Ch3 Early Cog Dev Flashcards
Why learn early dev as helping professional?
Cog, Social, emotional processes are interconnected. Before birth and early development shape individual and influence who and how someone will be.
Piaget
- Constructivist Theory
- children active learners
- knowledge organization changes over time due to ADAPTATION
Vygotsky
- Sociocultural theory-critical role that culture, society plays in transmission of knowlege
- More advanced thinkers provide scaffolding to novices
- Pass on cultural, scientific concepts
- Considered to be in opposition to Piaget but is not an “either-or”
- Important Contributions:
- Discuss Tools, Signs as anything that helps people think and learn, e.g. numbering
- Mediated Learning comparable to Piaget’s Assimilation/Accommodation
- Zone of Proximal Development-stage, position, place in which learner has potential to learn new information, skill, concept with provided scaffolding
- Private speech, similar to Piaget’s egocentric speech
Piaget’s ADAPTATION
Combo of assimilation and accommodation
Assimilation
Fitting new information to existing knowledge structures Youd make an ass our of yourself if you suggested a horse was a “dog”, the first time you saw a horse
Accommodation
Changing knowledge structures to fit was is new You accommodate your “all four-legged animals are dogs” structure so that cats and horses can be included in the group without being called a dog or by creating a separate cat group and horse group.
Infant Cognition: Sensorimotor
Cognitive development is domain specificl understanding in different domains of knwoledge may be organized differently Infant congition studied via baby motor interaction with environment (Piaget), habituation, preferential response (modern)
Preschooler Cognition: Preoperational stage
Piaget: by 2 yr, children are pre-logical (preoperational), limited representational thought Can keep one thought in mind at a time Tend to assume others have same perspective as they do, egocentric; by 3 yr, understand different visual perspective; 4-5 yr understand that sometimes others know/believe differently can use symbols First words by end of 1st year, spurt 18-24 months with 9-10 new words per day
Vygotsky Sociocultural Theory
Focused on role of culture. spcoety in children’s intellectual growth novice learner grasp concept, skill when provided scaffolding, within child’s zone of proximal development emphasized language as tool to convey knowledge, advance thinking, understanding Private speech of 3 yr old (talking to self outloud) becomes inner speech of 8yr old after attentional control, autobio memory, impulse control developed.
Contrasting Cultural Models of Parent-Child Relations: Independence v Interdependence
- Developmental Trajectory
- dependent to independent
- asocial to socially responsible
- Children’s Relatinoships to parents
- personal choice re: relationship to parents
- obligations to parents
- Communication
- verbal emphasis, self-expression, parental questions, praise, negotiation
- nonverbal emphasis (empathy, observation, particiaption), directives, harmony, respect, obedience
- Parenting Style
- authoritative: controlling, demanding, warm, rational
- rigorous, responsible, teaching, involvement, physical closeness
- Parents helping children
- matter of personal choice except under extreme need
- moral obligation always
Applications
8
Autism Spectrum Disorders [ASD]
Rising incidence of Autism and ASD 1/110 affected, no clear cause Genetic-environmental factor interactions Identified in 1940’s in white, affluent, educate families; cause suggested cold parenting (“refirgerator mothers”) (Kanner) with some inborn deficit, genetics (Asperger) and dysfunctional parent-child relationships (Bettleheim)
ASD Developmental Characteristics
Some show symptoms from birth some experience sudden regression, loss of function Recommended to screen all children at 18mo. Abnormalities in brain growth and pruning Overgrowth in cerebral volume reduced neural growth in cerebellum Suggested causes: vaccines, environmental factors, bacteria, viruses, biochemical reactions in mitochondria likely biological basis triggered by environmental event
ASD Diagnostic Issues
