Cognitive Development

educational implications

1) alternative response that children are passive learners - children actively move through operational stages. 2) suggests that learning processes are predictable and orderly developmental accomplishments. Children can be tested at each stage to verify their level of cognitive understanding. 3) child's mind seeks a state of equilibrium, at each stage children form a new way to operate and adapt to the world. 4) teachers can avoid presenting material in the classroom that is beyond the child's cognitive ability.

four assumptions of Piaget's Cognitive theory

1) children are organically inspired to think, learn, and comprehend. 2) children see the world differently than adults. 3) children's knowledge is ordered into mental structures called "schemas". 4) all learning consists of assimilation and accommodation.

educational implications of play

1) must encourage play since much of the child's cognitive advances in learning take place during play. 2) be aware of age-appropriate forms of play for classroom activities and encourage imaginative play whenever appropriate. 3) can use play to help children release physical energy. 4) be aware that play helps children to build social interactions among peers.

educational implications for Multiple Intelligence

1) teachers should appeal to a balanced combination of all intelligences. 2) teachers can develop programs to instruct students using multiple domains to help students feel socially valued. 3) teachers should develop a student's learning portfolio based upon the individual intellectual strengths of each student, including assessments that take into account the diversity of intelligences. 4) teachers should offer a variety of assessment types to allow students to show their strengths and evaluate their weaknesses.

Gardner's Multiple Intelligence

Howard Gardner created this theory which proposes a pluralistic view of a child's mind. He states that children possess different intelligences w/multiple dimensions. His theory recognizes that children have many different cognitive strengths, as well as contrasting cognitive styles. Intelligence has roots in evolutionary history, we are much like our ancestors. Gardner's theory outlines 8 types of intelligences that are not typically considered when examining competencies.

Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg invented this by focusing on the emergence, change, and understanding of morality from infancy through adulthood. It is defined as principles for how individuals ought to treat one another, with respect to justice, others' welfare, and rights. There are three levels w/their own stages. Children begin to believe that good actions are rewarded and bad actions are punished. As children mature, they begin to look internally for a mature choice based on moral standards of good and bad.

Sternberg's Triarchic theory of intelligence

Robert Sternberg's theory states that people who are intelligent possess a high level of common sense and have the ability to succeed according to their personal definition of success, w/in limits of their culture and society. The STAT addresses three components of intelligence: analytical, creative, and practical.

conservation

conceptual tool that allows child to recognize that when altering the appearance of an object, the basic properties do not change. A young child fails to master this task because the way things look influences how the child thinks. This concept is based up the famous formula of Einstein's E = mc². Piaget used this concept when referring to numbers, volumes, weights, and matter (concrete operations).

Multiple Intelligences Example

a student is suffering because he is not talented in logical-mathematical thinking, you can help him appreciate and develop his interpersonal strengths and then learn to apply them to help his math performance.

Intelligence & IQ

a trait that is inferred on the basis of observable behavior. Also, an individual's general mental abilities ("g" factor) to learn, think, experience, and adapt to new situations in this world. There are 2 perspectives: traditional IQ and multiple intelligence.

games w/rules

activities w/predetermined rules that are goal-oriented and often competitive w/one or more individual. These games are mostly played in elementary school, which are more competitive than preschool games, that are about taking turns.

children w/special needs

are often children w/average or above-average intelligence who exhibit emotional and/or physical maladaptive behavior. Learning disabilities in school-age children can be visual, auditory, language learning, perceptual-motor, attention deficit, impulsive, or hyperactive.

6-12 Months

baby begins to babble, like "baba" or "dada" etc.

1-6 Months

baby coo's and gurgles.

12-18 Months

baby's first words appear. Likes to copy sounds and words.

rough-and-tumble play

begins at the end of early childhood but very popular in middle childhood. This game can be in the form of tag, chasing, wrestling, etc.

Adapting to the environment

children adjust to new information about their environment in order to function more effectively and contains two concepts: assimilation & accommodation.

