Physical, Cognitive and Linguistic Development

Module 3

Principles of Physical, Cognitive and Linguistic

Development

Cognitive Theories• Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory

– Emphasizes conscious mental processes.– Cognitive processes are influenced by

biological maturation.

– Four stages of cognitive development in children.

– Assimilation and accommodation underlie how children understand the world, adapt to it, and organize their experiences

• Piaget emphasized the importance of biological maturation, meaning children are physically ready to attempt new challenges.

Nature vs. Nurture

• This debate centers on the relative

contribution of genetic makeup (nature)

and environment (nurture).

• Heritability is a key term in the debate

- the statistical estimate of the percentage of variability for a trait that is attributable to genetic factors within a group.

Psychology, 4th Ed., Saul Kassin (2003). Prentice Hall

Genes

How genes effect behavior• Genotype

– The underlying DNA sequence that an individual inherits.

• Phenotype– An organism’s observable properties, physical and

behavioral.

• Genes contribute more directly to physical traits than to psychological characteristics.

Psychology, 4th Ed., Saul Kassin (2003). Prentice Hall

Learning about Heritability

• Family Studies– Studies that estimate genetic influences through similarities of

family members who vary in their degree of genetic relatedness.

• Twin-Study Method– A method of testing nature and nurture by comparing pairs of

identical and fraternal twins of the same sex.

• Adoption Studies– A method of studying nature and nurture by comparing twins and

other siblings reared together with those separated by adoption.

Psychology, 4th Ed., Saul Kassin (2003). Prentice Hall

Measuring the effects of Nature vs Nurture

Psychology, 4th Ed., Saul Kassin (2003). Prentice Hall

More Nature vs. Nurture• Other studies of twins and adoptees show:

– Genetic factors account for some differences in intelligence, verbal and spatial abilities, criminality, vocational interests, and aggressiveness.

– There is a genetic component to psychological disorders, such as alcoholism, depression, and schizophrenia.

– And, there is evidence for a genetic link to people’s attitudes toward issues and activities.

NurtureEnvironmental Influences

• Studies of twins and adoptees also support the importance of environmental influences.

– Genetic differences typically account for less than 50% of the

variation in personality.

– Environmental factors account for the rest of the variation. – Non-shared environments play a vital role in a person’s

development and may be equally, or more, significant compared to shared environments.

Environmental Influences

• A study of 5,542 three-year-olds found that:– Children with older brothers

had higher masculinity scores.

– Children with older sisters had higher femininity scores.

• These results support the nurture hypothesis.

Psychology, 4th Ed., Saul Kassin (2003). Prentice Hall

Interplay of Nature and Nurture

• Genetic and environmental influences are not independent. – Identical twins receive more similar treatment from

their parents compared to fraternal twins.

• People’s genetic makeup influences how they are treated by others, the environments in which they live, and the way they perceive and recall the details of that environment.

Developmental Trajectory in Terms of Early Childhood

Milestones

Basic Principles of Human Development

• Development proceeds in a somewhat orderly and predictable pattern– developmental milestones and universals in

development.• Different children develop at different rates.• Periods of relatively rapid growth (spurts) may appear

between periods of slower growth (plateaus).

• Stage theories• Development is continually affected by both nature

(heredity) and nurture (environment).

Role of the Brain

• At birth a child’s brain is adapted to survival– (crying, breathing, sucking, etc.).

• In childhood, most of the brain development happens in the front and top of the brain, the cortex.

• The interconnections between neurons or synapses provide the means with which people think, learn and remember.

Role of the Brain

• Synapses form through experiences.

• Majority of synapses form within the first 10 years.– By one year of age, an infant’s brain reaches 80% of

its total growth.

Piaget Revisited• Swiss biologist interested in the origins of

knowledge, known as epistemology.• A stage theorist

– Our thinking processes change radically from birth to maturity as we are constantly striving to make sense of the world.

– Piaget revised his theories throughout his life to reflect his changing understandings of human development.

• In the 1920’s, devised a model of how humans make sense of the world by gathering and organizing information.

