STAGES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES

CIK ZAINAB HJ NAWAB KHAN

TOPICS

4.1 Explain the stages of cognitive and language development of children

4.2 Synthesis information related to the characteristics of cognitive and language development in a conceptual map

COGNITIVE AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

PRENATAL

CHILD

INFANT

ADOLESCENCE

THEORIES

JEAN PIAGET

VYGOTSKY `

Four Stages of development

Zone of proximal

development

PIAGET’S THEORY

PROCESS IN COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

SCHEMA –various skills and behaviors that child can exercise in relation to objects or situations. Concept that already exist in a child’s mind.

Eg: sucking, kicking, crawling etc

ADAPTATION ( consist of 2 activities)a. ASSIMILATION – use current

schemes t0 interpret the external world

b. ACCOMMODATION-create new schemes or adjust old ones after noticing that current way of thinking does not capture the environment completely

EQUILIBRIUM During time of rapid cognitive change,

children are in state of disequilibrium or cognitive discomfort

Realizing that new information does not match their current schemes, they shift from assimilation to accommodation

After modifying their schemes, they move back toward assimilation, exercising their newly changed structures until they are ready to be modified again

ORGANIZATION- Piaget’s concept of grouping isolated behavior into a higher order, more smoothly functioning cognitive system ( the ability to organize , coordinate ideas or knowledge of information)

Schemes

CHILD KNOWS HOW TO THROW

GIVE CHILD AN EGG

Current Skills Child throw egg hard

Egg Breaks Child

frustrated( create new

schemes)

Child learn new skills of handling egg(adjustment)

ADAPTATION

ASSIMILATION

ACCOMODATION

EQUILIBRIUM

FOUR STAGES COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

- Children actively construct their understanding of the world and go thru four stages of cognitive development

Sensorimotor

Birth – 2 years

Preoperational

2 – 7 years

ConcreteOperational7-11 years

Formal Operational

11 years-adulthood

FOUR DEVELOPMENT STAGES

SENSORIMOTOR ( birth – 2 years) Children organize and coordinate

sensations with physical movements and actions thru reflexes

Most schema are reflexes

OBJECT PERMANENCE

Objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot directly be seen, heard or touched.

Stage one- out of sight out of mind

PREOPERATIONAL STAGE ( 2 -7 years)

Stable concepts are formed Mental reasoning Operation- internalized sets of

actions that allow children to do mentally what before they did physically. are highly organized and conform to certain principles and logic.

At this stage thought is flawed and not well organize

Symbolic Function Substage ( 2 – 4 years)

Young child gain the ability to mentally

represent an object that is not present.

Egocentrism – the inability to distinguish between one’s own and someone else’s perspective.

Children often pick their view from where they are.

ANIMISM – belief that inanimate objects have ‘lifelike’

CONSERVATION TEST- the idea that an amount stays the same regardless of a container shape.

PIAGET TEST

a. numbers ( coins) b. matter ( clay ) c. length ( two sticks) d. water ( two glasses of water) e. area ( space and cardboard)

CONCRETE OPERATIONAL THOUGHT

( 7 – 11 years) Reversible mental action on real

concrete objects Can coordinates information in

many dimension ( eg. Clay test ) Ability to to classify and divide

things to sets or subsets.

Family tree test – able to understand that a person can be a grandfather , uncle, brother, brother in law etc.

FORMAL OPERATIONAL ( 11 years to adult)

adult are more capable of examining their own thought

Think more logically , abstractly and idealistically.

Hypothetical deductive reasoning-adolescence have the cognitive ability to develop hypotheses and problem solving.

IMPLICATIONS OF PIAGET’S COGNITIVE THEORY

1. Constructivist approach Children learn best when they are

active and seek solution s for themselves

2. Facilitate rather then direct learning

design situations that allow students to

learn by doing.3. Consider child’s level of thinking

4. Use ongoing assessment – Evaluate students progress with tools like portfolios, individual conference or verbal explanations.

5. Promote the student’s intellectual health- Children should not be pushed and pressured

6. Turn the classroom into a setting of exploration and discovery

VYGOTSKY COGNITIVE DEVELPOMENT THEORY

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT The range of tasks that are too

difficult for children to master alone but that can be mastered with the guidance and assistance of adults or more skilled children.

Child cognitive maturity can be achieved by assistance.

UPPER LIMIT( additional responsibility – with assistance)

ZPD( understanding where the student’s development are)

LOWER LIMIT (working independently)

SCAFOLDING changing the level of support of a more skilled person adjusts the

amount of guidance to fit the student’s

current level.

