1. 1 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Cognitive Development During The First Three Years Chapter 5

2. 2 Did You Know… Parental responsiveness to a child’s needs can affect the child’s intelligence? Early intervention can boost IQs of at-risk children? Newborns as young as 2 days prefer new sights to familiar sights? Brain growth spurts coincide with changes in cognitive behavior? © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

3. 3 Use of gestures helps babies to learn how to talk? Infants and toddlers who are read to frequently learn to read earlier? © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

4. 4 There are 6 Approaches to Studying Cognitive Development Behaviorist: how behavior changes in response to experience Psychometric: measures quantitative differences in abilities that make up intelligence Piagetian: looks at changes, or stages, in the quality of cognitive functioning. Concern is for how the mind structures its activities and adapts to the environment Information processing: focuses on perception, learning, and problem solving Cognitive Neuroscience Approach: seeks to identify what brain structures are involved in specific aspects of cognition Social-contextual approach: examines the effects of the environment on learning. Specifically, parents. © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

5. 5 Behaviorist Approach Babies are born with the ability to learn Classical Conditioning Learning based on associating a stimulus that does not ordinarily bring about a response with another stimulus that does elicit the response Operant Conditioning  Learning based on reinforcement and punishment

6. 6 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Classical Conditioning

7. 7 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Infant Memory Infantile amnesia: Inability to remember events prior to age 3 years Theories: Piaget: the brain is not yet developed Freud: these memories are repressed, because they are emotionally troubling Operant conditioning with mobiles Babies can remember mobiles they played with days or weeks ago Infants and toddlers can remember toy trains and mobiles

8. 8 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Psychometric Approach IQ Tests Psychometric tests that seek to measure intelligence by comparing a test-taker’s performance with standardized norms Developmental Tests: psychometric tests that compare a baby’s performance on a series of tasks with standardized norms for particular ages Bailey Scales of Infant and Toddler Development: Measures current development, not future functioning. Designed for ages 1 to 3½ and indicates strengths, weaknesses, and competencies in the following developmental areas: cognitive, language, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive Mental Scale Motor Scale Behavior Training Scale

9. 9 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc HOME Intelligence was once thought to be fixed at birth, but we now know it is influenced by inheritance and experience. What characteristics of the home environment may influence intelligence?

10. 10 HOME Home Observation of the Environment Measures the influence of home environment on children’s cognitive growth. Among other things, assesses: – Parental responsiveness – Number of books in home – Presence of educational playthings © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

11. 11 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Early Intervention Early intervention: process of providing services to help families meet young children’s needs Project CARE: Involved 174 children from North Carolina born into at- risk homes. An experimental group was enrolled in Partners for Learning, a full day education program at a university center. The program had low teacher-student ratios and fostered cognitive, linguistic, perceptual- motor, and social skills. By age 3 the average IQ for these children was 105, where as the control group’s average was 84 to 93

12. 12 Most effective interventions: Start early and continue through preschool years Time-intensive Provide direct educational experiences Include health, family counseling, and social services Tailored to individual differences and needs © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

13. 13 Piagetian Approach: The Sensorimotor Stage Sensorimotor Stage: the first of Piaget’s four stages. During this stage infants learn about themselves and their world through their developing sensory and motor activity. Babies change from creatures who respond primarily though reflexes and random behavior to goal-oriented toddlers. Consists of 6 stages: During the first 5 stages babies learn to coordinate input from their senses and organize their activities in relation to their environment During the 6 stage they learn to use symbols and concepts to solve simple problems. © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

14. 14 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Piagetian Sensorimotor Stage Substage Age in Mos Description ReflexesUp to 1Gain control over reflexes Primary Circular1-4 Repeat pleasurable chance behaviors (thumb sucking) Secondary Circular4-8Repeat interesting actions Coordinate Secondary Circular 8-12Purposeful & deliberate behavior Tertiary12-18Curiosity and experimentations Mental Combinations 18-24Symbolic thought; insight

15. 15 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Circular Reactions Process by which infants learn to reproduce desired occurrences, originally discovered by chance

16. 16 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Object Permanence Realizing that an object exists even when out of sight Prior to 8 months  If I drop my toy and I can’t see it….it is gone!  ….. THIS is why peek-a-boo is so much fun! 8-12 months  You hid my toy…I’m looking for it the last place I saw it! After a year  You hid my toy…I’m looking for it!