Primary Grades

children start to play side-by-side and gradually move into partnered play and small group play. A favorite activity is anything involving fantasy or make believe. They are also learning to control their bodies.

attention and hyperactivity disorders (ADD or ADHD)

children w/ADHD show symptoms of both inattention and hyperactivity. ADD children show signs of inattentive but not hyperactivity. The following signs whether ADD or ADHD: 1) difficult time paying attention 2) are distracted easily 3) show hyperactivity (ADHD) 4) become frustrated easily 5) difficult time controlling muscle or motor activity (constantly moving) 6) difficult time staying on task 7) show inappropriate overactivity Teachers will often observe these children speaking out loud, forgetting responsibilities, and giving up easily when they don't see a resolution to a problem. More boys than girls are diagnosed w/this disability. Severe ADHD or ADD is treated by a physician. Teachers should allow these students to sit behind others so that the student won't disturb others, and the student to tap his pencil on a sleeve, or leg instead of the table.

Concrete Operational: 7-11 years - middle childhood (elementary)

classification skills allows child to classify and divide objects in sets. Child fully understands conservation, solves problems by thinking about multiple perspectives to any real (concrete) situation. He/she can reason logically (inductive reasoning), perform seriation (can arrange objects in logical progression). Older middle child has practiced enough to perform transitive inference (drawing conclusions about two objects, knowing the third object). Child understands distinction between appearance and reality, and has metacognition ability (thinking about thinking).

Pre-linguistic Stage (3-12 months)

cooing, babbling, crying, body gestures, and facial expressions.

Inductive reasoning

drawing conclusions from specific examples to make a general conclusion, even when the conclusion is not accurate (concrete operations). Ex: all of the balls on the school playground are round. A child may reason that all balls are round which would be an inaccurate conclusion because a football is not round.

cognitive, social, and emotional benefits of imaginary play

during early childhood, as children are forming representational symbols of the world, imaginary play emerges to provide children w/a theatre to practice pleasurable activities that are critical to cognitive and social growth and development. Imaginary play is defined as play that transforms the natural world into symbols; it is most active during early childhood and gradually declines in middle childhood when children shift to play w/games. Jean Piaget believed that play advances a child's cognitive development, and Lev Vygotsky was especially fascinated w/make-believe play. Vygotsky believed that for young children, imaginary play provides an excellent opportunity to play out real-life situations. It makes it possible to help children practice new skills, resolve conflicts, and try out new social roles. Children engage in play for no reason, except for its own sake. An example of imaginary play is a preschool child who has a make-believe tea party w/her stuffed animals, and pours each animal a cup of tea from an "empty" teapot.

Sensorimotor (0-2 years) infancy-toddler

egocentric; Infant explores and understands the world through physical actions - direct sensory and motor contact. Stage begins w/reflexes and ends w/starting to understand symbolic thought. Organizes thought by "schemes", speaks first word by 1 year old & first sentence (2 words) by 18-24 months. Object permanence (object exists even when not visible) and separation anxiety also develop during this stage.

Preoperational: 2-7 years - early childhood (preschool and kindergarten)

egocentric; at 2-4 yrs old there is "casual reasoning" (toddler believes his/her thoughts can cause an action) and "centration" (can only focus no one piece of information at a time). Child uses symbols (words and images) to represent objects and understand the world, but does not reason logically. The child also has the ability to play pretending, has declarative language "I'm hungry." And has about 1,000 vocabulary words. By 5-7 years old, they understand that others can have a different perspective. No longer egocentric, they have intuitive reasoning and representational thought. They go through a period of "fast mapping" (using context to determine the meaning of words). Rapid advances in conversation (speaks 2,500 words), and vocabulary (20,000 words). They ask many "why" questions and classify by two criteria (shape & color). Children can count up to 20 w/fingers, and they understand "conservation" (recognizes that an object does not change if the appearance changes) except liquid.

auditory-perceptual disability (hearing difficulty)

find it difficult to distinguish between the differences in sounds. Teachers will often observe these children as "lost" or "confused" when called upon in the classroom; or comment they are not paying attention.

Level I: Pre-Conventional Level (ages 4-10 years)

first stage is to avoid wrongdoing to avoid punishment. This is a reflection of their egocentrism (cannot differentiate between their own perspectives, feelings, and someone else's) of young children. Children obey because adults tell them to obey, children judge morality on the basis of consequences. By the second stage they focus on fairness and understand that each person acts in his/her own best interest. Ex: if I hit you, you'll hit me back.

