The First Two Years: Cognitive Development

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Part II
Chapter Six

• The First Two Years Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Intelligence Information
Processing Language What Develops in the First
Two Years?
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Piaget Sensorimotor Intelligence

• Sensorimotor Intelligence
• Birth to 2 years
• Building schemes through sensory and motor
  exploration
• Circular reactions

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Piaget cont. Using Assimilation and Accommodation

• __________________ exists when children are not
  changing very much (assimilation)
• ___________________ exists during times or rapid
  change (accommodation)

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Sensorimotor Substages
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Sub stage 1Reflexive Schemes (0 to 1 Mo.)

• Newborn reflexes basis of sensorimotor
  intelligence
• Suck, grasp, and look in much the same way, no
  matter what the circumstances

Figure 5.1
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Sub stage 2Primary Circular Reactions (1 to 4
Mos.)

• First learned adaptations
• Change behavior in response to environmental
  demands (see hand, move it, repeat)
• Circular reactions are primary.
• Oriented toward infants own body
• Motivated by basic needs

Figure 5.2
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Sub stage 3 Secondary Circular Reactions (4 to
8 Mos.)

• Circular reactions are secondary.
• Actions are repeated that affect the environment.
• Imitated actions are practiced.
• (Accidentally hits a doll. Tries to recapture the
  effect and builds a new hitting scheme)

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Sub stage 4Coordination of Secondary Circular
Reactions (8 to 12 Mos.)

• Intentional, goal-directed, behavior
• Combination of schemes to solve problems
• - Babies anticipate events that will fulfill
  their needs.
• Bar of soap, take off clothes for bath,
• Tugging on mom when seeing her put on a coat .

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Object Permanence

• According to Piaget, develops in Substage 4.
• Incomplete at first A not B error

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Sub stage 5Tertiary Circular Reactions (12 to
18 Mos.)

• Circular reactions are tertiary.
• Infant repeats actions with variation, exploring
  the environment.

Figure 5.5
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Sub stage 6Mental Representation (18 Mos. To 2
Yrs.)

• Mental representations
• Internal images of absent objects and past events
• A toddler can solve problems through symbolic
  means instead of trial and error.
• Permits make-believe play

• Deferred imitation
• Ability to copy behavior of models who are not
  present

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• Ordering Exercise
• Below is a list of achievements in the life of a
  normal baby girl. However, they are not in
  order. Can you sequence them according to
  Piagets six stages?
• The baby cries when she sees her mother putting
  on her coat.
• The baby laughs when she is tickled and shakes
  her arm with pleasure when a rattle is put in her
  hand.
• The baby sucks the nipple and anything else that
  comes near her mouth.
• The baby, experiments with her spoon, banging
  first the dish, then the high chair and finally
  throwing the spoon on the floor.
• The baby refuses the pacifier and show her
  displeasure by crying.
• The baby imitates a temper tantrum she has
  observed in an older child.

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Piaget and Modern Research

• First three years are prime time for cognitive
  development
• __________________process of getting used to an
  object or event through repeated exposure to it

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Affordances (162)

• An opportunity for perception and interaction
  that is offered by people, places and objects in
  the environment.

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Affordances Sudden Drops

• Visual cliff measures depth perception, which is
  based not on maturity level but affordances

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Movement and People

• Dynamic perception from birth perception is
  primed to focus on movement and change.
• 1st principle
• 2nd principle
• Infants most interested in emotional affordances
  of their caregivers
• Infants can connect facial expressions with vocal
  tone very early on with familiar caregivers (164)

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Memory, cont.

• Very early memories possible if
• situation similar to real life
• motivation high
• special measures aid retrieval by acting as
  reminders
• Kicking the mobile example on page 165

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A Little Older, A Little More Memory

• After 6 months infants capable of retaining
  information for longer periods of time with less
  reminding
• Deferred imitation apparent after end of first
  year
• Symbolic play middle of the 2nd year, children
  capable of remembering and reenacting complex
  sequences

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Language What Develops in the First Two Years?

• The acquisition of language, its idiomatic
  phases, grammar rules, and exceptions, is the
  most impressive intellectual achievement of the
  young child.

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Listening and Responding (168)

• Child-directed speech -

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The Universal Sequence cont.

• Table 6.4 page 168
• Vocalization (0-6 months)
• Babbling (6-10 months)
• deaf babies do it later and less frequently, but
  are more advanced in use of gestures

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The Universal Sequence cont.

• First Words
• usually around 1 year the average baby speaks, or
  signs a few words
• they are often familiar nouns
• by 13 months spoken language increases very
  gradually
• 6 to 15 month-olds learn meaning rapidly and
  comprehend about 10 times as many words as they
  speak

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The Naming Explosion

• ________________ sudden increase in infant
  vocabulary, especially nouns, beginning at 18
  months
• _______________ single word that expresses a
  complete, meaningful thought
• ________________all the methods that languages
  use to communicate meaning

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Theory 1

• Skinners reinforcement theory quantity and
  quality of talking to child affects rate of
  language development (learned)
• parents are good instructors
• Child directed speech
• high pitch
• simpler vocabulary
• shorter sentence length
• more questions and commands
• repetition

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Theory 2

• Chomsky and LAD (Language Acquisition
  Device)(inborn) structure that prewires all
  children for language, including basic aspects of
  intonation, grammar, and vocabulary
• infants innately ready to use their minds to
  understand and speak whatever language offered to
  them
• they are experience expectant

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Theory Three

• Social-pragmaticsocial reason for language to
  communicate
• Infants seek to respond, which shows their being
  social in nature and thus mutually dependentby
• vocalizing
• babbling
• gesturing
• listening
• pointing

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Becoming a communicator

• The sheer amount of parental speech is related to
  variations in early word learning.

• Joint attention
• Gaze in the same direction as adult and visa
  versa
• Give- and-take
• Pat-a-cake
• Preverbal gestures
• Point to cabinet for cookie

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• First Words
• Underextension
• Overextension
• Two-Word Utterances