Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Early Childhood Physical, Cognitive, and Language Development Chapter 6 6.

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Early ChildhoodPhysical, Cognitive,

and Language Development

Chapter 6

6


Early ChildhoodPhysical, Cognitive, and Language Development

• Physical Development

• Motor Skills Development

• Cognitive Development

• Language Development

• Play and Learning


Early Childhood

• Ages 2 to 6 involve a time of remarkable growth and achievement

• Accompanying physical development are rapid changes in children’s thinking

• Neurological development underlies much of early childhood development, including advances in:– Thinking, memory, problem solving, language,

physical coordination, and social and emotional development


Physical Development• Physical development is the result of interaction

of genetics, experience, nutrition, care, play, and exercise

• Changes in Body– Age 2 to 6 is a time of rapid physical growth

– Bodies become longer, more slender, less-top-heavy

– Bones harden

• Brain Development– Rapid growth spurt

– Myelinization and lateralization occur

– Neural impulses become faster and more precise


X-ray of a 2-year-old’s and a 6-year-old’s hand and wrist


Changing Body Proportion in Girls and Boys from Birth to Maturity

SOURCE: FromMoving and learning: The elementary school physical education experience (3rd ed.), by B. Nichols, copyright ｩ 1994. Reprinted by permission of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.


Handedness

• A function of brain lateralization

• May have a genetic basis

• Preference for hand develops by 20 months, but may be seen in developing fetus (sucking dominant thumb)

• Only 10% of children are left-handed

• Left-handed people are more likely to be ambidextrous


Brain Development and Early Intervention

• Remediation for developmental problems should begin by age 3

• High-risk children benefit from educational programs and other interventions targeting nutrition, health needs, social and cognitive development, and family needs


Development: Interactive and Individual

• Brain development and other aspects of development interact

• Generalized statements about growth may or may not apply to individual children


Motor Skills Development• Gross Motor Skills

– Develop automaticity, ability to perform without thinking

– Become able to integrate separate, simple actions into more complex patterns—functional subordination

• Fine Motor Skills between 2 and 6:

– Grasping

– Fastening and unfastening clothing

– Using scissors and eating utensils

– Tying knots


Motor Development in Early Childhood


Learning and Motor Skills

• Motor development requires readiness to learn

• Practice is essential to motor development

• Motor learning is enhanced by attention

• Feedback helps children acquire and refine their skills

• Children’s behaviors may be extrinsically or intrinsically motivated


Cognitive Development

• Piaget’s Preoperational Period (ages 2-7)– Cognitive development builds on schemes developed

in the sensorimotor stage

– Two parts:

• Preconceptual period – age 2 to 4 or 5

• Intuitive or transitional period – age 4 or 5 to 7

• Limitations on realistic thinking– Animism

– Reification

• Young children are also egocentric


Characteristics of Preoperational Thought


Cognitive Development

• Symbolic representation – use of actions, images, words, to represent past and present events, experiences, and concepts

• Limitations of Preoperational Thinking– Lack of conservation

– Thinking is perception-based, rather than logic-based

– Preoperational children can’t think backwards


Limitations of Preoperational Thinking


Conservation of Mass Problems


A Conservation of Number Problem


The Classic Liquid-Beakers Problem


Video Clip

Piaget’s three mountains task demonstrating preoperational egocentrismhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OinqFgsIbh0


Video Clip

Demonstration of conservation tasks with preoperational childhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLj0IZFLKvg


Video Clip

Funny Piaget conservation tasks video: Piaget teaches Stewie from Family Guy, Kenny from South Park, and Michael Jackson conservation of number and volumehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYGMDNKzSI0


Video Clip

Demonstration of liquid conservation task with concrete operational childhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA04ew6Oi9M


Video Clip

Deductive reasoning demonstrationhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjJdcXA1KH8


Evaluating Piaget’s Theory

• Critics say that children’s thinking is not as limited as Piaget described

• Children may be able to use more logic than he gave them credit for, if they can relate to the problem

• Piaget underemphasized the role of social aspects of learning, which Vygotsky advanced


Beyond Piaget: Social Perspectives

• Lev Vygotsky’s concept of zone of proximal development means children’s achievement can be optimized by adult guidance

• The most effective guidance, or instruction, involves scaffolding, the progressive structuring of tasks so that the level of difficulty is appropriate to the child’s ability


The Role of Memory

• Memory is central to cognitive development• Memory processes reach nearly adult

capabilities by the age of 7• Two different types of information retrieval:

– Recognition

– Recall

• Memory is improved with effective strategies for encoding and retrieval– For instance, children learn scripts, or sequences, for

routine activities

– Scripts form the beginnings of the historical self


Language Development

• In early childhood, children learn that words can be used to express concepts

• Children learn the rules of grammar in an orderly sequence, but sometimes apply them inappropriately (e.g., overregularization)

• Children develop private speech, the language they use to talk to themselves

• They learn to talk to each other:– Collective monologues

– Pragmatics


Stages of Grammar Acquisition


Language Development

• Parents teach children about categories and symbols and how to translate children’s worlds into ideas and words

• Assumptions about gender are often embedded in parents’ language

• Young children may become bilingual when different languages are used at home and at school

• Being bilingual enhances cognitive development and flexibility


Play and Learning

• Play is the work of childhood

• Play’s many forms promote cognitive development

• Children learn about physical laws and properties by playing with objects

• Young children are too egocentric to engage in social play, but engage in parallel play

• Social play and dramatic play develop at age 3 or 4

• Play with peers– Promotes social and personality development and

– Cognitive and motor skills


Kinds of Play


Summary

• Early childhood—from age 2 to 6—is a period of remarkable growth and achievement

• Physical and cognitive development is rapid, and is most dependent on the developing brain

• The ways children behave and think—and the ways their brains develop—for an integrated, interactive, and dynamic system

• Connections continue to be made between the neurons, unneeded connections are pruned, and cells become coated in myelin, a sheathing that makes the neurons function more precisely


Summary

• Physical development involves the child’s ability to perform increasingly complex motor activities without thinking about them (automaticity)

• They learn motor skills with practice and they learn most easily when their brains are ready

• Piaget called this stage of cognitive development the preoperational period, when children are developing language and thinking skills

• Piaget believe that children actively construct their view of the world by assimilating and accommodating new experiences


Summary

• Cognitive ability at this stage, however, has many limits. This stage of thinking is characterized by egocentrism and lack of conservation

• Vygotsky felt that children learn best when they are guided by a competent adult or older child

• At this stage children’s memory develops and improves

• Language development at this stage is rapid, particularly the explosion of vocabulary


Summary

• Girls and boys develop language skills at different rates

• Play is the work of childhood. Children become more social and interactive in their play at this stage

• They move from parallel play to dramatic play

• Play with other children promotes social and personality development, as well as cognitive and motor skills

Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Early Childhood Physical, Cognitive, and Language Development Chapter 6 6.

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