Infant Cognitive Development Flashcards
What is cognitive development?
The development of thinking across the lifespan. It’s a crucial aspect of overall growth and involves changes in thinking, problem-solving, and understanding the world around them
What influences cognitive development?
Genetic and environmental factors, occurring through a combination of assimilation and accommodation - children integrating new information to existing mental frameworks, adjusting their understanding
How large does the brain develop at birth until 12 months?
At birth, it’s a quarter the size of an adult’s brain. By the end of the first year, this doubles in size
What controls most of a baby’s behaviour at birth?
The brain stem
What does the brain stem control in babies?
Breathing, sleeping, swallowing
What is object permanence?
The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are not seen, heard, or touched
Which of the baby’s senses are least developed at birth?
Eyesight, they can only see about 20cm to 30cm away
When do babies see almost as well as an adult?
9 months
How do you help an infant’s brain develop?
Respond with sounds and gestures in a back-and-forth process called ‘serve and return’. It helps wiring the baby’s brain with positive connections
What are the cognitive development skills required for newborns to 3 months?
Sensory exploration
What are the cognitive development skills required for children aged 3 months to 6 months?
Early cause-and-effect unsderstanding
What are the cognitive development skills required for children aged 6 months to 9 months?
- Basic problem solving
- Object permanence begins to develop
What are the cognitive development skills required for children aged 9 months to 12 months?
- Advanced object permanence
- Simple understanding of functional relationships among objects
What are the cognitive development skills required for children aged 1 year to 2 years?
- Symbolic thought emerges
- Imitation and pretend play
What are the cognitive development skills required for children aged 2 years to 3 years?
- Solves problems through trial and error
- Understands more complex commands
What are the cognitive development skills required for children aged 3 years to 4 years?
- Imaginative play becomes more complex
- Understands the concept of ‘now’ ‘ soon’ ‘later’
What are the cognitive development skills required for children aged 4 years to 5 years?
- Grasps the concept of time
- Begins to understand numbers and counting
What are the cognitive development skills required for children aged 5 years to 6 years?
- Understands the concept of right and wrong
- Basic math skills
What are the important milestones required for newborns to 3 months?
- Begins to follow objects with eyes
- Recognises familiar objects and people at a distance
What are the important milestones required for children aged 3 months to 6 months?
- Responds to familiar faces
- Explores with hands and mouth
What are the important milestones required for children aged 6 months to 9 months?
- Looks for partially hidden objects
- Begins to understand that objects still exist even when not visible
What are the important milestones required for children aged 9 months to 12 months?
- Completes simple goals with purpose (eg: using a tool to get a toy)
- Looks for hidden objects actively
What are the important milestones required for children aged 1 year to 2 years?
- Begins to use objects correctly (eg: drinking from a cup)
- Recognises names of familiar people and objects
What are the important milestones required for children aged 2 years to 3 years?
- Begins to engage in simple make believe play
- Can sort objects by shape and colour
What are the important milestones required for children aged 3 years to 4 years?
- Can complete puzzles with 3 or 4 pieces
- Understands everyday concepts (eg: food and money)
What are the important milestones required for children aged 4 years to 5 years?
- Can count to at least 10
- Recognises some letters and may write their name
- Follows a series of three commands
What are the important milestones required for children aged 5 years to 6 years?
- Can count beyond 10 and starts to add and subtract
- Recognises and writes letters and numbers
- Begins to read simple words
What’s the language development for children aged 12 months to 18 months?
Singular word use often resembling exact words (eg: dada: dad)
Towards the end of 18 months, a child will be able to follow simple instructions (eg: sit down, get up)
What’s the language development for children aged 18 months to 2 years?
Two word sentences
A child can understand what familiar say and vice versa. Unfamiliar people understand about half
What’s the language development for children aged 2 years to 3 years?
- Use of three to four words with more accuracy
- Play is combined with talking
What’s the language development for children aged 3 years to 5 years?
- Will illustrate abstract thought
- Show their thoughts and feelings through more complex conversations
- Ability to discuss many topics at least by the end of 5 years old
- Understanding of basic grammar and stories
What’s the language development for children aged 5 years to 8 years?
- Becoming good at storytelling and putting together words and sentences creatively
- Can share opinions
- Adult-style conversations by the end of 8 years old
What types of theories are there in cognitive development?
- Stage theories (Jean Piaget)
- Sociocultural theories (Lev Vygotsky)
- Information processing theories (David Klahr)
How do nature and nurture interact to produce cognitive development?
it’s a dynamic and complex process that emphasises how genetic predispositions & environmental influences come together to shape a child’s cognitive abilities & behaviors
How do genetic predispositions affect cognitive abilities?
Certain cognitive abilities are influenced by genetic factors (eg: a child might inherit a predisposition for high verbal intelligence or excellent memory skills)
How are temperament and learning styles influenced by genetics?
