Intellectual development of infants Kaley smith, Jessica raven, Kristine adair, Jordan reicker

What infants learn As babies explore their world, they learn many different concepts A concept is an idea formed by combining what is known about a person, object, place, quality, or event Thinking is organized through concepts, and as a child’s grows and matures, their experiences increase Infant’s concepts change from simple to complex A child will understand a word before the meaning Concepts also change from concrete to abstract

What infants learn Cognition gives meaning to perceptions. The baby’s brain begins to piece together perceptions to form a picture in their mind. The sensorimotor stage begins at birth, and most children complete it in two years. During this stage, infants use their senses and motor skills to learn and communicate. Learning at this time is important because it is the basis for all future mental development. Children learn by imitating, or doing what they have seen others do. This is an important way to learn for many years. Babies begin by imitating simple actions.

What infants learn With object constancy, children learn that, although it may look different in size, shape, or color, it is still the same plane. With object concept, parents are often the first “objects” babies relate to. Although they relate to them, they come to see they are separate from themselves. This understanding must happen before they can develop object concept about all people and objects in a general sense. With object identity, a toy bear is the same bear each time the child sees it, and their dad is the same dad even though he is dressed differently and doing different tasks form time to time. For a baby with object permanence, they may know the mother is in the house, even though she is not in the room.

Beginnings of language Language wiring begins at birth The first wiring has to do with the sounds of language which helps with the understanding of speech This wiring follows a sequence: During the first six months, babies distinguish small differences in sound Because the brain now has so many neural connections, pruning, the loss of unused connections, begins at six months By twelve months, babies have completed the auditory maps needed to speak their language Learning other languages progressively becomes more difficult at this point because the wiring used to understand their sounds is being pruned away

Beginnings of language Vocabulary: the words a person understands and uses Infants use language as an alternative way showing emotions Ex: instead of crying, children will begin to use words to express what they need How babies communicate: Crying/Cooing First words– reduplicating babbling Babbling Most babies say about three words by the age of one, and begin talking in the last three months of their first years

Assignment Find the definitions for the following terms: Concept Object constancy Object concept Object identify Object permanence Depth perception Vocabulary Coo Babble Replication babbling Cognition Sensorimotor stage Imitating