TERM 2 REVISION

• Cognitive development

  The way we think and understand
• Children grow and develop rapidly in their first five years across the four main areas of development: motor (physical), language and communication, cognitive and social/emotional
• Cognitive development

  The development of knowledge, skills, problem solving and dispositions, which help children to think about and understand the world around them
• Brain development is part of cognitive development
• As a parent, it is important to foster your child's cognitive development as soon as he/she is born because doing so provides the foundation for your child's success in school and later in life
• Examples of how to promote child's cognitive development

  • Talking with your baby and naming commonly used objects
  • Letting your baby explore toys and move about
  • Singing and reading to your baby
  • Exposing your toddler to books and puzzles
  • Expanding on your child's interests in specific learning activities
  • Answering your child's "why" questions
• Theory of Cognitive Development - Piaget (1936)


  Recognised that children's cognition differs to that of adults and that as children mature, their intellectual skills change
• Process of Schema Formation

  1. Infants are born with a few schemata based on innate reflexes

  2. Soon after birth infants start to develop schemata based on the interaction between senses and motor skills, and over time schemata utilise thinking (cognitive) skills
• Schema

  Experiences of the world organised as mental structures
• Assimilation

  Integrating new information into existing schemata without the schemata being altered
• Accommodation

  Changing new existing schemata to integrate new information, or the creation a new schema when integration is not possible
• Most new info. an individual is exposed to can be dealt with using the process of assimilation alone
• No cognitive change occurs during assimilation because schemata have not been altered
• When an individual is exposed to new information and is unable to assimilate it into an existing schema, a state of disequilibrium, or mental imbalance, is experienced
• To return to state of equilibrium, or mental balance, the process of accommodation either 'stretches' existing schemata by incorporating the conflicting information or creates a new schema if the information differs too greatly to be amalgamated
• Equilibrium


  State experienced when existing schemata (based on prior knowledge) can account for new information
• Disequilibrium


  State experienced when existing schemata are unable to account for new information
• Continual natural drive to seek equilibrium through assimilation and accommodation is what Piaget termed 'adaptation', process causes intellectual growth
• Differences between Assimilation and Accommodation

  • Assimilation: New information is added to existing knowledge, Schemas remain the same, Fits into current interpretation of reality
  • Accommodation: New information changes or replaces existing knowledge, New schemas may develop, Transforms current interpretation of reality
• Piaget theorised that children move through 4 stages to pass from one stage to next, they need to be physically mature and be exposed to appropriate experiences
• Exposure to these experiences allows children to reach their cognitive potential
• Children move through the stages at different rates due to differences in their genetic make-up and exposure to environmental conditions
• Sensorimotor Stage


  0-2 years, Fine and gross motor skills are used in combinations with senses
• Object Permanence


  Understanding that an object still exists even if it is unable to be touched or seen
• Testing Object Permanence


  1. When one covers an object, children will think the object is still there even if it unable to be seen or touched

  2. When children can track the item when it is covered
• Children see the world as something you can touch and see
• Preoperational Stage


  1. 7 years, Children use symbols to represent ideas, such as through language, and engage in pretend play
• Symbolic Thinking


  The use of symbols, such as words or objects, to represent alternative concepts
• Centration


  The ability to only focus on one aspect of a situation at any given time, while disregarding the rest
• Seriation


  The ability to arrange a collection of items or situations in a logical series, Ability to sort objects/situations according to characteristics, e.g. size, colour, etc.
• Egocentrism


  The inability to understand the perspective of another person
• Animism


  The belief that an inanimate object is alive and has feelings
• Concrete Operational Stage


  1. 11 years, Children begin to reason about mathematics, Can perform concrete operations and start to grasp the concept of conservation, Beginning of concrete operational the child can use operations - a set of logical rules – children think logically, They realise people see the world differently to them, Children still struggle with abstract thinking
• Conservation


  Mass and volume remain unchanged when the form of an object is altered
• Formal Operational Stage


  11+ years, Children begin to make predictions by reasoning out what might occur, As well as imagining hypothetical possibilities
• Abstract Thinking


  Using the mind to visualise and consider complex concepts that are not tangible
• Strengths of Piaget's Theory

  • Provides understanding of the difference between the way children and adults learn, Helped shape education for children
• Limitations of Piaget's Theory

  • Researchers criticised the language used in the Piagetian tasks, Experimenter does not give feedback to the child as to whether they responded appropriately, Sample of children were from 3 kids from well educated professionals of high socioeconomic status therefore sample cannot be generalised to the population of children
• Not knowing if the independent variable influenced the dependent variable is a limitation of research
• How to address the limitation of not knowing if the IV influenced the DV

  • Use a control group to act as comparison for the experimental group