Influences on DevelopmentInfluence changes in thinking

– Biological maturation - Genetically programmed biological changes

EX: “learning” to walk.

– Activities - increasing ability to act on our environmentEX: child may know how to walk – but now will try to shift balance from one foot to the other.

– Social experiences - we learn from othersEX: without social discourse we would never have developed our currently spoken language.

– Equilibration - the act of searching for balance between our cognitive structures and the environment

EX: correcting a child speech “I runned all the way home” to “ran”.

Factors Influencing Cognitive Development

• Organization – combining, arranging, recombining, and rearranging.

• Schemes – organized systems of actions of thought that allow us to mentally represent or “think about” objects and events in our world.

• Adaptation – in order to survive we must adapt to the world around us.

Two Forms of Adaptation• Assimilation - fitting new information into an

existing scheme– The first time a child sees a skunk they may call it

kitty - they are trying to match the new information with their existing scheme.

• Accommodation - altering existing schemes or creating new ones in response to new information– Child demonstrates accommodation when they add

the scheme for recognizing skunks to their other systems for identifying animals.

Equilibration• Equilibrium - the act of searching for balance• Disequilibrium - out of balance state• Process of equilibration

- apply a particular scheme to an event or situation

and the scheme works then we are in equilibration

- if the scheme does not produce a satisfying result we are in disequilibration and we become uncomfortable. This motivates us to keep searching for a solution through accommodation and assimilation.

Piaget’s Stages of Development

• Sensorimotor

• Pre-operational

• Concrete Operational

• Formal Operational

Sensorimotor Stage• 0-2 years of age

- Child’s thinking involves seeing, hearing, moving, touching, and tasting.

• Develop object permanence - understanding that objects exist in the environment whether

the baby perceives them or not.• Beginning of goal directed actions or deliberate actions

toward a goal– Older child develops a scheme for container toy

1. Get the lid off 2. Turn container upside down3. Shake if the items jam4. Watch the items fall

Pre-operational Stage• 2-7 years of age• Child has not mastered mental operations but is

moving toward mastery.• Operations actions that are carried out and

reversed mentally rather than physically (thinking, recalling, remembering, performing mental actions, etc.)

• Language - use of language in social communication and mental representation of the world– Child can express needs and desires to others.

Pre-operational Stage• Pre-operational egocentrism – An inability to

view situations from another person’s perspective.

• Confusion between physical and psychological events: Confusing external, and physical objects with one’s own internal, mental ideas (two characteristics)– Animism - Child attributes psychological qualities

such as thoughts and feelings to inanimate object.– Realism - Child believes that his/her thoughts and

ideas have physical reality

Pre-operational Stage• Lack of conservation – a lack of understanding

that, when nothing is added or taken away, the amount stays the same regardless of alterations in shape or arrangement.

• Centration – focusing on one dimension of an object to the exclusion of other dimensions.

• Inability to reason about transformations – difficulty thinking about the process of change leads to focus on static situations.

Pre-operational Stage• Irreversibility – difficulty recognizing that

transformations can be undone or reversed.• Single classification- an inability to classify an

object as being a member of two categories at the same time.

• Transductive reasoning – thoughts about how things work and what events cause other events are often based on coincidence or the child’s egocentric beliefs about how things should be rather than on true deductive logic.

Concrete Operational Stage• Differentiation of one’s own perspective from the

perspective of others - the realization that one’s thoughts and feelings are not necessarily shared by others.

• Conservation – realization that when nothing is added or taken away, the amount stays the same regardless of alterations in shape or arrangement.

• Decentration – the ability to consider two or more dimensions of an object at the same time.

Concrete Operational

• Reasoning about transformations – the ability to think and reason about the changing processes.

• Reversibility – the realization that some procedures can be undone or reversed.

• Multiple classifications – the ability to classify objects as belonging to two or more categories.

Concrete Operational

• Deductive reasoning – the ability to draw a logical inference from two or more pieces of information.

• Inability to deal with abstract, hypothetical and contrary ideas; to think logically about things that are not reflected in concrete reality.

Formal Operations

• Ability to deal with abstract, hypothetical, and counter-factual ideas – the ability to think about concepts and ideas that have little or no basis in concrete reality.

