Transcript Neural and Cognitive Development

Neural and Cognitive
Development
The Early Years
Outline
I. Brian Formation
 II. Piaget’s theory of learning
 III. Objects
 IV. Memory
 V.
Intentions and Agency
 VI. Preoperational Thinking
 VII. Language Development
 VIII.Cultural Considerations
 IX.
Why it matters

I. Prenatal Brain Formation
 4th
month prenatally brain’s basic
structures are formed
 Communication occurs in the brain
using electrochemical messages
 Myelination speeds the process.
Myelination begins prenatally in the
sensorimotor area
Prenatal Brain Development
 So
around 4 months prenatal the
neurons begin to fire spontaneously
 Sounds can be heard by 15 wks
 Eyes open & close by 25th wk and
fetus turns toward light. This sensory
experience is critical for healthy brain
development
Prenatal Brain Development
 Neurons
continue to produce rapidly
thru the 1st year
 0-12- neural pruning
 New connections are made thru life,
but not new neurons
 Thus, Babies are not “blank slates”
Sensory Integration Dysfunction
II. Piaget’s Constructivist Theory
 Adaptation
 Assimilation
 Accommodation
III. Understanding Objects
 Intersensory
 Object
Integration
Permanence
 Representational
Thought
IV. Memory
 Sensory
Memory
 Short-term
 Rehearsal
 Long-term
 Consolidation
 Recall
 Recognition
 Forgetting
Memory
 Declarative-
learning about
information and events
 Procedural
or Implicit- automatic,
habitual responses
 Verbal
vs spatial
Memory
 Requires
the ability to attend
(attention)
 At
this stage of development we will
focus on Recognition and Recall
Recognition




Ability to differentiate between new
experiences and those we have had before
Improves thru out infancy
Duration and speed of habituation improve
with age
How quickly babies habituate (recognition
speed) is correlated with later IQ
Recall


Ability to bring to mind experiences that
happened in the past
Requires mental representation, thus occurs later
in infancy

Deferred imitation- begins late in 1st year

Social learning requires deferred imitation

Separation anxiety begins with recall ~ 8 months
V. Infant’s own intentions

Intentional action
~ 3 mo- Making interesting sights last
 ~8-12 mo- Means ends behavior
 ~12-18 mo- Invent and try out new ways
to problem-solve
 ~24 mo- Invent new ways to problem
solve and try them out in their heads

Other’s Intentions
 Agency
 Intention
VI. Pre Schooler’s CognitionPreoperational Thinking


Centered- Can only think one thing at a time
By age 2:
– They develop Object permanence- the understanding
that objects exist apart from their own thoughts and
perceptions
– Can Recall
– Can Plan and execute behaviors- even new ones
– Understand agency and intention
– Can use symbols
– Can begin to understand some counting principals
– Can figure out if you see something or you don’t
– Can use words for what they desire: need, feel, want

By age 3:
– Children can use symbolic artifacts
– Begin counting in versatile order
– Have trouble understanding “underlying
realities” but can be taught to attend to them.
This learning is still fragile and easily disrupted
– Can understand that another person sees
something different then they do (such as a
picture being upside down), but can not
understand that the other has a totally
different view “mountain exercise”
– Use cognitive words such as think, forget,
remember
 By
age 4-5:
– Can begin to understand that other’s
have a different knowledge and knowing
Implications for Preschoolers
 They
do not understand that adults
want something different than they
do
– More fragile under stress or when
emotionally or personally involved
 Perspective
taking improves as child
develops the cognitive skills to
decenter and receives feedback from
others in social interactions
VII. Language Development
 Phonology
 Semantics
 Syntax
 Voicing
 Grammar
 Code
Switching
 Pragmatics
Development


12 wks prenatal- recognizes patterns of sounds
~6 mo
– Begins to lose unimportant distinctions, begins to babble
most sounds


~9 mo: babbles only sounds of native language
~18-24 mo
– After 50 words- vocabulary spurt, 2 word strings,
increased comprehension, end of sensorimotor period


~2-3 yrs: Narratives begin
~5 yrs
– Can produce most sentence structures
– ~15,000 words
Language Development
Implications


Vocabulary size is a key predictor of later
literacy and success in school
So:
– Educate parents to increase parent child
conversations that are lengthy, detailed and
include discussions of past experiences of the
child
– Engage in joint book reading
– Encourage preschool for children at risk (or if
this is not culturally appropriate, engage
extended family or other resources)
VIII. Culture and Development
 Thinking
culture
 Mediated
is mediated by tools of the
learning
 Scaffolding
 Egocentric
speech
IX. Why does any of this matter to
a therapist

In working with children and adults, you
must take into account
– Their cognitive developmental level, as well as
their level of social and emotional functioning.
– if their language is concrete vs. abstract and if
they have understanding of cause/effect
– Their culture and cultural differences in child
raising

You can educate parents and teachers on:
– Prenatal interventions: Patterns and sounds to
sooth baby
– Provision of a sensory stimulating environment
– Egocentricity and centered cognitions
– Scaffolding vs disciplining
– Need for immediate consequences due to
limited memory sequencing
– Use of accommodation and assimilation
– Use of repetition needed
– Preschool interventions