DSM-V contains one Autism Sepctrum Disorder (vs. IV-TR’s five separate disroders) 2/3 mental retardation 1/4 develop epilepesy Asperger’s still argued to be considered separate disorder ASD children process faces with part of brain that usually processes objects View unfamiliar people as threat, physiologically respond in Heart rate, respiration, etc. Difficulty in language, literal interpretation, impaired pitch, rhythm, stress; “stimming” non-sex self-stimulation, head banging, idiosyncratic interests, clumsiness,
ASD Treatment Approaches
behavioral treatments most successful, begin early and sustained over time intensive, one-on-one, structured, routine Awareness and treatment of the families of the ASD child, their emotions and reactions to dx and process
Infant Cognition: Sensorimotor: Object Concept and Theory of Mind
Piaget: object concept requires 1) baby knows object in permanent, can stimulate multiple senses and 2) representational thought (search for a hidden object) Modern: representation thought begins late in first year, recognition present at birth; demonstration of recall at 8-9 months via deferred imitation, separation anxiety Late in first year, begin to realize others have agency, intention
Michelle’s Vygotsky Summary
VYGOTSKY’S SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY
Vygotsky didn’t identify stages or important of the individual’s construction of knowledge in the cognitive developmental process… à instead he focused on critical role of culture and society into which one is born and how it plays a part in the transmission of knowledge
- he was a Marxist
- talked about the use of “tools” or “signs”- meaning anything that ppl use to help them think and learn, such as numbering or writing systems, most important tool for Vygotsky was language
Mediation: new signs are the products of cultural and historical mediation
Mediated learning: because children acquire and use tools that are the products of others’ thinking, “the mind is no longer to be located entirely insdie the head” but it a part of a collective experience.
^^ central to Vygotsky’s theory!! CHILD-IN-CONTEXT
…reminiscent of Piaget’s concepts of assimilation and accommodation.
- he believed that the individual could never really be separated from environment or culture
- in collectivist cultures, parents do not often engage w/ children in elaborative conservations about autobiographical experiences. May be more likely to emphasize interdependence and engaging in hierarchically defined roles.. in non-elaborative styles
- also focus on having children tell narratives about their misdeeds (idea is to teach them what they should and should not do). They emphasize the misdeed’s effect on parents and family- shame, sadness
Another theme in Vygotsky’s work is that progress or improvement in thinking is both possible and desireable. It not only pulls the individual forward but improves society as well.
Scientific concepts: he placed great importance on the transmission of formal knowledge b/c he believed that learning culturally defined concepts (he called them scientific concepts) presented the learner w/ an internal organizational system for ideas and allowed the learner to utilize the ideas more efficiently.
Believed that more advanced thinkers can provide novice learners w/ “scaffolding”- enables novices to reach higher levels of thinking, which serves as a prop until child masters the task themself
How is Language Learned?
How Language is learned
- is brain already prepared to learn language?
- regardless of native language, seem to reach vocab milestones at similar ages
- can be cultural differences in what types of words kids learn first (ie English, learn nouns first, Mandarin, learn verbs first)
- individual diff in vocab are related to children’s home and preschool: amount and kind of language experience children have w/ adults in parent-child conversations, during mealtimes, play times, and join activities seem to be key.. à if you talk more to child, their vocab will expand
- children also make more progress when mothers are more verbally responsive (ie child points at toy, mother positive reaffirms child for doing so)
- positive vocal affirmations to child help facilitate language learning and using lots of vocal prohibitions do the opposite
Elaborative style: engaging in lengthy discussions about children’s past experiences, providing lots od details, asking questions and encouraging children to provide details as well,
^^ makes children’s narrative more adequate and informative!
