Physical, Cognitive and Linguistic Development

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Physical, Cognitive and Linguistic Development

• Module 3

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• Principles of Physical, Cognitive and
  Linguistic Development

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Cognitive Theories

• Piagets cognitive developmental theory
• Emphasizes conscious mental processes.
• Cognitive processes are influenced by biological
  maturation.
• Four stages of cognitive development in
  children.
• Assimilation and accommodation underlie how
  children understand the world, adapt to it, and
  organize their experiences
• Piaget emphasized the importance of biological
  maturation, meaning children are physically ready
  to attempt new challenges.

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Nature vs. Nurture

• This debate centers on the relative
• contribution of genetic makeup (nature)
• and environment (nurture).
• Heritability is a key term in the debate
• - the statistical estimate of the percentage
  of variability for a trait
  that is attributable to genetic
  factors within a group.
• Psychology, 4th Ed., Saul Kassin (2003). Prentice
  Hall

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Genes

• How genes effect behavior
• Genotype
• The underlying DNA sequence that an individual
  inherits.
• Phenotype
• An organisms observable properties, physical and
  behavioral.
• Genes contribute more directly to physical traits
  than to psychological characteristics.
• Psychology, 4th Ed., Saul Kassin (2003). Prentice
  Hall

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Learning about Heritability

• Family Studies
• Studies that estimate genetic influences through
  similarities of family members who vary in their
  degree of genetic relatedness.
• Twin-Study Method
• A method of testing nature and nurture by
  comparing pairs of identical and fraternal twins
  of the same sex.
• Adoption Studies
• A method of studying nature and nurture by
  comparing twins and other siblings reared
  together with those separated by adoption.
• Psychology, 4th Ed., Saul Kassin (2003). Prentice
  Hall

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Measuring the effects of Nature vs Nurture
Psychology, 4th Ed., Saul Kassin (2003). Prentice
Hall
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More Nature vs. Nurture

• Other studies of twins and adoptees show
• Genetic factors account for some differences in
  intelligence, verbal and spatial abilities,
  criminality, vocational interests, and
  aggressiveness.
• There is a genetic component to psychological
  disorders, such as alcoholism, depression, and
  schizophrenia.
• And, there is evidence for a genetic link to
  peoples attitudes toward issues and activities.

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Nurture

• Environmental Influences
• Studies of twins and adoptees also support the
  importance of environmental influences.
• Genetic differences typically account for less
  than 50 of the variation in personality.
• Environmental factors account for the rest of the
  variation.
• Non-shared environments play a vital role in a
  persons development and may be equally, or more,
  significant compared to shared environments.

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Environmental Influences

• A study of 5,542 three-year-olds found that
• Children with older brothers had higher
  masculinity scores.
• Children with older sisters had higher femininity
  scores.
• These results support the nurture hypothesis.

Psychology, 4th Ed., Saul Kassin (2003). Prentice
Hall
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Interplay of Nature and Nurture

• Genetic and environmental influences are not
  independent.
• Identical twins receive more similar treatment
  from their parents compared to fraternal twins.
• Peoples genetic makeup influences how they are
  treated by others, the environments in which they
  live, and the way they perceive and recall the
  details of that environment.

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• Developmental Trajectory in Terms of Early
  Childhood Milestones

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Basic Principles of Human Development

• Development proceeds in a somewhat orderly and
  predictable pattern
• developmental milestones and universals in
  development.
• Different children develop at different rates.
• Periods of relatively rapid growth (spurts) may
  appear between periods of slower growth
  (plateaus).
• Stage theories
• Development is continually affected by both
  nature (heredity) and nurture (environment).

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Role of the Brain

• At birth a childs brain is adapted to survival
• (crying, breathing, sucking, etc.).
• In childhood, most of the brain development
  happens in the front and top of the brain, the
  cortex.
• The interconnections between neurons or synapses
  provide the means with which people think, learn
  and remember.

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Role of the Brain

• Synapses form through experiences.
• Majority of synapses form within the first 10
  years.
• By one year of age, an infants brain reaches 80
  of its total growth.

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Piaget Revisited

• Swiss biologist interested in the origins of
  knowledge, known as epistemology.
• A stage theorist
• Our thinking processes change radically from
  birth to maturity as we are constantly striving
  to make sense of the world.
• Piaget revised his theories throughout his life
  to reflect his changing understandings of human
  development.
• In the 1920s, devised a model of how humans make
  sense of the world by gathering and organizing
  information.