Teaching in the zone reflects the concept of developmentally appropriate teaching

IMPLICATIONS OF VYGOTSKY COGNITIVE THEORY

1. Use the child’s zone of proximal development in teaching

2. Use scaffolding – to help children move to higher level of skill and knowledge

3. Use more skills peers as teachers4. Monitor and encourage children’s

use of private speech 5. Access the child’s ZPD rather then

IQ

IMPLICATIONS (Vygotsky)

5. Language plays important roles - speech is used to solve task - private speech 6. Peer collaboration - varying abilities7. Meaningful activities

4. Vygotsky’s based innovation in teaching & learning

a. Reciprocal teaching - a mall group of student’s

and a teacher take turns leading

dialogues on the content of a passage

- leader begins by asking questions about the

content of the passage. - Students offer answers , rise

additional questions - leader summarizes the passage - students clarify unfamiliar ideas

b. Cooperative Learning - small groups of classmates

work toward common goals.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

BIOLOGICALBEHAVIORAL &ENVIRONMENTA

L

BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCE

Language is housed in the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex.

Research shows that damage of this area might cause communication disorders

Broca’s area- support grammatical processing and language production

Wernicker’s area – comprehending word meaning

Chomsky (1957) – all children have an innate language acquisition device (LAD)

A system that permits them to combine words and understanding meaning of sentences

Erik Lenneberg (1967) – children must acquire language during the age span of brain lateralization - critical period hypothesis

2. Behavioral & Environmental Influences

View language as a complex learned skill

Language represents chains of responses

( Skinner,1957 ) or imitation( Bandura,1977 )Home language studies (1995) –

Professional parents talked much more to their young children than welfare parents- different vocabulary development.

Style of talk – varied across parentsWelfare parents heard fewer

descriptions, less talk about past events and less elaboration

Theories of Language Development

Empiricist approach: Skinner

Nativist approach: Chomsky

Language and Cognition: Piaget

Socio-cultural approach: Bruner

VYGOTSKY THEORY Children use language for social

communication and also to plan, guide and monitor their behavior in a self regulatory fashion ( inner speech)

Language and thought initially develop independently of each other and merge.

PIAGET THEORY Self talk reflects immaturity Language has a minimal role

Nativist approach - Chomsky

Language acquisition device (LAD) Universal set of rules for grammar Specific brain areas with localised

functions of language

• e.g., Broca (production) and Wernicke’s (comprehension) area

Sensitive period for language development

HOW LANGUAGE DEVELOPS

1. INFANCY Babbling and other vocalizations Babies actively produce sounds to attract

attentions.Crying , cooing, babbling and gestures Infants have learned the sounds of their

native language by the age of sex months. 13 months – first word spoken 18 – 24 months babies can say two words e.g. big car - telegraphic speech –

short and precise words

2.EARLY CHILDHOODPreschool years- children became

sensitive to the sounds of spoken words ( rhymes, poems etc..

Children begins to understands morphology , syntax , pragmatics

6 years old- 8,000 to 14,000 words

Bloom(1998) three continuous framework help us better understand early childhood language development:

a. The emerge of words and a basic vocabulary ( end of first year – end )

b. The transition from saying one word –combining words and phrases into simple sentences ( end of second year)

c. The transition from simple sentences expressing a single proposition to complex sentences ( begin between 2 and 3 years and continues into the elementary school years)

3.MIDDLE AND LATE CHILDHOOD Increasingly using language in a

displace manner, learning what a word is and how to recognize and talk about sounds

( Berko Gleason,2002) Became more analytical in their

approach to words e.g. when you say the word ‘dog’ the child might respond ‘barks’

all theories suggest that language development depends on both biological and socio-environmental factors

No child would ever talk unless he were taught; and no child could be taught unless he already possessed, by inheritance, a particular series of nervous arrangements ready for training" (Marshall 41)

HOW PARENTS CAN FACILITATE CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

INFANTS1. Be an active conversational

partner2. Talk as if the infant understand

what you are saying3. Use a language style with which

you feel comfortable

TODDLERS Continue to be an active

conversational partner Remember to listen Expand child’s ability

Other ways

Always listen others talking . ( Huttenlocher et. Al ,1991) Name objects that capture

children’s interest ( Dunham, Dunham, &

Curwin,1993) Ask questions

4. Watch television : Sesame Street , ( Rise et. Al., 1990) 5. Read story books or magazine ( Hayes, 1988)6. Speak effectively

Children will learn language better if they are involved as an active learner.

LANGUAGE DISORDERS

Involves : Speech - Pertuturan Language – bahasa Hearing - pendengaran

Speech and language problems

pronuntation fluency difficulty in using words Late speech development

ISL

Carry out a library research and surf the net

to download resources pertaining to child’s

cognitive and language development .

Namely : Piaget’s Cognitive Theory ,

Vygotsky Social Cultural theory and Chomsky Nativist Theory .