to crawl after, push, or pull – like to put things into other things, picture books

21. Developing Communication Skills
Skill requires physical, emotional, social , and intellectual
Crying 1st means of communication
Crying – pause for response – resume crying
Different cries for different problems
2nd Body movements send messages: wiggling = baby not wanting to get dressed; pushing away a bowl = I’ve had enough to eat; clinging with both arms to parents leg = fear or shyness
3rd Baby communicates making special sounds – giggles, shrieks, grunts
Play sound clips of crying as warm up

22. Learning to Speak Must learn to associate meanings with words
Requires caregiver talking to baby even when baby doesn’t understand – builds brain
Physically baby can’t speak – physical changes over 1st year make it possible
Babbling, repeating syllables and sounds is preparatory for saying actual words
Recognizable words evident between 8 to 15 mos.
Combining words usually after 12 mos.

23. Milestones of Language
1 to 6 mos. – experiments making sounds: coos, gurgles, squeals
7 to 12 mos. – more sounds, responds to name, add actions to words bye bye (waving)
13 to 18 mos. – slow vocabulary growth
18 to 24 mos. – rapid growth 12 words a day; by 2 yrs. Express feelings with words
2 to 2 ½ years – 3 to 4 word sentences
2 ½ to 3 years – longer sentences with rules of grammar for tense (past & present) order affects meaning

24. Review
Physical Development - head to foot; near to far; simple to complex; weight, height, proportion, sight, hearing, smell & taste, voice; motor skills
Emotional Development – process of learning to recognize and express one’s identity as a unique person.
Child with healthy emotional development = a self confident adult who can handle stress and shows empathy toward others
Social Development – process of learning to interact with others and to express oneself to others
Healthy social development = adult who can communicate well with others, listens to other points of view, is more tolerant of others
Intellectual Development – process of learning from senses (perception)
signs –remembering, making associations, understanding cause and effect, & paying attention
Play

25. Assessment on Development
While watching the following power point:
Determine what type of development the activity is assisting and how that type of development is being assisted. There may be more than one type of development. Adequately support your answer.

26. True /False
Positive Feedback
Physical,
Social
Emotional,
intellectual
Babble
Children learn differently from Adults
Sensorimotor
Logically then abstractly
6 to 9 months
Birth to 3mos
7 to 9 mos.
19 to 24 mos.
5 to 6 months
Simple
Security
she’s full / wants something else
Patience
Recall
Talking
Preoperational
How children learn
Crying
Physical, Social,
Object permanence
Cause and effect
Objective thinking
Association
Perception
Formal operations
Attention span
memory
Symbolic thinking
He’s hungry
Classification
Can’t concentrate on more than one thing at a time
Experiences and with their senses
1 ½ inches
3 inches
Work
Concrete operations