17. 17 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Representational Thinking Pictorial Competence – Ability to understand the nature of pictures – Develops about 19 months of age – Seeing a picture of sun and saying “suh”

18. 18 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Dual Representation Hypothesis Pictorial competence develops slowly because it is difficult for children to simultaneously mentally represent: – a picture  AND – the object the picture represents

19. 19 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Info-Processing Approach Info-Processing Approach: Analyze the separate parts of a complex task to figure out what abilities are necessary for each part of the task and at what age these abilities develop Habituation  A type of learning in which familiarity is indicated by reduced response Dishabituation  Increase in responsiveness after presentation with a new stimulus

20. 20 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Visual Preferences Novelty Preference – Paying more attention to new visual stimuli – Demonstrating ability to tell new from old, or ‘visual recognition memory’

21. 21 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Cross-Modal Transfer Using one or more senses to guide another sense  Feeling your way through a dark room, then finding the way visually when lights are on

22. 22 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Information Processing: Categorization Perceptual  Based on how things look  Birds and planes both have wings and can fly Conceptual  Based on what things are  Chairs, tables, and sofas are all furniture items

23. 23 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Information Processing: Causality Understanding that one event causes another Allows us to control and predict world Develops at around 6 months  Manipulating a mobile with hands or feet

24. 24 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Cognitive Neuroscience: Types of Memory Explicit – Conscious or intentional – Facts, names and events – Develops in late infancy or toddlerhood Implicit – Unconscious recall – Habits and skills – procedural memory – Develops in early infancy Working – Short-term storage of active information – Develops during second half of first year – This may account for why object permanence develops later

25. 25 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Social Contextual Approach: Learning from Caregivers Interactions with adults during activities Helps bridge level of knowledge between adult and child Cultural Differences – US children engage in more play activities – Guatemalan children engage in more work activities

26. 26 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Language Development Language  A communication system based on word, grammar and cognitive development Literacy  The ability to read and write

27. 27 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Early Vocalizations Crying  Newborns Cooing  Repeating vowel sounds – ‘ahhhh’  6-8 weeks Babbling  Repeating consonant sounds – ‘ma-ma-ma’  6-10 months

28. 28 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Recognizing Language Sounds Precedes language ability Fetuses’ heart rates slow when they hear familiar nursery rhymes By 6 months, babies learn to recognize basic sounds of their native language - phonemes

29. 29 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Gestures Conventional Social  Waving bye-bye, nodding head to mean ‘yes’ Representational  Holding arms up means ‘pick me up’ Symbolic  Blowing means ‘hot’ Learning gestures helps babies learn to talk

30. 30 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc First Words Linguistic Speech  Verbal expression that conveys meaning  First word usually around 10-14 months of age Holophrase  Simple syllables that have complete meanings  ‘Da’ could mean “Where is Daddy?” ‘Naming explosion’ occurs at 16-24 months

31. 31 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc First Sentences Telegraphic Speech  2-3 words expressing one idea  ‘No do’ means “Do not do that” Competence in syntax gradually increases

32. 32 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Early Speech Characteristics Understanding of grammar precedes use of it Underextension of word meanings  The word ‘doggy’ only refers to your dog Overextension of word meanings  All men with gray hair are ‘Grampa’ Overregularizing of rules  “ I thinked about it!

33. 33 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Theories of Language Acquisition Nature v. nurture? Is linguistic ability learned or inborn? Behaviorist view: Reinforcement and imitation Child says “Kitty” which is reinforced by the appearance of the family cat Chomsky’s nativism – Brain has the innate capacity to learn language, reinforcement and imitation contribute, but they can’t fully explain linguistic ability. – Word nuances are too many and complex – Chomsky believed in nativism: human brains come equipped with the capacity to learn language – Language Acquisition Device (LAD): programs children’s brains to analyze the language they hear and to figure out its rules. Support comes from infant’s ability to differentiate similar sounds Synthesis of innate capacity and behaviorist principles most likely

34. 34 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Influences on Early Language Development Maturation of the brain Social interaction with parents and caregivers

35. 35 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Language is a Social Act Prelinguistic Period  Adults repeat sounds baby makes helping the baby advance to toward true speech Vocabulary Development  Parent holds ball while saying “This is a ball” Parents can boost vocabulary development by repeating words and pronouncing them correctly

36. 36 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Child-Directed Speech ‘Parentese’ – baby talk Simplified words Exaggerated vowel sounds May help children learn native tongue faster

37. 37 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Adult Reading Styles with Children Describer – Adult focuses on describing events in story – Invites child to do so, too Comprehender – Encourages child to look deeper into meaning of story (What will the lion do now?) Performance-oriented – Introduces themes of story and asks questions after reading

38. 38 © 2009 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Dialogic Reading Shared reading Child becomes the storyteller Adult is active listener Adult asks open-ended questions ‘Why do you think the bunny is afraid?’