Infancy Chapter 5

Cognitive Development Piaget's Theory How biology and experience sculpts cognitive development Children construct their own cognitive worlds and have systematic changes in their thinking

Piaget's Cognitive Processes Schemes- the brain creates actions (infants) or mental representations (child) that organize knowledge Baby schemes are simple actions that can be performed like sucking, looking, and grasping (sucking a bottle) Older Child schemes are strategies and plans for solving problems (opening a door to get a toy) Adult schemes (driving a car)

Piaget's Cognitive Processes Assimilation-the child uses existing schemes to deal with new information or experiences Child sucks bottle and fingers to eat Accommodation -the child adjust their schemes to take new information and experiences into account Child sucks bottle to eat but learns to grab finger to play Organization- the child groups isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher order, smoothly functional system Refining behaviors and organizing knowledge

Piaget's Cognitive Processes Equilibration- children shift from one stage of thought to the next As they constantly assimilate and accommodate to seek equilibrium from disequilibrium

Piaget Piaget's Theory- (first stage) Sensorimotor Stage 6 substages Object Permanence By the end of the sensorimotor stage Objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot directly be seen heard,or touched by the child Piaget calls a 'landmark' cognitive accomplishment

How infants learn, remember and conceptualize Operant Conditioning- consequences of a behavior reduce changes in the probability of the behavior's occurrence Habituation- decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations of the stimulus Dishabituation- the increase in responsiveness after a change in stimulation Infants attention is strongly governed by novelty and habituation

How infants learn, remember and conceptualize Attention- the focusing of mental resources on select information and improves cognitive processing Important role in memory as part of the process called encoding .... The process by which information is transferred to memory

How infants learn, remember and conceptualize Memory-the retention of information over time Implicit memory- refers to memory without conscious recollection Memories of skills and routine procedures that are performed automatically Explicit memory-referees to conscious remembering of facts and experiences

How infants learn, remember and conceptualize Imitation (Meltzoff) Infants don't blindly imitate everything they see Beginning at birth there is an interplay between learning by observing and learning by doing

How infants learn, remember and conceptualize Concepts -key aspects of infants' cognitive development Cognitive groupings of similar objects, people, or ideals

Measures of Development Gesell's scale-distinguishes normal and abnormal infants Provides a developmental quotient Developmental quotient (DQ) -an overall score that combines sub scores in motor, language, adaptive, and personal-social domains in the Gesells assessment of infants

Measures of Development Bayley Scale - assess infant behavior and predict later development Mental Scale, Motor Scale, Behavior Profile Baylee-III - 5 Scales Cognitive, Language, Motor (infant related) Socioemotional and Adaptive (Caregiver)

Language Development Rule Systems (figure 5.9) Phonology - a Phoneme is the smallest sound unit in a language Morphology - a morphemes, meaningful units involved in word formation Syntax - the way words are combined and/or ordered to form acceptable phrases and sentences Semantics- meaningful words and sentences Pragmatic- the system of using appropriate conversation and knowledge of how to effectively use language in content

Language Development Language Milestones (figure 5.12) Crying (birth) Cooing begins (1-2 months) Understanding first word (5 months) Babbling begins (6 months) Language specific-listener (7-11 months) Uses gestures, such as pointing, comprehension of words (8-12 months) First word spoken(13 MONTHS) Vocabulary spurt starts (18 MONTHS) Two word utterances (18-24 months)

Language Influences Biological view- Children are born with ability to detect basic features and rules of language Behaviorist view- children acquire language as a result of reinforcements (still not proven) Environmental view-children development of language is a consequence of being exposed to different language environments in the home Parents should talk extensively with an infant, especially about what the baby is attending to. Interactionist View- Social and linguistics capacities make language acquisition inevitable. All agree that both biological capacity and relevant experience are necessary.

Parental Influences (page 161) Be an active conversational partner. Talk in a slowed-down pace and don't worry about how you sound to other adults when you talk to your baby. Use parent-look and parent-gestures, and name what you are looking at. When you talk with infants and toddlers, be simple, concrete, and repetitive. Play games Remember to listen. Expand and elaborate language abilities and horizons with infants and toddlers. Adjust to your child's idiosyncrasies instead of working against them.