a2 - intellectual development across the life stages

Question 1

general patterns in the way children develop language

Answer 1

• listening to people speak to them (short and simple sentences), eventually adopt this language and use it themselves
• progressively learning new words, simultaneously using these sounds to add to snd improve words that they already know
• become fluent speakers with few grammatical errors (age 5)
• as they get older they can multitask, can do things whilst listening to further instructions (age 5)
• babies start with babbling and then cooing, which progress on to single words and then two, three etc. and then simple sentences

Question 2

piaget’s model - stages of cognitive development

Answer 2

sensorimotor (birth - 2 yrs) -
- infants think by interacting with world, using eyes, ears, hands and mouth
- inventing ways of solving problems such as finding hidden toys
- piaget believed that a baby can’t remember or think about world until 18 months

preoperational (2-7 yrs) -
- children use symbols to represent earlier discoveries
- development of language and make-believe play
- piaget believed that children can’t understand numbers, mass, volume etc.
- may count to 100 but don’t understand what sets of 10 really are

concrete operational (7-11 yrs) -
- reasoning becomes logical
- may understand simple logical principles

formal operational (11-18 yrs) -
- capacity for abstract thinking allows adolescents to reason through symbols that don’t refer to real world
- can think of outcomes for scientific problems
- can think through complicated ideas without having to see the concrete image

Question 3

chomsky’s model of language acquisition

Answer 3

• ability to develop a signed or spoken language is genetically programmed into individuals, and will become fluent in first language by 5/6
• individuals born with a language acquisition device (LAD), enables children to recognise and develop languages they experience
• children are preprogrammed to acquire language, evolves naturally in the same way that children can stand and walk
• he believed that children cannot learn language through imitation alone

Question 4

criticism of chomsky

Answer 4

• lack of scientific evidence
• social constructivists such as Bruner argue that social interaction is critical and has more influence on children than what Chomsky suggested
• he did not take into consideration children who may experience delayed language development

Question 5

intellectual development in early to middle adulthood

Answer 5

• application of knowledge, skills and experience
• thinking logically and finding realistic answers
• job roles will require problem solving and decision making, new brain cells continue to develop even though there may be a gradual decline in processing speeds

Question 6

effects of ageing on memory

Answer 6

• brain has capacity to produce new brain cells at any age
• age related memory lapses can be frustrating but are not signs of dementia
• older people may take longer to learn and recall info but this is not memory loss