Intellectual Development (Piaget) - week 4

Question 1

What is intellectual development

Answer 1

Cognitive or intellectual development means the growth of a child’s ability to think and reason. It’s about how they organize their minds, ideas and thoughts to make sense of the world they live in.

Question 2

What are the 5 aspects of intellectual development?

Answer 2

Memory (remembering and recalling information)

Moral Development (Making choices, being reasonable and tell us how to behave in certain situations)

Problem Solving (Work things out or make predictions)

Language Development (Expressing ideas and sharing opinions, clarifying information)

Abstract Thinking (Relates to deeper thoughts, higher order thinking for example about ideas that are hypothetical)

Question 3

Explain what happens in intellectual development in infancy and early childhood?

Answer 3

This is a period of FAST intellectual development

Question 4

Explain what happens in intellectual development in early childhood and adolescence?

Answer 4

Thought processes develop and individuals are able to use reasoning consistently to come to conclusions

Question 5

Explain what happens in intellectual development in middle adulthood?

Answer 5

PAst experiences help individuals think through problems and reach judgement

Question 6

Explain what happens in intellectual development in later adulthood?

Answer 6

Whilst individuals continue to learn, memory and speed of recall is affected by age

Question 7

Explain more about intellectual (language) development in infants

Answer 7

Infants begin to coo and babble at 3-4 months old

Talks to themselves in a tuneful voice (6 months).

Imitate adult sounds, enjoys communicating with sounds (9 months).

Speaks 6-40 recognisable words at 18 months and 200 words at the age of 2.

Can refer to themselves by name (18 months).

Can name things and what they do e.g. ‘chair’ (age 2).

Talks to themselves often (Age 2).

Question 8

Explain more about intellectual (language) development in early childhood

Answer 8

Can carry on simple conversations by the age of 3 years old.

Learn to speak more than one language if they hear more than one spoken
around them in their environment.

They can tell long stories by the age of 4 and can talk about things in the past and future.

By the age of 5 they are affluent in their speech and can give their full name age and address.

Question 9

What are the 4 stages of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 9

1. Sensory-motor stage.
2. Pre-operational stage.
3. Concrete operational stage.
4. Formal operational stage.

Question 10

Give more information about Piaget’s Sensory-Motor Stage (stage 1)

Answer 10

You need to be aged 0-2 when this stage occurs. We develop through experiments and movement and our 5 senses. These are hearing touching smelling seeing and tasting.We become aware of things beyond our body. Piaget calls this our realisation of object permanence. We understand objects continue to exist even though we can’t see them.

Question 11

Give more information about Piaget’s pre-operational Stage (stage 2)

Answer 11

For example when a child is being waved at they start to understand that somebody is either saying hello or goodbye and respond accordingly. At age 4 our curiosity and ego is at its peak. We think that others see everything the way we do and start to realise that we have knowledge but we’re confused about how we obtained it.

Question 12

Give more information about Piaget’s concrete operational Stage (stage 3)

Answer 12

Age 7-11. During this age range we develop the skill of inductive reasoning. Meaning we start to know how things happen and we start to have rational thinking. For example if a clock was knocked over we start to realise that the clock isn’t going to move by itself and if you knock it over it wont be in the same position.

Question 13

Give more information about Piaget’s formal operational Stage (stage 4)

Answer 13

Age 12+ is the final stage of development. We start to understand abstract concepts such as love and hate. We come to our own conclusions when being presented with a statement and start to develop morals and beliefs.

Question 14

What are schemas?

Answer 14

Piaget believed that children go through a series of stages in relation to intellectual development. These are what he referred to as schemas.

Schemas are a category of knowledge or a pattern of learning and the process and procedure to obtain that knowledge that a child develops to understand the world.

Question 15

What is assimilation?

Answer 15

Assimilation - Improving existing knowledge. This is where new information is added to current knowledge.

Question 16

What is accommodation?

Answer 16

Accommodation -Amending/modifying schemas in relation to new information that contradicts previous knowledge.

Question 17

Explain equilibrium & disequilibrium (relating to Piaget)

Answer 17

Equilibrium is a state where new information the child learns can be understood with their existing knowledge. Disequilibrium refers to when a child learns new information but it is different from what they understand and their existing knowledge/schema.

Question 18

What is the theory of conservation?

Answer 18

In the concrete operational stage children understand the theory of conservation (This is understanding that quantity, number or length of an object is not related to the appearance or arrangement of the object).

e.g think about how 15 haribo might fit neatly into the small bag they come in, but look different when placed in your large sweet jar… it’s still the same quantity of haribo even if the bag looks “full” and the jar looks “empty”… :-)

Question 19

What is egocentrism?

Answer 19

Egocentrism (this occurs in the preoperational stage) is where a child’s thinking is based on themselves. They are unable to see or understand things from another persons point of view. Their thinking is always related to themselves.

Parallel play is a good example of to support this. This type of play occurs around 2 years old. This is where children play alongside each other but not with each other and with no interaction as they are absorbed in their own play/world.

Question 20

Describe Piaget’s theory in 6 points (mock exam question)
(ANSWER INCLUDES MORE THAN 6!!)

Answer 20

When a child’s experience matches what they understand they are in a state of EQUILIBRIUM

If they come across a new situation or task that they don’t understand this is DISEQUILIBRIUM

To enable understanding, Piaget suggested that new information is added to a current schema (this is assimilation)

Or the schema is changed, or a new one developed, to improve understanding of the task (this is accommodation)

A scheme describes a pattern of thought that organises information

A schema is a mental concept that informs a person about what to expect from a variety of experiences and situations

Piaget viewed schemas as the basic unit or building blocks of intelligent behaviour

A schema describes a pattern of thought or behaviour that organises categories of information and the relationships among them (Daddy’s car is blue but not all blue cars are Daddy’s)