• Formulation and testing of hypotheses – the ability to develop and test a variety of possible explanations for a given phenomenon.

• Separation and control of variables – the ability to test the effects of one variable by keeping all others constant.

Formal Operations• Proportional thought – conceptual understanding

of proportions.

• Combinatorial thought – the ability to consider all possible combinations of several items in a systematic fashion.

• Construction of alternative to reality – the ability to envision how the world might be different from the way it actually is.

What We Know TodayThat Piaget Didn’t…

• 3-4 year olds are less egocentric - Preschoolers are able to take another's point of

view

• Underestimated the abilities of elementary school students

- Elementary students can think abstractly and hypothesize.

• For adolescents, formal operational thought processes may appear later

- Students think both concretely and abstractly, depending on the situation.

Vygotsky• Adults in a society foster children’s

cognitive development in an intentional and somewhat systematic manner.

• Emphasis on the importance of society and cultures for children’s cognitive development.

• Called the socio-cultural perspective.

Vygotsky’s Theory ofCognitive Development

• Zone of Proximal Development• Guided Participation• Scaffolding• Apprenticeships

– Modeling– Coaching– Scaffolding– Articulation– Reflection– Increasing complexity and diversity of tasks– Exploration

Zone of Proximal Learning

• ZPD – range of tasks that child cannot yet perform independently but can perform with help or guidance.

• ZPD – is always changing as some tasks are mastered and other, more complex, tasks take their place.– Students learn little from tasks they can already

perform.– They develop skills when being supported by a more

competent individual.– Many school districts require the use of Vygotsky’s

ZPD in their lesson plans.

Scaffolding

• Adults and more competent individuals provide some form of guidance or structure that enables children to perform tasks in the ZPD.

Guided Participation

• Older family members provide guidance while children build skills necessary for family, society, and cultural development.

• Teachers provide guidance and assist students as they perform activities within a structured and supportive environment.

Apprenticeships

• Learner works intensively with an expert to accomplish complex task that he/she is unable to accomplish alone.

• Cognitive Apprenticeships - Students not only learn how to accomplish a task, they also learn to think about a task– an expert provides considerable structure and

guidance throughout the process, while gradually removing scaffolding and giving the student more responsibility as the student becomes more competent.

Peer Interaction

• Students often can learn more and accomplish more difficult tasks when they work collaboratively.

• When students work collaboratively, rather than in isolation, they increase academic achievement and improve social skills.

Language Development

• We are born wired for language.

• Children learn the language they are immersed in from birth– children develop recognized words by their

first year.– by second year of life, they put these words

into short sentences.– at 5 or 6 years of age, children’s speech is

almost adult-like.

Trends in Language

• Receptive language – the ability to understand what is heard and read.

• Expressive language – ability to communicate effectively through writing and speech.

• Semantics – knowledge of word meanings.• Syntax – rules that we use to put words together

into grammatically correct sentences.– Overregularization – inappropriately applying syntactical rules in

situations where the rules do not apply.

Language Deficiencies• Children undergeneralize and

overgeneralize word meanings.

• Children have difficulty understanding passive sentences, especially when there are two or more possible “actors” in a sentence.

• Children have difficulty finding contradictions within a message.

Language Deficiencies

• Children have difficulty comprehending a verbal message separate from its nonverbal context (e.g., the meaning the children think the speaker has in mind).

• Children have a superficial understanding of what it means to be a “good listener.”

• Children haven’t yet learned many of the social conventions (pragmatics) involved in speaking effectively.

Teaching Implications• Expect children to listen for only a short

amount of time - young children have limited attention spans.

• Discuss courses of action that children should take when they don’t understand a speaker.– Children should learn that in most situations,

asking questions is both acceptable and desirable.

Teaching Implications• Discuss the components of good listening – it is

important for children to realize that “good listening” involves more that just sitting quietly. It also involves paying attention and thinking about information.

• Encourage critical listening - children who are taught not to believe everything they hear are most likely to be influenced by television commercials when they know the commercials are designed to persuade them to buy something.