Practical (contextual)

focuses on ability to use, apply, implement, and put something into practice; usually considered "street smart" when scored high. This child does not usually work well w/the demands from school.

hypothetical-deductive reasoning

formulating a specific hypothesis from any given general theory (formal operations). This is the ability to form ideas about "what might be". Ex: Tommy makes general observation that short students are not selected for the school basketball team. Since Tommy is short, he deduces that he will not be selected.

Complete Sentences (2 years +)

grammar function

Middle Grades

gravitate toward team play and to develop necessary cooperation and interaction w/peers. They are able to define and resolve conflicts. Fantasy play becomes more complex, based on experiences and understanding the world.

perceptual-motor disability

have difficulty w/coordination and may often appear clumsy or disoriented. Sometimes their hands are in constant motion and may get in the way of their activity.

mental-retardation (educationally delayed)

have subnormal cognitive functioning at an IQ level of 70 or below. They show maladaptive behavior in learning, social adjustment, and maturation. Some causes of this disability may be organic nature, genetic abnormalities, the mother's abuse of alcohol or drugs during pregnancy, environmental deprivation (lack of nutrition to the fetus), or trauma to the fetus during childbirth. Children show significant improvement w/early diagnosis and guidance from a supportive educational environment.

Piaget's Four Stages of Cognitive Development

his theory proposes that cognitive development begins w/a child's innate ability to adapt to the environment, and that development is a result of the child's interface w/the physical world, social experiences, and physical maturation. The child's mind seeks to find equilibrium while moving through each stage of operation. The four stages are: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational

Level III: Postconventional level (ages 13 years-adult)

in the fifth stage, individuals think about the principles underlying society's laws and norms and adhere to those principles, like inalienable rights. Morality is judged in terms of abstract principles and not by existing rules that govern society. Moral and ethical choices rise above laws of society, and individuals look w/in themselves for answers. Sixth stage, they are willing to disobey or fight against laws or societal norms they believe subvert the universal moral principles. Many people never enter into this level of moral development.

constructive play

manipulation of objects or materials to make something. • preschoolers and kindergartners: constructing a hospital room for a sick animal. • school-aged children: creating an exhibit of a project, design virtual games, etc.

Upper Grades (Middle School)

master formal operations, they create and utilize strategies that require them to anticipate situations in such sports as basketball. Creative play is more structured.

Creative (experiential)

measures ability to create, design, imagine, or invent; a child who scores high in this area is considered insightful and creative. However, does not relate well to academic demands of school.

Analytical (componential)

measures memory, critical thinking, and problem solving.

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children (WISC) for ages 6 to 16

measures verbal and performance abilities, including verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, working memory, and processing speed. Each subtest is scored separately to help pinpoint strengths and weaknesses. Ex: a child scores well on performance subtest, but does poorly on verbal subtest this may indicate a language disability.

Transductive reasoning

mentally connect specific experiences, whether or not there is a logical causal relationship (preoperational). A child believes his thoughts will cause something to happen (causal reasoning) Ex: Bill was mean to his little sister. His sister got sick. Bill reasoned that he made his sister sick.

Piaget and moral development

morality is coupled w/cognitive development in two noticeably different stages: morality of constraint (heteronomous) & morality of cooperation (autonomous). He believed that young children (4-7 yrs) are distinguished by morality and constraint. So, children see their moral world through the eyes of justice and rules, which are unchangeable. As children develop, they become more sophisticated and understand that rules are made up by people. Children understand that there are many variables when deciding what is right and wrong. This new thinking moves them to the next stage morality, age of 10, when children view each dilemma and consider the consequences before making a moral decision (cooperation stage).

Stanford-Binet intelligence scales (SB-5) for ages 2 to 8.5

most widely used tests to assess a student's intelligence. It is used to measure patterns and levels of cognitive development. It is a useful assessment to help diagnose childhood developmental disabilities and provides information for special ed interventions (IEP or IFSP).

Holophrastic Stage (12 months)

one word phrases.

Language Development

phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

Functional Play

repetition of movements when new skills are being learned, with or without objects. Begins during infancy w/sensorimotor movements. • infants & toddlers: grasping and pulling a mobile. • preschoolers & kindergartners: repeating a pattern on a pegboard. • school-aged children: practicing throwing, catching, or doing acrobatics.

