Cognitive Dev in Early Childhood

Question 1

Piaget’s second stage

Answer 1

Preoperational Stage

Question 2

operations

Answer 2

mental activities

Question 3

Preoperational Stage (in depth)

Answer 3

• ages 2-7
• children aren’t fully internalizing their actions, resulting in flawed/error-filled thinking
• 2 substages

Question 4

substages of Preoperational Stage

Answer 4

1. Symbolic Function

2. Intuitive Thought

Question 5

Symbolic Function substage

Answer 5

• ages 2-4
• time of working towards abstract thought
• thinking characterized by egocentrism and animism

Question 6

Intuitive Thought substage

Answer 6

• ages 4-7
• children begin developing the ability to reason + have many questions they want answered
• thinking characterized by centration

Question 7

egocentrism

Answer 7

difficulty seeing another person’s point of view

Question 8

animism

Answer 8

belief that inanimate objects have human-like qualities –> blurred line btwn reality + imagination

Question 9

centration

Answer 9

• describes tendency to focus entirely on one feature of an object, which causes them to miss the big picture
• barrier to highly rational thought
• ex: difficulty with conservation

Question 10

conservation

Answer 10

understanding that physical properties of an object don’t always change when the object’s appearance changes (i.e. 2 equal balls of clay, 1 becomes flattened, they are still both the same amount of clay)

Question 11

influences of Piaget on Early Childhood Ed (3)

Answer 11

1. importance of assessing child’s readiness to learn (and not pushing what they aren’t ready for)
2. ideal learning model = exploring environment (discovery model)
3. compare child’s dev to their previous dev to assess their progress (don’t compare to universal norms)

Question 12

Vygotsky’s difference from Piaget

Answer 12

understood cog. dev. as occurring within a social context that needed to be studied in addition to individual behavior

Question 13

zone of proximal development

Answer 13

gap between what kids can do alone vs. what they can do with the guidance of a teacher/expert

Question 14

scaffolding

Answer 14

process used to increase skills/competence where teacher/expert changes their level/type of support for the child as the child’s competence increases