Preschool Cognitive Development

 3 Year Old  Short sentences  896 Words  Great growth in communication  Tells simple stories  Uses words as tool of thought  Answers questions  Imaginative  May recite few nursery rhymes  4 Year Old  Uses complete sentences  1540 words  Asks endless questions  Learning to generalize  Highly imaginative  Dramatic  Can draw recognizable objects

 Which way is the bus below traveling? To the left or to the right? Can't make up your mind? Look carefully at the picture again. Still don't know?

 90% of the pre-schoolers said: 'The bus is traveling to the left.' When asked, “Why do you think the bus is traveling to the left?” They answered:  “Because you can't see the door to get on the bus.” How does it make you feel?

 Common household objects being put into categories according to similarities.  Examples  Blocks, buttons, silverware, colored items, laundry

 Grouping nature objects into categories according to their similarities.  Examples:  Rocks, boys/girls, bathrooms, people characteristics, animals, things in nature

 Organizing objects according to increasing or decreasing qualities.  Example  Age, height, weight, length, lining up, building a snowmen, your lockers

 Changing an object’s state.  Example  Popcorn – you ate this  Water into ice or ice into water,  powder jello mix into jiggly jello and then adding hot water to the jello to turn it back into a liquid,  growing older with age,  a seed into a plant,  dough into bread

 Building or doing and then undoing it  Example  Zip and unzip,  build a sand castle and wreck it,  block tower and wreck it,  tie and untie

 Understanding that an objects physical dimensions and amounts remain the same even though its appearance changes  Example  Pouring liquid from one cup into another shaped cup. Smashing a cookie dough ball or playdough, 2 different shaped cookies or containers of food

 Step by step pattern of event put into correct order.  Example  Directions in cooking, a story,  a snowman being built and then melting into water,  following correct order to performing a task  Your class schedule or job responsibilities Sequence cards

InquisitiveSymbolsEveryday Experiences Reading storiesMake-Believe PlayOpinions YES and NOEgocentricExperiment Parental AttitudeLimited FocusTest TalkConservationLanguage Ability ChoresPreoperational Stage Problem Solving Bunny math Comic-why Tea party3 little pigs Comic-bug Comic-dough Flour/flower Check list Picture questions Popcorn maker

PREOPERATIONAL THINKING

Words learned Child asking Concepts learning Caregiver asking

 1. Language ability  Q. This reveals a child’s intellectual development: how they think, their interests, and their personalities.  2. Preoperational Stage  A. Jean Piaget said that preschoolers are in this cognitive stage  3. Experiment  L. Allow children to explore and _________. This is how they learn about their world.  4. Parental Attitude  O. This largely influences a preschoolers enjoyment in reading, learning, school, art, music…  5. Everyday Experiences  F. Preschoolers learn best by participation and involvement in these.  6. Chores  K. Preschoolers need to be included in ______and daily clean up tasks around the house.

 7. Symbols  B. In the preoperational stage, a preschooler learns that these represent objects and words.  8. Limited Focus  E. A preoperational form where kids find it hard to concentrate on more than one feature of an object at a time.  9. Problem Solving  P. Preschoolers begin to develop this skill as their cognitive abilities improve.  10. Reading Stories  N. Spending time doing this with kids is an effective way to introduce them to reading. It makes learning easier and more fun.  11. Talk  G. Look for opportunities to ___________ with a child about what they are seeing, doing, and experiencing. This will increase learning.  12. Egocentric  D. Viewing the world in terms of their own ideas and wants shows this preoperational stage.  13. Opinions  I. Ask a child’s views or ________ on subjects to increase their learning.

 14. Conservation  R. A cognitive skill where a child understands that even though one property of an object changes, the other property still remains the same.  15. Inquisitive  H. Children are naturally this way. They ask a lot of questions because they are curious and want to understand the world around them.  16. Test  M. Success of a child depends upon qualities like motivation, determination, creativity, and self-confidence, not on _________ scores.  17. YES and NO  J. Ask questions to a preschooler that requires more than these type of answers to increase learning  18. Make-Believe play  C. This preoperational characteristic is imitating real-life situations in fantasy play