Inherent personality traits and predispositions can influence how children approach learning and problem solving. impacting their cognitive development over time
How do early experiences affect cognitive abilities?
The environment a child is exposed to in the early years. Including the quality of parental interaction, educational opportunities, and exposure to language
How does cultural context affect a child’s cognitive abilities?
The values, beliefs, and practices of a child’s culture teach specific cognitive skills and shape the way children perceive and interact with their world
How do social interactions affect a child’s cognitive abilities?
Peer & adult interactions provide models for cognitive abilities and introduce diverse perspectives that challenge and refine thinking
What are Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?
- Sensorimotor stage (Birth to 2 years)
- Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years)
- Concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years)
- Formal operational stage (12 years and above)
What happens at the sensorimotor stage? (birth to 2 years)
- Learn about the world through their senses and actions
- Engages in behaviors such as looking, sucking, grasping, and listening
- Developed object permanence
What happens at the preoperational stage? (2 years to 7 years)
- Start to use language to explore and understand their words
- Begin to engage in symbolic play and learn to manipulate symbols
- Don’t understand concrete logic
- Egocentrism characteristic
- Still struggles to understand conservation
What is egocentrism?
Where children have difficulty seeing things from perspectives other than their own
What is conservation?
The understanding that certain properties of objects or substances remain the same despite changes in their appearance or arrangement
What happens at the concrete operational stage? (7 years to 11 years)
- Begin thinking logically about concrete situations
- Begin understanding conservation
- Begin categorising objects hierarchically, and grasping basic mathematical concepts
- May find abstract or hypothetical ideas challenging.
What happens at the formal operational stage? (12 years and above)
- Become capable of abstract and hypothetical thinking
- Can reason about situations not personally experienced
- Can think about future possibilities and use deductive logic
- Ability to think about moral, philosophical, political and social issues
What are the important cognitive development concepts?
1) Schemas
2) Accommodation
3) Assimilation
4) Equilibration
What is object permanence important for?
- Memory development
- Social and emotional development
- Exploratory behaviour
Why is object permanence important for social and emotional development?
It helps infants develop attachments and understand that people, like objects, continue to exist even when not visible
How does object permanence encourage exploratory behaviour?
It encourages problem-solving skills and curiosity, leading to more complex interactions with their environment
What is schemas?
Mental structures that help children organise and interpret information. They develop through experiences and interactions and help children to understand the world around them
What is accommodation in schemas?
Modifying existing schemas or creating new ones in response to new information that doesn’t fit in their existing schemas
What is assimilation in schemas?
The absorption of new information into their existing cognitive structures and understanding it in terms of what is already known
What is equilibrium in schemas?
A state of balance where all pieces of information fit in the schemas an individual has developed
What is Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory?
It emphasizes the influence of social interactions and cultural constructs on a person’s cognitive development
What is Zone of Proximal Development? (ZPD)
The difference between what a child can do independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and support. It emphasises the importance of providing appropriate levels of support and guidance to learners
What is Vygotsky’s theory of the relationship between language and thought?
He suggested that these two develop independently then merge around the age of three, when children begin to internalise their language and use it to guide their behavior and thinking
What did Vygotsky distinguish between lower mental functions and higher mental functions?
- Lower mental functions: More instinctual and shared with animals
- Higher mental functions: Uniquely human and developed through social interaction and the internalization of culture
What is the information processing theory?
This theory likens the mind to a computer, suggesting that cognitive processes involve receiving input, processing it through various mental operations, storing it in memory, and producing output. It highlights improvements in the efficiency of information processing as a key aspect of cognitive development
What are the key components and principles of this theory?
- Input
- Processing
- Storage (Sensory, short-term or working, longer term)
- Output
- Executive Functioning
What are the types of information processing theory?
- Serial processing theory
- Parallel processing theory
- Hierarchical processing theory
What is the serial processing theory?
This theory proposes that information is processed one step at a time in the order received. Each piece is held in short-term memory until the next piece comes in, and then transferred to long-term memory or discarded if no longer relevant
What is the parallel processing theory?
This theory suggests that multiple pieces of information can be processed simultaneously instead of sequentially
What is the hierarchical processing theory?
This suggests that different levels of complexity exist within cognitive processes, with higher-level tasks requiring more complex mental operations than lower-level tasks
What is sensory memory?
The initial stage of memory processing, holding temporary sensory information from the environment, including iconic memory for visual stimuli and echoic memory for auditory stimuli, with only a fraction of information selected for further processing in short-term memory
How does one encode information into long-term memory?
- Break up information into smaller parts
- Make it meaningful
- Connect the dots
- Consistently repeat
What is the theory of mind?
The ability to attribute beliefs, intents, emotions, knowledge to oneself and others; understanding that other people have thoughts, feelings and perspectives that are different from one’s own
Why is the theory of mind important?
It’s vital for social interaction, to tailor communication, and for moral development - to understand the intentions and motivations behind others’ actions