Pragmantics

rules defining how language is used in a communicative context; purpose, use or intention of words.

Morphology

rules describing internal organization of words to imply or change meanings.

Semantics

rules governing meaning and content of words/word combinations.

Phonology

rules governing structure and sequence of speech sounds and syllables.

Syntax

rules of form or structure of a language; incl. word order, word relationships, sentence structure.

visual perceptual disability (Dyslexia)

see letters and numbers in different positions. When reading, they may confuse right or left, skip and reverse words. Dyslexia is the most visual perceptual disability, whereby a student perceives letters in reverse.

Multiple Intelligences

teachers have an improved framework to use in being sensitive to individual differences in learning styles and interests: linguistic, spatial, logical-mathematical, musical, intra-personal, interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, and naturalist.

Formal Operational: 12-18 years - adolescence (middle & high school)

teen is now capable to reason abstractly and think in hypothetical terms (hypothetical-deductive reasoning). Education focuses on preparing for college, teen has higher level of moral understanding, no longer follows external rules imposed by others. Logic is now applied to what might exist, not just what is real.

why a child would have difficulty organizing a series of log sticks from shortest to longest, determine child's age, and discuss another example of similar cognitive development task the child might have difficulty performing.

the skill that is required for a child to arrange objects in logical progression from shortest to longest is known as seriation. According to Jean Piaget and his stages of cognitive development, this skill is not mastered until a child is about 7 years old, during the period of concrete operations. A child who has not yet acquired this skill is operating during Piaget's preoperational stage of development, ages 2 to 6 years old. During the preoperational stage of development, Piaget discovered that children name the largest or the smallest stick in a group, but have difficulty arranging sticks in an ordered series due to appearance and reality. Young children cannot conceive of the reality without seeing an example visually before them. Children select sticks at random by trial-and-error, than picking the smallest first and progressing. Children at this age are also limited by centration and cannot focus on two things at one time. Centration is the inability to focus on more than one thing at time.

Assimilation

the way children incorporate new information w/existing schemes in order to form a new cognitive structure. Ex: a preschool child calls a lion "doggie" because the child only knows one type of 4-legged animal.

Schemas

the way children mentally represent and organize the world.

Preschool

they are mastering language fundamentals, but are limited to express themselves. Their thoughts are expressed in language that reflects their egocentrism (ex: "I want..." or "give me...")

Level II: Conventional Level (ages 10-13 years)

third stage is what one is supposed to do. Children want to do what is defined as right by those around them, they seek approval from authority figures. They are most concerned about the opinions of their peers, they want to please and help others while developing their own internal idea of what it means to be a good person. By stage four, awareness expands to society and its laws. Children understand that social order, depends on voluntary cooperation of its citizens.

Kolhger's approach for Teachers

to provide opportunities for children to practice making decisions. The democratic process can be an instrument of learning. 1) teachers must recognize that children internalize what is right and wrong based upon their basic values and sense of self; 2) teachers must recognize that sequential foundation upon which higher moral principles are based; 3) teachers must recognize that children respond differently to various moral dilemmas depending upon age, education, and socioeconomic influences.

18-24 Months

toddlers join two words together, lots of new words begin to emerge.

Cognitive Development

transformation in a child's thought processes, language, and intelligence. Including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Invented by Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development, Kohlberg's stages of moral development, and multi-cultural perspectives of language, intelligence, and children w/special needs.

Telegraphic Stage (2 years)

two word phrases, toddlers leave out less important words. Ex: "I'm hungry"

Pretend or Imaginative Play

use of imagination and role play to transform the self and objects and to satisfy needs. Imagination begins at 18 months old and is boundless during preschool years. Pretending helps build child's imagination. • infants & toddlers: pretending to drink from a baby bottle. • preschoolers & kindergartners: pretending a block is broken car & pretending to fix it. • school-aged children: using secret codes or made-up languages to communicate.

2-3 years

uses little 3-5 sentences.

6-12 years

vocabularies grow, facility of conversation grows and are able to think before speaking.

Accommodation

when children take existing schemes and adjust them to fit their experience. Ex: when child plays w/piano keys, then plays w/electrical keys and learns the electric key board must be turned on first before playing. He must accommodate this new information to fit the experience.