Human Growth and Development Chapter Nine

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Human Growth and DevelopmentChapter Nine

• The Play Years
• Cognitive Development

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Piaget Preoperational Thought

• Preoperational thoughtPiagets term for
  cognitive development between 2 and 6 years
• characterized by centration, focus on appearance,
  static reasoning, and irreversibility

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Obstacles to Logical Operations

• Centrationtendency to focus on one aspect of a
  situation
• Egocentrism or ego-centrationcontemplation of
  the world exclusively from childs personal
  perspective

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• Focus on appearanceignores all attributes except
  appearance
• Static reasoningassumes that the world is
  unchanging
• Irreversibilityfails to recognize that reversing
  a process can sometimes restore whatever existed
  before transformation

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Conservation and Logic

• Thinking is intuitive rather than logical
• Conservationprinciple that amount of substance
  is unaffected by changes in appearance
• applied to liquids, numbers, matter, length
• understanding develops after age 7, and then
  slowly and unevenly

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Vygotsky Children as Apprentices

• One Theory
• theory-theoryterm for the idea that children
  attempt to construct a theory to explain
  everything they see and hear

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• Apprentice in thinkingchild whose intellectual
  growth is stimulated and directed by older and
  more skilled members of society
• Guided participationprocess by which young
  children, with the help of mentors, learn to
  think by having social experiences and by
  exploring their universe

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• Scaffoldingsensitive structuring of childs
  participation in learning encounters
• Zone of proximal development (ZPD) skills too
  difficult for child to perform alone but that can
  be performed with guidance and assistance of
  adults or more skilled children

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• verbal interaction is a cognitive tool
• Private speechinternal dialogue when people talk
  to themselves through which new ideas are
  developed and reinforced
• Social mediationuse of speech to bridge gap
  between childs current understanding and what is
  almost understood

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Theory of Mind

• We each have our own personal understanding of
  human mental processes, and child develops this
  too
• Emergence at Age 4
• Social referencing
• Sudden understanding that mental phenomena may
  not reflect reality
• people can be deliberately deceived or fooled

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Vocabulary

• 2 to 6 olds learn average of 10 words per day
• Fast mappingspeedy and not precise way a child
  assimilates new words by mentally charting them
  into interconnected categories

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• children use basic assumptions about syntax and
  reference to fast map
• children cannot comprehend every word they hear
• difficulties may occur
• with words expressing comparisons
• with words expressing relationships of time and
  place

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Grammar

• The grammar of a language includes the
  structures, techniques, and rules used to
  communicate meaning
• Young children learn grammar so well they tend to
  apply its rules when they should not, a tendency
  called overregularization
• examples plural nouns (foots), past tense
  (breaked the glass)

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Learning Two Languages

• Two points of view
• bilingualism is an asset, even a necessity
• child should become proficient in own 1st
  language
• How easy is it to be bilingual?
• many 6-year-olds have difficulty pronouncing
  certain sounds
• but auditory sensitivity helps young children
  master pronunciation over time, a much harder
  task if language learned after puberty

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• Best solution children become balanced
  bilinguals, fluent in 2 languages
• research confirms children can become equally
  fluent in 2 languages
• easiest way for child to become bilingual is if
  parents speak 2 languages
• ideally, each parent represents 1 language and
  helps child with mastery
• sending child to preschool where 2nd language
  taught also effective

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• Early childhood is the prime learning period for
  every child and some learn even more
• Conclusion nations should provide quality early
  education
• Head Start
• has provided half-day education for millions of 3
  to 5 year olds, boosting abilities and skills, at
  least temporarily and probably for longer

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Quality Learning

• Three research projects have shown excellent
  longitudinal data
• Children in these programs have scored higher on
  math and reading achievement tests than other
  children from same backgrounds, schools, and
  neighborhoods

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• High-quality early education is associated with
  positive outcomes for all children
• what is high-quality education?
• safety, adequate space, and equipment
• low adult-to-child ratio
• trained staff
• curriculum geared to cognitive development
• learning includes creative/constructive play