Chapters 9 & 12 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY AND MIDDLE CHILDHOOD © 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

JEAN PIAGET’S PREOPERATIONAL STAGE

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. COGNITIVE ABILITIES IN PREOPERATIONAL STAGE Symbolic thought and play Pretend play months – familiar activities; i.e. feed themselves months – focus on others; i.e. feed doll 30 months – others take active role; i.e. doll feeds itself Imaginary Friends More common among first-born and only children

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. LOGIC AND THE PREOPERATIONAL CHILD Lack of logical operations No flexible or reversible mental operations Stages: Symbolic Function (Preconceptual) 2-4 years Intuitive 4-7 years

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Preoperational stage: Piaget’s second stage, lasting from 2 to 7 years of age, during which time children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings Operations: Internalized set of actions; Mental manipulations of concepts and ideas PIAGET’S PREOPERATIONAL STAGE

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Symbolic function stage First substage of preoperational thought Occurs in ages 2 to 4, imaginative drawings Ability to mentally represent object not present Thoughts limited by beliefs: Egocentrism Animism PIAGET’S PREOPERATIONAL STAGE

Figure 9.1 THE THREE-MOUNTAINS TEST

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Intuitive thought substage Uses primitive reasoning, seeks answers to all Occurs about 4 to 7 years of age Limits in preoperational thought Centration Lack of Conservation Irreversibility Lack of Class Inclusion PIAGET’S PREOPERATIONAL STAGE

Figure 9.2 CONSERVATION

Figure 9.3 CONSERVATION OF NUMBER

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. LACK CLASS INCLUSION Class inclusion means separating things into main classes as well as subclasses. Requires child focus on more than one aspect of situation at once Cannot think about two subclasses and the larger class at the same time

CLASS INCLUSION

THE CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Concrete operational stage; ages 7-11 Reversible mental actions applied to real, concrete objects Focus on several characteristics at once CONCRETE OPERATIONAL THOUGHT

CONCRETE OPERATIONAL ABILITIES Conservation skills Object can have several properties or dimensions Child can de-center and focus on more than one dimension Horizontal Decalage Conservation of mass develops first

WHAT IS MEANT BY THE STAGE OF CONCRETE OPERATIONS? Beginnings of adult logic Capable of operational thinking Involves tangible objects, not abstract ideas Characterized by Reversibility and flexibility Less egocentric Decentration Transitivity

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Social constructionist approach Focuses on cognitive development Children - Active construction of knowledge and understanding by actions and interactions Depends on tools used by society Shaped by cultural context VYGOTSKY’S THEORY

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) Lower limit - What child achieves independently Upper limit - What can be achieved with assistance of able instructor Cognitive skills in process of maturing Scaffolding: Changing level of support over course of teaching session to fit child’s current performance level VYGOTSKY’S THEORY

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Language and thought Children’s language uses solving tasks and social communication Plans, monitors, guides behavior Private speech: self-regulation All mental functions have external, social origins VYGOTSKY’S THEORY

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Teaching strategies Assess and use child’s ZPD in teaching Use more-skilled peers as teachers Monitor and encourage private speech use Place instruction in meaningful context Transform classroom with Vygotsky’s ideas VYGOTSKY’S THEORY

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Evaluating the theory: Inner speech important to development Social interaction affects learning/knowledge Extends ‘endpoint’ of cognitive development Teachers serve as facilitators, Piaget agrees Criticisms: Age-related changes not specific enough Over-emphasized role of language Socioemotional-cognitive link needs more VYGOTSKY’S THEORY

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Attention Focusing of cognitive resources Visual attention dramatically increases during preschool years; still has deficits Executive attention: Action planning, focus on goals, detects errors, deals with novel or difficult circumstances Sustained attention: Focused, extended engagement with object, task, event Selective attention: Pay attention to relevant features of a task INFORMATION PROCESSING

DEVELOPMENT OF SELECTIVE ATTENTION Ability to focus attention and screen out distractions improves over time Early Childhood Attention dramatically increases, but children still ignore salient information for more flashy information. Plannfulness: Haphazard strategies in problem-solving Middle Childhood Control: Increases dramatically from 6-9 Adaptability: Flexible, adjust to situation and to own learning Planfulness: Can order how they attend to things.

