Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Infants, Children and Adolescents Laura E. Berk 6th edition Chapter 6 Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: Any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; Preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part of any images; Any rental, lease, or lending of the program.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Piaget’s Cognitive-Development Theory The sensorimotor stage spans the first two years of life. Organized ways of making sense of experience called schemes change with age: –Action-based (motor patterns) at first –Later move to a mental (thinking) level
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Building Schemes Adaptation –Building schemes Assimilation –Using current schemes to interpret external world Accommodation –Adjusting old schemes and creating new ones to better fit environment
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Using Assimilation and Accommodation Equilibrium and Disequilibrium –Use assimilation during equilibrium –Disequilibrium prompts accommodation Organization –Internal rearranging and linking schemes
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Sensorimotor Stage Birth to 2 years, divided into six substages Building schemes through sensory and motor exploration Circular reactions— stumbling upon a new experience caused by the baby’s own motor activity.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Piaget’s Sensorimotor Substages
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Object Permanence Understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight According to Piaget, develops in Substage 4 Incomplete at first: A-not-B search error
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Object Permanence (cont.) Renée Baillargeon and her collaborators claim to have found evidence for object permanence in the first few months of life. Some critics question whether babies’ looking preferences tell us what they really know. Mastery of object permanence is a gradual achievement.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Violation of Expectation Method
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Mental Representations Internal, mental depictions of objects, people, events, information –Can manipulate with mind –Allow deferred imitation and make-believe play
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Deferred Imitation Piaget: Develops at about 18 months Newer research: –Present at 6 weeks – facial imitation –6 – 9 months – copy actions –14 months – imitate rationally –18 months – imitate intended, but not completed, actions
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Problem Solving
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Some Cognitive Attainments of Infancy and Toddlerhood
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Evaluation of Sensorimotor Stage Some developments happen at time Piaget described: –Object search, A-not-B, make-believe play Many appear to happen sooner than Piaget thought: –Object permanence, secondary circular reactions, deferred imitation, problem solving by analogy Some have suggested that infants are born with core knowledge in several domains of thought.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Store Model of Information Processing System
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Attention During the first year, infants pay attention to novel events. During toddlerhood, children become capable of intentional behavior and sustained attention improves.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Memory Operant conditioning research shows that infants’ memories increase dramatically during infancy and toddlerhood—moving from highly context-dependent to increasingly context-free. Habituation/recovery research confirms that infants do not need to be physically active to acquire and retain new information. Infants can engage in recall by the end of the first year.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Increase in Retention in Two Operant Conditioning Tasks from 2 to 18 Months
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Categorization By 6 months, infants can categorize based on two features (ex. shape and color). Earliest categories are perceptual, but by the second half of the first year, more categories are conceptual.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory Social contexts (other people) contribute to cognitive development Zone of Proximal Development – tasks child cannot do alone but can learn to do with help
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Infant Intelligence Tests Bayley Scales of Infant Development: suitable for children between 1 month and 3½ years. The Bayley-III 1.The Cognitive Scale 2.The Language Scale 3.The Motor Scale 4.The Social-Emotional Scale * 5.The Adaptive Behavior Scale * * Rely on parental report. * Rely on parental report.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Normal Distribution of Intelligence Test Scores
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 High Quality HOME Environment Parent emotional and verbal responsiveness Parental acceptance Safe physical environment Appropriate play materials Parental involvement Variety, daily stimulation
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Elements of Developmentally Appropriate Child Care Responsive, interactive, well-trained caregivers Clean, safe, uncrowded indoor spaces Appropriate toys, stored within reach Safe equipment Low teacher-child ratios Flexible daily schedule Warm atmosphere Parents welcome anytime Accredited
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 IQ Improvement from Early Intervention Programs
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Early Head Start Begun in 1995, currently has 700 sites serving 62,000 low-income families. Intervention leads to warmer, more stimulating parenting, and gains in children’s cognitive and language development.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Three Theories of Language Development Behaviorist (B.F. Skinner) Learned through operant conditioning (reinforcement) and imitation. Nativist (Noam Chomsky) Inborn Language Acquisition Device (LAD) biologically prepares infants to learn rules of language. Interactionist Inner capacities and environment work together; social context is important.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Language Areas in the Brain Broca’s Area: located in the left frontal lobe, supports grammatical processing and language production. Wernicke’s Area: located in the left temporal lobe, plays a role in comprehending word meaning.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Broca’s and Wernicke’s Areas in the Left Hemisphere of the Cerebral Cortex
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Recent Developments in the Interactionist Perspective Recent ideas about language development emphasize interactions between inner capacities and environmental influences. Two theories: –Information-processing perspective –Social interaction
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Milestones of Language Development During the First Two Years
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Getting Ready to Talk First speech sounds –Cooing –Babbling Becoming a communicator –Joint attention –Give-and-take –Preverbal gestures
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Sensitive Period for Language Development A deaf-born 5-month-old given a cochlear implant showed typical infant babbling and resembled her hearing agemates in language development at 3 to 4 years. If hearing is not restored until after age 2, children remain behind in language development. If implantation occurs after age 4, language delays are severe and persistent.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Starting to Talk First Words –Underextension –Overextension Two-Word Utterances –Most children show a steady, continuous increase in the rate of word learning through the preschool years –Telegraphic speech
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Building Blocks of Language Toddlers first acquire “concrete pieces of language,” gradually generalizing to construct the word order and grammatical rules of their native tongue.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Comprehension versus Production Toddlers’ comprehension of the spoken language increases dramatically over the second year. Quick comprehension frees space in working memory for picking up new words and for the more demanding task of using them to communicate.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Individual Differences in Language Development GenderTemperamentEnvironment –SES –Child Directed Speech Language Style –Referential –Expressive Language Delay
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Supporting Early Language Development Infants Respond to coos and babbles Establish and respond to joint attention Play social games Toddlers Play make-believe together Have frequent conversations Read to toddlers often and talk about the books
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2008 Parent-Child Interaction: Impact on Language and Cognitive Development of Deaf Children About one in every 1,000 infants in North America is born deaf. Over 90% of these children have hearing parents who are not fluent in sign language. Deaf children of hearing parents are often delayed in development of language and make-believe play and have deficient social skills. Yet, children of deaf parents do not have these problems. Intervention within the first year of life can have a positive impact on language, cognitive, and social outcomes for deaf children of hearing parents.