Transcript Human Development CHAPTER 9 THE PLAY YEARS:

Human Development
CHAPTER 9
THE PLAY YEARS:
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget remains the
most influential
theorist in the area of
childhood cognition
Jean Piaget
SYMBOLIC THOUGHT
• The most crucial difference between
sensorimotor and preoperational thought is that
the child can use what Piaget calls the symbolic
thought• that is turning a word or object into a SYMBOL of
something else.
• Thus both language and imagination become tools
of thought so that the typical 2 year old is more
verbal and creative than the 1 year old.
CONSERVATION
• Despite the ability to think symbolically, preschoolers are
aid to lack several logical concepts.
• One of these is CONSERVATION, the idea that amount is
unaffected by size or placement
• CONSERVATION OF MATTER (e.g. sizes of play-doh),
• CONSERVATION OF LIQUIDS (tall and short glasses
holding same amount),
• CONSERVATION OF NUMBER (row of same number of
checkers laid out differently).
• Preschooler centers on appearances and ignores or
discounts the transformation that has occurred. (By 7-8
they realize that they could pour the liquid back into the
other glass or set the checkers out the other way.)
Egocentrism
• Egocentrism means that thinking centers
on the ego or self
• The child does not take into account the
idea that other people may have thoughts
or feelings different from the ones he or
she is having at the moment
• Does not mean that they are selfish only
that they are naturally self-centered.
CENTRATION
• Preschoolers tend to focus or center
on one aspect of a problem and thus
have difficulty understanding cause
and effect. For example, in the
preschoolers mind, the tallest child
or adult is probably the oldest and
the smartest as well.
PREOPERATIONAL
CONCEPTS OF DEATH,
ILLNESS, AND DIVORCE
• Egocentric thinking causes children to think it is
their fault. They wonder if the parents will stop
loving them also. Important study, 1980,
Wallerstein and Kelly, extensive longitudinal study
of children's reactions to divorce
• Children susceptible to unfounded worries.
Shows need for sensitivity to children's questions
and unexpressed fears, repeated assurances that
basic needs will be met, specific experiences
(continued contact with absent parent) that help
put fearful fantasies to rest.
LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT
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Raises the issue of the relationship between thought and language,
explaining that
Piaget believes that thought precedes language
Vygotsky and Bruner think that as speech develops, language aids
the thinking process
Most researchers agree that at some point during childhood,
children begin to use language to formulate ideas.
Piaget believed that a child must first understand a concept
before he or she is capable of using the words that describe it
Bruner disagrees and says that by kindergarten, language ability
affects almost every aspect of a child's thought and behavior, and
that language becomes a "means not only for representing
experience, but also for transforming it."(1964,1983)
Most developmentalists agree with Piaget that infants form
concepts first and then learn words to express them.
But most agree that at some point during early childhood, language
helps form ideas as suggested by Bruner and Vygotsky.
VOCABULARY
• From age 2-6 the average child learns
between six and ten words per day!
• Nouns are generally learned more readily
than verbs, then comes adjectives,
adverbs, conjunctions, and
• interrogatives (where, what, who,how,why)
• Preschoolers tend to soak up language like
a sponge and this leads most researchers o
believe that early childhood is a critical
period for language development
Thinking is concrete
• with emphasis on appearance and specifics
and so is vocabulary
• When preschoolers define words they
usually thing about actions a child can do "
A hole is to dig".
• They tend to take everything literally and
they have difficulty expressing
relationships (can't understand that their
aunt is my sister).
GRAMMAR
• Grammar includes structures, techniques, and rules that
languages use to communicate meaning. Child's use of
grammatical forms is better indicator of verbal
sophistication than is vocabulary. Measure language
development by MLU (mean length of utterance of each
sentence)
• By age 3 they have extensive grammar knowledge. Put
subject before verb (I eat), verb before object (I eat
apple), form plural of nouns, past present and future of
verbs, and subjective, objective, and possessive forms of
pronouns. Beginning to master use of negative. Children
learning the same language master grammatical forms in
same sequence.
Overregularization
• Overregularization: apply rules of
grammar when they should not (e.g.
adding s-foots, sheeps)
• Sign of verbal sophistication because
children are applying rules of
grammar
PARENTS AND
TEACHERS CAN BEST
HELP DEVELOPMENT OF
GRAMMAR BY EXAMPLE
RATHER THAN BY
EXPLANATION OR
CRITICISM
DIFFERENCES IN
LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT
• By the time children reach Kindergarten there are wide
variations in language ability
• Girls usually more proficient than boys
• Middle class more proficient than lower class
• first born more proficient than later born, single born more
proficient than twins.
• Some of the differences can be attributed to child's
comfort with testing situation. Partial explanation for
differences: mothers talk more to daughters than to sons,
middle class parents give more elaborate explanations and
more responsive comments and fewer commands than lower
class parents, parents talk more to first born and single
born.
CHILDREN BECOME MORE
COMPETENT IN LANGUAGE
SKILLS IF THE SIGNIFICANT
ADULTS IN THEIR LIVES
ENCOURAGE THEM TO TALK
AND REPLY TO THEIR
COMMENTS WITH SPECIFIC
AND RELEVANT RESPONSES
TEACHING AND
LEARNING
• Current term "developmentally
appropriate" is being extensively
used in the field of child
development.
• What is Developmentally approptate?
Headstart
• Started in 60's, compensatory education to aide
impoverished children.
• First results were encouraging as children gained
5-10IQ points, fewer behavior problems, and
greater motivation.
• But by 2nd-3rd grade balanced out with others.
• More recent research showed that there was a
"sleeper effect" and that by junior high they
were less likely to repeat a grade or be placed in
special classes and later demonstrated higher
sense of achievement and higher aspirations
IMPORTANT NOTE:
• Much research has been done showing that good
preschool education advances both social and
cognitive development but all of the studies have
been done in high quality schools and day care
centers characterized by
– low teacher child ratio
– well-trained staff
– a curriculum geared toward cognitive development
rather than behavioral control
– space and groupings organized to facilitate creative and
constructive play. They tend to be expensive, subsidized
by a university, an employer, or the government.
MOST SUCCESSFUL
PROGRAMS DIRECTLY
INVOLVE PARENTS