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Influences on Development

• Influence changes in thinking
• Biological maturation - Genetically programmed
  biological changes
• EX learning to walk.
• Activities - increasing ability to act on our
  environment
• EX child may know how to walk but now will try
  to shift balance
• from one foot to the other.
• Social experiences - we learn from others
• EX without social discourse we would never have
  developed our
• currently spoken language.
• Equilibration - the act of searching for balance
  between our cognitive structures and the
  environment
• EX correcting a child speech I runned all the
  way home to ran.

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Factors Influencing Cognitive Development

• Organization combining, arranging, recombining,
  and rearranging.
• Schemes organized systems of actions of thought
  that allow us to mentally represent or think
  about objects and events in our world.
• Adaptation in order to survive we must adapt to
  the world around us.

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Two Forms of Adaptation

• Assimilation - fitting new information into an
  existing scheme
• The first time a child sees a skunk they may call
  it kitty - they are trying to match the new
  information with their existing scheme.
• Accommodation - altering existing schemes or
  creating new ones in response to new information
• Child demonstrates accommodation when they add
  the scheme for recognizing skunks to their other
  systems for identifying animals.

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Equilibration

• Equilibrium - the act of searching for balance
• Disequilibrium - out of balance state
• Process of equilibration
• - apply a particular scheme to an event or
  situation
• and the scheme works then we are in
  equilibration
• - if the scheme does not produce a satisfying
  result we are in disequilibration and
  we become uncomfortable. This motivates us to
  keep searching for a solution through
  accommodation and assimilation.

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Piagets Stages of Development

• Sensorimotor
• Pre-operational
• Concrete Operational
• Formal Operational

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Sensorimotor Stage

• 0-2 years of age
• - Childs thinking involves seeing, hearing,
  moving, touching,
• and tasting.
• Develop object permanence
• - understanding that objects exist in the
  environment whether
• the baby perceives them or not.
• Beginning of goal directed actions or deliberate
  actions toward a goal
• Older child develops a scheme for container toy
• 1. Get the lid off
• 2. Turn container upside down
• 3. Shake if the items jam
• 4. Watch the items fall

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Pre-operational Stage

• 2-7 years of age
• Child has not mastered mental operations but is
  moving toward mastery.
• Operations actions that are carried out and
  reversed mentally rather than physically
  (thinking, recalling, remembering, performing
  mental actions, etc.)
• Language - use of language in social
  communication and mental representation of the
  world
• Child can express needs and desires to others.

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Pre-operational Stage

• Pre-operational egocentrism An inability to
  view situations from another persons
  perspective.
• Confusion between physical and psychological
  events Confusing external, and physical objects
  with ones own internal, mental ideas (two
  characteristics)
• Animism - Child attributes psychological
  qualities such as thoughts and feelings to
  inanimate object.
• Realism - Child believes that his/her thoughts
  and ideas have physical reality

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Pre-operational Stage

• Lack of conservation a lack of understanding
  that, when nothing is added or taken away, the
  amount stays the same regardless of alterations
  in shape or arrangement.
• Centration focusing on one dimension of an
  object to the exclusion of other dimensions.
• Inability to reason about transformations
  difficulty thinking about the process of change
  leads to focus on static situations.

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Pre-operational Stage

• Irreversibility difficulty recognizing that
  transformations can be undone or reversed.
• Single classification- an inability to classify
  an object as being a member of two categories at
  the same time.
• Transductive reasoning thoughts about how
  things work and what events cause other events
  are often based on coincidence or the childs
  egocentric beliefs about how things should be
  rather than on true deductive logic.

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Concrete Operational Stage

• Differentiation of ones own perspective from the
  perspective of others - the realization that
  ones thoughts and feelings are not necessarily
  shared by others.
• Conservation realization that when nothing is
  added or taken away, the amount stays the same
  regardless of alterations in shape or
  arrangement.
• Decentration the ability to consider two or
  more dimensions of an object at the same time.

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Concrete Operational

• Reasoning about transformations the ability to
  think and reason about the changing processes.
• Reversibility the realization that some
  procedures can be undone or reversed.
• Multiple classifications the ability to
  classify objects as belonging to two or more
  categories.

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Concrete Operational

• Deductive reasoning the ability to draw a
  logical inference from two or more pieces of
  information.
• Inability to deal with abstract, hypothetical and
  contrary ideas to think logically about things
  that are not reflected in concrete reality.

