Cognitive Approaches

Question 1

Cognitive approach

Answer 1

• Followers of the cognitive approach see language acquisition as part of a much wider development of understanding and knowledge in children
• This differs from the nativist approach which sees language acquisition as separate from cognitive development
• Cognitive theories can be aligned with those of social interaction, as the process of child language acquisition relies on adult interaction
• The main cognitive theorists are Vygotsky and Jean Piaget

Question 2

4 stages of cognitive development

Answer 2

• Swiss biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget observed children making sense of the world around them and developed a four stage model of how the mind processes new information:
• The sensorimotor stage from birth to age 2
• The preoperational stage from age 2 to about age 7
• The concrete operational stage from age 7 to age 11
• The formal operational stage begins in adolescence and spans into adulthood

Question 3

Sensorimotor stage:object permanence

Answer 3

• means knowing that an object still exists even if it’s hidden. It requires the ability to form a mental representation (schema) of the object

Question 4

Seriation

Answer 4

• Piaget’s approach rests on the assumption that children need to understand a concept before they can use the term related to that concept
• e.g. a child would need to understand the concept of seriation before they could use superlatives for comparatives
• refers to the ability to sort objects or situations according to any characteristic, such as size, colours shape or type
• This usually occurs in the early concrete operational stage although it can appear in earlier stages