InfancyCognitive and Language Development

• Cognitive – process of knowing and sensations, perception, imagery, retardation, memory, recall, problem solving, reasoning, and thinking

• Learning – relatively permanent change in a capacity or behavior that results from experience.– Permits us to adapt to our environment by building on

previous experience– Must be some change on behavior– This change must be relatively stable– The change must result from experience

Cognitive Development

• By 30th week of gestation• Studies on prenatal hearing

– Found neonate recognizes mothers voice and prefers mothers voice

– Use a nibble apparatus attached to tape recorder, different type of sucking triggered mothers voice or other woman.

• Reading Study– Mothers read The Cat In The Hat to neonate for twice

a day for last six weeks.– After birth, infant preferred book over other books

When Infants Start Learning

BABIES AND MEDIACOGNITIVE AND LANGUAGE OUTCOMES

Liste

ning

to m

usic

Wat

ching

vide

os/D

VD

Wat

ching

TV

Readin

g/be

ing re

ad to

Total:

scre

en m

edia

0:00

0:28

0:57

1:26

1:55

2:24

1:351:26 1:22

0:51

2:05

Hours

Type of media played a big part in learning

Shows like Dora the Explorer, Clifford, Blue’s Clues, encouraged learning by participation and increased cognitive awareness

Others like Sesame Street and Teletubies did not show the growth

• 3 Characteristics of Sensorimotor period– Object permanence- objects have a reality of its own

that extends beyond their immediate perception• Object exists even when it cannot be seen• About 6 months• Peek-a-boo, hide and seek

– Inability to represent the world to themselves internally• Only here and know

– Cannot coordinate grasping with visual cues• Out of site, out of mind

Piaget: Sensorimotor Period

• Playing is Learning– Provide experience infant cannot generate– Share attention, emotional feelings, and intentions

with others

• Consequences of Material Depression– Developmental deficits due to lack of mother-infant

interaction– Child tends to lag behind cognitively– Child more withdrawn, unresponsive and inattentive– Failure to Thrive – symptoms include lack of growth,

listlessness, and problems sleeping and eating

Post-Piagetian Research

• 3 Modes Cognitive Representation– Enactive – children represent the world through their

motor acts – birth to 2– Ikonic representation – children use mental images or

pictures that are closely linked to perception – preschool/kindergarten years

– Symbolic representation – children use arbitrary and socially standardized representation of things

– Know something 3 ways; doing, image, and symbol

Bruner’s Theory

• Structured system of sound patterns with socially standardized meanings

• Communication – process by which people transmit information, ideas, attitudes, and emotions to one another.

• Conceptualization – grouping perceptions into categories on the basis of certain similarities

Language

• Nonverbal or Kinesics – body language (hand, hands, gestures)– Sign language for young child

• Paralanguage– Stress, pitch, volume

Language Development

• Crying (birth)• Vocalization (1-6 months• Babbling (6 months)

– Da da da

• Receptive vocabulary (6 to 9 months)– Understand some words

• Holophrases (10 to 13 months)– Use of single word (could have different meanings)

• Overextension (16 to 20 months)– Use many words to mean more that meaning (over use word)

• Two-word sentences “ Book there” (18 to 22 months)• Telegraphic Speech (2 yrs)

– Precise 2 or 3 word combinations, more grammatically correct

Sequences of Language