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Formal Operations

• Ability to deal with abstract, hypothetical, and
  counter-factual ideas the ability to think
  about concepts and ideas that have little or no
  basis in concrete reality.
• Formulation and testing of hypotheses the
  ability to develop and test a variety of possible
  explanations for a given phenomenon.
• Separation and control of variables the ability
  to test the effects of one variable by keeping
  all others constant.

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Formal Operations

• Proportional thought conceptual understanding
  of proportions.
• Combinatorial thought the ability to consider
  all possible combinations of several items in a
  systematic fashion.
• Construction of alternative to reality the
  ability to envision how the world might be
  different from the way it actually is.

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What We Know TodayThat Piaget Didnt

• 3-4 year olds are less egocentric
• - Preschoolers are able to take another's point
  of view
• Underestimated the abilities of elementary school
  students
• - Elementary students can think abstractly and
  hypothesize.
• For adolescents, formal operational thought
  processes may appear later
• - Students think both concretely and abstractly,
  depending on the situation.

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Vygotsky

• Adults in a society foster childrens cognitive
  development in an intentional and somewhat
  systematic manner.
• Emphasis on the importance of society and
  cultures for childrens cognitive development.
• Called the socio-cultural perspective.

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Vygotskys Theory ofCognitive Development

• Zone of Proximal Development
• Guided Participation
• Scaffolding
• Apprenticeships
• Modeling
• Coaching
• Scaffolding
• Articulation
• Reflection
• Increasing complexity and diversity of tasks
• Exploration

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Zone of Proximal Learning

• ZPD range of tasks that child cannot yet
  perform independently but can perform with help
  or guidance.
• ZPD is always changing as some tasks are
  mastered and other, more complex, tasks take
  their place.
• Students learn little from tasks they can already
  perform.
• They develop skills when being supported by a
  more competent individual.
• Many school districts require the use of
  Vygotskys ZPD in their lesson plans.

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Scaffolding

• Adults and more competent individuals provide
  some form of guidance or structure that enables
  children to perform tasks in the ZPD.

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Guided Participation

• Older family members provide guidance while
  children build skills necessary for family,
  society, and cultural development.
• Teachers provide guidance and assist students as
  they perform activities within a structured and
  supportive environment.

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Apprenticeships

• Learner works intensively with an expert to
  accomplish complex task that he/she is unable to
  accomplish alone.
• Cognitive Apprenticeships - Students not only
  learn how to accomplish a task, they also learn
  to think about a task
• an expert provides considerable structure and
  guidance throughout the process, while gradually
  removing scaffolding and giving the student more
  responsibility as the student becomes more
  competent.

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Peer Interaction

• Students often can learn more and accomplish more
  difficult tasks when they work collaboratively.
• When students work collaboratively, rather than
  in isolation, they increase academic achievement
  and improve social skills.

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Language Development

• We are born wired for language.
• Children learn the language they are immersed in
  from birth
• children develop recognized words by their first
  year.
• by second year of life, they put these words into
  short sentences.
• at 5 or 6 years of age, childrens speech is
  almost adult-like.

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Trends in Language

• Receptive language the ability to understand
  what is heard and read.
• Expressive language ability to communicate
  effectively through writing and speech.
• Semantics knowledge of word meanings.
• Syntax rules that we use to put words together
  into grammatically correct sentences.
• Overregularization inappropriately applying
  syntactical rules in situations where the rules
  do not apply.

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Language Deficiencies

• Children undergeneralize and overgeneralize word
  meanings.
• Children have difficulty understanding passive
  sentences, especially when there are two or more
  possible actors in a sentence.
• Children have difficulty finding contradictions
  within a message.

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Language Deficiencies

• Children have difficulty comprehending a verbal
  message separate from its nonverbal context
  (e.g., the meaning the children think the speaker
  has in mind).
• Children have a superficial understanding of what
  it means to be a good listener.
• Children havent yet learned many of the social
  conventions (pragmatics) involved in speaking
  effectively.

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Teaching Implications

• Expect children to listen for only a short amount
  of time - young children have limited attention
  spans.
• Discuss courses of action that children should
  take when they dont understand a speaker.
• Children should learn that in most situations,
  asking questions is both acceptable and
  desirable.

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Teaching Implications

• Discuss the components of good listening it is
  important for children to realize that good
  listening involves more that just sitting
  quietly. It also involves paying attention and
  thinking about information.
• Encourage critical listening - children who are
  taught not to believe everything they hear are
  most likely to be influenced by television
  commercials when they know the commercials are
  designed to persuade them to buy something.