Figure 12.4 THE STRUCTURE OF MEMORY

TYPES OF MEMORY Sensory Memory Fraction of a second Original sensory form Working or Short-term Memory 7+/- 2 chunks of information by adolescence 5- or 6-year-old – 5 chunks Cognitive strategies used to promote memory Long Term Memory Unlimited in Capacity and Duration Organization in long-term memory Recall memory is improved by categorization

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Memory Explicit memory Episodic Semantic Implicit memory Procedural INFORMATION PROCESSING

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. MEMORY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD Best for meaningful and familiar events As young as 11 months remember sequences just experienced 16 months can reenact sequence after delay of 6 weeks By 4 years, can remember events up to 18 months earlier Less likely than older children to reject false suggestions about events STM Increases from 2 digits at 2 years old to 5 digits for 7 year old Better able to transfer information to LTM More room to process information Speed increases

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. FACTORS THAT AFFECT MEMORY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD Types of Memory Memories for activities better than for objects Interest Level Individual interest and motivation Retrieval Cues Younger children depend on retrieval cues from adults Parental elaboration improves child’s memory Types of Measurement Younger children are limited in measurement by use of verbal reports

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. MEMORY STRATEGIES Strategies for Remembering Rehearsal Not used extensively until age 5 Concrete memory aids used by young children Looking, pointing, touching Moving information to long-term memory Rehearsal Elaboration Organization skills Use of Memory Strategies

ADVANCED SKILLS IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD Metacognition Knowledge and control of cognitive abilities Metamemory Children’s awareness of the functioning of their memory As children develop they utilize more strategies for memory

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Strategies and Problem Solving Strategies: deliberate mental activities to improve processing information Toddlers can learn a strategy Early childhood: stimulus-driven changes to goal- directed problem solving Some cognitive inflexibility in ages 3 to 4 due to lack of understanding INFORMATION PROCESSING

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The Child’s Theory of Mind Awareness of mental processes of self, others Ages 18 months to 3 years, child understands three mental states are related to behavior Perceptions Emotions Desires Ages 3-5: realizes there are ‘false beliefs’ Ages 5-7: deeper appreciation of mind itself INFORMATION PROCESSING

Figure 9.5 FALSE BELIEFS

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The Child’s Theory of Mind Ages 5-6: knows different experiences exist Age 7: realizes knowledge is subjective Theory focuses on preschool years to age 7 Individual differences include: number of siblings, disabilities, parental interactions Important developments occur after age 7 INFORMATION PROCESSING

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Theory of Mind and Autism Autism: in 2-6 of every 1,000 children Linked to genetic and brain abnormalities (impairment ranges from severe to mild) Difficulty in social interactions and developing theory of mind affected by: Inability to focus Some general intellectual impairment Some areas of brain may be above normal INFORMATION PROCESSING

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Preschool years: Increased sensitivity to spoken sounds and ability to produce sounds of their language Vowels, consonants (simple, complex) Notice rhymes, poems, silly names Knows morphological rules Learn and use rules of syntax Vocabulary development is dramatic By 1st grade: knows 14,000 words UNDERSTANDING PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Age, maturity improve language skills Better conversationalists Engage in extended discourse Learn culturally-specific rules, behaviors Talk more about events in time, absent objects and persons Ability to change speech style to fit situation develops by age 4-5; more polite and formal ADVANCES IN PRAGMATICS

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Re-examining early education in U.S. Concerns about abilities to read and write Supportive environment needed earlier Precursors to literacy and academic success: Language skills Phonological and syntactic knowledge Letter identification Conceptual knowledge about print Conventions and functions of print YOUNG CHILDREN’S LITERACY

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 38 states publicly fund preschool programs Child-centered Kindergarten Educate the whole child Instruction: interests, needs, learning style Stress how learned; not what is learned Play is important, various activities used VARIATIONS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Preschool programs Montessori approach Considerable freedom and spontaneity Encourage decisions, teacher as facilitator Self-regulated, independent problem solving Effective time management, responsibility Criticisms: Deemphasizes verbal interaction, neglects social development, restricts imagination VARIATIONS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Developmentally appropriate education Children Learn best from active, hands-on teaching Need individual differences considered Need socioemotional development Developmentally inappropriate education Rely on abstract paper-and-pencil activities Extensive use of rote drills, seatwork, tests VARIATIONS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved U.S. tries to break cycle of poverty Project Head Start To provide opportunity for children from low-income families to acquire experiences, skills important for school success Not all programs are created equal Most provide quality childhood education EDUCATING YOUNG CHILDREN WHO ARE DISADVANTAGED

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The curriculum Universal preschool education School readiness CONTROVERSIES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Japan Preschools - Little emphasis on academics Experience being a member of the group Kindergartens have specific aims Identical uniforms and caps worn Classrooms: identical in equipment In large cities: kindergartens tied to universities Outside U.S.: children given fewer choices DIVERSITY IN CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT