Chapter Nine

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Chapter Nine

• The Play Years
• Cognitive Development

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How Young Children Think Piaget and Vygotsky

• PiagetSwiss developmentalist
• believed young children were limited by their
  egocentric perspective
• egocentrismPiagets term for type of centration
  in which child sees world solely from his/her
  personal perspective
• VygotskyRussian developmentalist
• recognized how childs social/cultural context
  helps shape his/her cognitive development

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Piaget Preoperational Thought

• Preoperational thought Piagets term for
  cognitive development between 2 and 6 years
• characterized by centration, focus on appearance,
  static reasoning, and irreversibility
• Egocentrism or ego-centration contemplation of
  the world exclusively from childs personal
  perspective
• empathy is an exception
• Focus on appearance ignores all attributes
  except appearance
• Static reasoning assumes that the world is
  unchanging
• Irreversibility fails to recognize that
  reversing a process can sometimes restore
  whatever existed before transformation
• Centration tendency to focus on one aspect of a
  situation

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Conservation and Logic

• Thinking is intuitive rather than logical
• Conservation principle 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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Conservation and Logic, cont.
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Vygotsky Children as Apprentices

• One Theory
• theory-theory Gopniks term for the idea that
  children attempt to construct a theory to explain
  everything they see and hear
• Children do not strive alone their efforts are
  embedded in social context
• parents guide young childrens cognitive growth
  in many ways
• present new challenges for learning
• offer assistance and instruction
• encourage interest and motivation
• Apprentice in thinking child whose intellectual
  growth is stimulated and directed by older and
  more skilled members of society
• Guided participation process 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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How to Solve a Puzzle

• Guidance and motivation
• structure task to make solution more attainable
• provide motivation
• Guided participation
• partners (tutor and child) interact
• tutor sensitive and responsive to needs of child
• eventually, because of such mutuality, child able
  to succeed independently

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Scaffolding

• Scaffolding sensitive 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
• lower limit of ZPD can be reached independently
• upper limit of ZPD can be reached with assistance
• ZPD is a measure of learning potential
• Private speech internal dialogue when people
  talk to themselves through which new ideas are
  developed and reinforced
• verbal interaction is a cognitive tool
• Social mediation use of speech to bridge gap
  between childs current understanding and what is
  almost understood

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10
Bilingualism Should I Speak More Than One
Language?

• First Argument
• --Some argue children should become proficient in
  one and only one language (monolingual ability)
  will help them master a second language.
• Second Argument
• --young children can master two distinct
  grammars, proper word orders soon after the word
  explosion. More evidence for early childhood as
  a sensitive period for learning a second
  language.

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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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Learning Two Languages

• 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 Education

• Controversy over whether, when, and where
• Many Types of Programs
• Distinct educational curricula have been
  developed
• Maria Montessori (100 years ago) developed
  structured, individualized projects for poor
  children
• Many newer programs are child-centered or
  developmental
• use a Piaget-inspired model that allows children
  to discover at their own pace
• Alternative programs stress academic readiness
• some readiness programs explicitly teach basic
  school skills

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Reggio-Emilia

• Reggio-Emilia a new form of early-childhood
  education pioneered in the Italian city of that
  name
• children encouraged to master skills not normally
  seen until age 7
• artistic expression, exploration of the
  environment, and collaboration between parents
  and teachers encouraged
• Early childhood is the prime learning period for
  every child and some learn even more
• The above has led to 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