- Mothers are also encouraged to engage in “elaborative reminiscing” w/ child b/c it can improve their memories
Infantile amnesia: the difficulty we have remembering events in our lives earlier than about the 3rd or 4th year. Our lack of language during the sensorimotor stage contributes to this
Pragmatics
Pragmatics
Pragmatics: how to use language effectively to communicate
- knowing how to put sentences together is not enough- one must be able to craft a narrative- a story or event description that conveys full sense of an experience or gets at the point of an event while taking into account what the listener needs to hear to understand. Diff listeners have diff needs
- also need to use “code switching”- shifting from using slang w/ friends to using more polite forms w/ teachers, for example
Semantics
Semantics
Semantics: which words and word parts express what meanings
Vocabulary spurt: at about 18-24 months, begin learning words very rapidly (50 to 500 words in a few months)
Fast mapping: the rapidity with which young children add new words to functional vocab after only one or 2 exposures
Slow mapping: working out full details of words meaning usually requires multiple exposures
Syntax/grammar: the aspect of language that specifies how to link words into meaningful sentences
Phonology
Phonology
Phonology- the sound system of the language
- babies show preference in hearing the sounds of their own native language
- babbling: repeating consonant-vowel-consonant sequences such as bababa or doodoodoo. At first they can have most possible language sounds but as progress only native language sounds
Voicing: using our vocal cords to make some consonant sounds but not others (ie child can differentiate btwn “toy” and “doy”). Can master these by age 3 (with some exceptions, lisps, etc)
Understanding symbolic artifacts
Symbolic artifacts: analogical symbols, like pics, maps, or scale models. Often similar to the thing they represent. You would think that they would be easier for children to grasp, but the opposite is true b/c they would have to mentally represent an object in 2 ways at once. Can usually use artifacts as symbols at age 3, but their understanding is fragile/easily disrupted.
^^ imp implications! Using a doll to have children point to where they were “touched by an adult” may make no sense to them and be an invalid way of assessing child molestation! Or explaining surgical procedures to children thru dolls may also be invalid.
Preschoolers, Preoperational
Symbols
Understanding numbers
Number conservation task: piaget invented it. A set of discrete items, let’s say 5 candies, is laid out in a neatly spaced line. A second set is also laid out and kids are asked if they have the same amount of candies or if one has more than the other. When the candies are spread out more, preschoolers usually think that the number of candies changes with the appearance of the row (more spread out = more candies)… could be an issue of centration! Most children 7 years of age can defeat this task
Centration: preoperational thought tends to be centered or focused on one salient feature of an experience or event at a time. Decentration is the opposite- happens as you get older.
Gelman’s magic number games showed kids could focus on the “underlying realities” but their ability to do so was still fragile
Preschoolers’ cognition: the preoperational stage
Symbols: stand-ins for other things… toddlers can understand them!
Having and Inferring Intentions
Earliest behaviors are reflexive and unplanned
Piaget believed “making interesting sights last” was a precursor to intentional behavior. This involves doing something reflexively, having an interesting event result, and the child later repeating the behavior in hopes of the same result. Can happen as young as 3 months.
In 8-12 months, piaget says babies engage in “means-end behavior”- they divert their attention from a goal, such as grasping for a toy, to produce another action that will help achieve the goal.
More intention control of behavior emerges in 2nd year, can actively invent new variations on their actions to fit the situation
Executive Functions (EFs)- intentionally controlling our own behavior and thought- setting goals, determinding what we will pay attention to, and choosing to make one response rather than another, are among this set of cognitive processes
Agency: refers to the ability to act w/o an external trigger
Baby & Infant Cognitive Development
Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage
Operant conditioning shows that babes can demonstrate recognition when just 3 days old,, will suck harder to hear mom’s voice rather than stranger’s voice, infant’s that are 3 months old can recognize something months later.
-recognition speed is early indicator of later processing speed
Recall: the ability to bring to mind an experience that happened in the past. The to-be-remembered experience is not presently occurring and therefore must be mentally represented
One indicator of recall = deferred imitation: children observe the actions of another on one occasion, and then imitate those actions sometime later. Begins sometime around age 2. It makes observational learning or modeling possible.
Babies do “immediate imitation”..
http://www.advocate.com/transgender/2015/07/31/true-meaning-word-cisgender random interesting article
searching for a hidden object happens @ 8 months of age, child believes in the object’s permanence AND recalls it…
separation anxiety: starts happening at about 8 months. Relates to recall, object permanence, and important brain developments (such as rapid myelination of axons in frontal lobes, which helps w/ planning, memory in hippocampus, and cerebellum which helps w/ controlled movement and balance)
Intention: is an internal metnal state, such as a plan or desire, that is the source of the action
Theory of mind: understanding other ppl’s intentions
