Preschool Cognitive Development

 Common household objects being put into categories according to similarities.  Examples  Blocks, buttons, silverware, colored items, laundry

 Grouping nature objects into categories according to their similarities.  Examples:  Rocks, boys/girls, people characteristics, animals, things in nature

 Organizing objects according to increasing or decreasing qualities.  Example  Age, height, weight, length

 Changing an object’s state.  Example  Water into ice or ice into water, powder jello mix into jiggly jello and then adding hot water to the jello to turn it back into a liquid, growing older with age, a seed into a plant, dough into bread

 Building or doing and then undoing it  Example  Zip and unzip, build a sand castle and wreck it, block tower and wreck it, tie and untie

 Step by step pattern of event put into correct order.  Example  Directions in cooking, a story, a snowman being built and then melting into water, following correct order to performing a task

 Understanding that an objects physical dimensions and amounts remain the same even though its appearance changes  Example  Pouring liquid from one cup into another shaped cup. Smashing a cookie dough ball or playdough, 2 different shaped cookies or containers of food

 3 Year Old  Short sentences  896 Words  Great growth in communication  Tells simple stories  Uses words as tool of thought  Answers questions  Imaginative  May recite few nursery rhymes  4 Year Old  Uses complete sentences  1540 words  Asks endless questions  Learning to generalize  Highly imaginative  Dramatic  Can draw recognizable objects

 1. Language ability  Q. This reveals a child’s intellectual development: how they think, their interests, and their personalities.  2. Preoperational Stage  A. Jean Piaget said that preschoolers are in this cognitive stage  3. Experiment  L. Allow children to explore and _________. This is how they learn about their world.  4. Parental Attitude  O. This largely influences a preschoolers enjoyment in reading, learning, school, art, music…  5. Everyday Experiences  F. Preschoolers learn best by participation and involvement in these.  6. Chores  K. Preschoolers need to be included in ______and daily clean up tasks around the house.

 7. Symbols  B. In the preoperational stage, a preschooler learns that these represent objects and words.  8. Limited Focus  E. A preoperational form where kids find it hard to concentrate on more than one feature of an object at a time.  9. Problem Solving  P. Preschoolers begin to develop this skill as their cognitive abilities improve.  10. Reading Stories  N. Spending time doing this with kids is an effective way to introduce them to reading. It makes learning easier and more fun.  11. Talk  G. Look for opportunities to ___________ with a child about what they are seeing, doing, and experiencing. This will increase learning.  12. Egocentric  D. Viewing the world in terms of their own ideas and wants shows this preoperational stage.  13. Opinions  I. Ask a child’s views or ________ on subjects to increase their learning.

 14. Conservation  R. A cognitive skill where a child understands that even though one property of an object changes, the other property still remains the same.  15. Inquisitive  H. Children are naturally this way. They ask a lot of questions because they are curious and want to understand the world around them.  16. Test  M. Success of a child depends upon qualities like motivation, determination, creativity, and self-confidence, not on _________ scores.  17. YES and NO  J. Ask questions to a preschooler that requires more than these type of answers to increase learning  18. Make-Believe play  C. This preoperational characteristic is imitating real-life situations in fantasy play

 Modeling Language For Toddlers   After age two, most toddlers begin to use language for talking with others and for thinking. Because language is learned mainly through imitation, adults must carefully model correct speaking for the toddler.   Read each toddler’s language sentence.  Explain the purpose you would have for modeling, but not outwardly correcting, the appropriate way of speaking. The purposes can be:  a. correct pronunciation of the word b. correct grammar  c. adding a new word to their vocabulary d. correcting the meaning of the word or sentence   Restate the sentence in the appropriate way that reflects your purpose to the toddler.   1. “I ranned to the barn.”  Purpose__________________________________________________________________________________  Restated sentence__________________________________________________________________________   2. “I want to sleep on my soft piddah.”  Purpose__________________________________________________________________________________  Restated sentence__________________________________________________________________________   3. “The apples is sweet.”  Purpose__________________________________________________________________________________  Restated sentence__________________________________________________________________________   4. “See the chicken swim in the pond and say Quack-quack.”  Purpose__________________________________________________________________________________  Restated sentence__________________________________________________________________________   5. “See my foots.”  Purpose__________________________________________________________________________________  Restated sentence__________________________________________________________________________   6. “The kite goes.”  Purpose__________________________________________________________________________________  Restated sentence__________________________________________________________________________   7. “I like woses in the garden”  Purpose__________________________________________________________________________________  Restated sentence__________________________________________________________________________   8. “Look at the man playing the jello ”  Purpose__________________________________________________________________________________  Restated sentence__________________________________________________________________________   9. “Daddy has feathers on his chin.”  Purpose__________________________________________________________________________________  Restated sentence__________________________________________________________________________   10. “ Me want to go”  Purpose__________________________________________________________________________________  Restated sentence__________________________________________________________________________