The First Two Years: Cognitive Development Charles A. Guigno, M.A.

Sensorimotor Intelligence Sensorimotor intelligence Piaget’s term for the way infants think—by using their senses and motor skills—during the first period of cognitive development Piaget Infants are active learners. Adaptation is the core of intelligence. Cognition develops in four distinct periods

Never Ending

Sensorimotor Intelligence Stages one and two: Primary circular reactions; infant’s responses to his or her own body Circular reactions: Interaction of sensation, perception, and cognition Primary circular reactions: Two stages of sensorimotor intelligence involving the infant’s own body Stage one (birth to 1 month): Stage of reflexes (sucking, grasping, staring and listening) Stage two (1 to 4 months): First acquired adaptations or habits (sucking thumbs or pacifiers only)

Sensorimotor Intelligence Infants adapt reflexes through information from repeated responses. Time for Adaptation Sucking is a reflex at first, but adaptation begins soon. She is about to make that adaptation and suck just her thumb from now on. Time for Adaptation Sucking is a reflex at first, but adaptation begins soon. She is about to make that adaptation and suck just her thumb from now on.

Sensorimotor Intelligence Stages three and four: Secondary circular reactions; infant’s response to objects and people Secondary circular reactions: Interaction between baby and something else; mirror neurons begin to function Stage three (4-8 months): Attempts to make interesting things last (know how to continue an experience) Ex: clapping hands when mom says patty-cake Stage four (6-12 months): New adaptation and anticipation; means to the end (initiate and anticipate) Ex: putting mom’s hands together in order to make her start playing patty-cake.

Sensorimotor Intelligence Stages five and six: Tertiary circular reactions; act first (5) and think later (6). Tertiary circular reactions: Involves active exploration and experimentation; exploration of range of new activities and variations in responses as way of learning Stage five (12-18 months): New means through active exploration (“little scientist”) Stage six (18-24 months): Mental combinations; intellectual experimentation via imagination Things that are truly dangerous need to be locked and gated. Toddlers can pretend, think of consequences

Sensorimotor Intelligence Stage Five Stage Six “Little scientist” The stage-five toddler (age 12 to 18 months) who experiments without anticipating the results, using trial and error in active and creative exploration. No More Playpens “Little scientists” still “experiment in order to see,” but this 14- month-old uses a digital tablet and might protest if it is taken away

Sensorimotor Intelligence Goal-direct behavior Purposeful action that benefit from new motor skills resulting from brain maturation Object permanence Realization that objects or people continue to exist when they are no longer in sight Peek-a-boo makes all three happy, each for cognitive reasons. The 9-month-old is discovering object permanence, his sister (at the concrete operational stage) enjoys making brother laugh, and their mother understands more abstract ideas— such as family bonding

Mission Impossible: Babies Escape

Language: What Develops in the First Two Years? Listening and responding Before birth: Language learning via brain organization and hearing; may be innate Newborn: Preference for speech sounds and mother’s language; gradual selective listening Familiar with the rhythm, sounds and cadence Around 6 months: Ability to distinguish sounds and gestures in own language Infants’ ability to distinguish sounds in the language they hear improves, the ability to hear sounds in other languages deteriorates. If parents want a child to speak two languages, they must speak both of them to their infant.

Language: What Develops in the First Two Years? Child-Directed Speech In every language adults use higher pitch, simple words, repetition, varied speed and exaggerated emotional tone when talking to infants baby talk, motherese or child-directed speech Fosters learning and children prefer it ! They also like: Alliteration, Rhymes, Repetition, Rhythm and varied speech. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Dr. Seuss’ Words of Wisdom “ You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...” ― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go ! “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” ― Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You ! “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” ―Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut !

Language Development Babbling Involves repetition of certain syllables, such as ba-ba-ba, that begins when babies are between 6 and 9 months old Is experience-expectant Begins to sound like native language around 12 months (accents, cadence, consonants) Who Is Babbling? Probably both the 6-month-old and the 27- year-old. During every day of infancy, mothers and babies communicate with noises, movements (notice the hands), and expressions. Who Is Babbling? Probably both the 6-month-old and the 27- year-old. During every day of infancy, mothers and babies communicate with noises, movements (notice the hands), and expressions.

Language Gesturing All infants gesture. Concepts with gesture are expressed sooner than speech. Pointing emerges in human babies around 10 months. Understanding another person’s perspective. Show Me Where Pointing is one of the earliest forms of communication, emerging at about 10 months. As you see here, pointing is useful lifelong for humans. Show Me Where Pointing is one of the earliest forms of communication, emerging at about 10 months. As you see here, pointing is useful lifelong for humans.

Language Learning First words: Gradual beginnings At about 1 year: Speak a few words 6-15 months: Understand 10 times more words than produced. (comprehension before production) 12 months: Begin to use holophrases (single words that express a complete thought); recognize vocalization from universal to language-specific Naming explosion: many of the words are nouns (person, place, things) Once spoken, vocabulary reaches about 50 words, it builds quickly, at a rate of 50 to 100 words per month. 21-month-olds say twice as many words as 18-month- olds

Language Learning: Grammar Mastering two languages Quantity of speech in both languages the child hears is crucial Children implicitly track the number of words and phrases and learn those expressed most often. Bilingual toddlers realize differences between languages, adjusting tone, pronunciation, cadence, and vocabulary when speaking to a monolingual person.

Theories of Language Learning Theory One: Infants need to be taught. B. F. Skinner (1957) noticed that spontaneous babbling is usually reinforced. Parents are expert teachers, and other caregivers help them teach children to speak. Frequent repetition of words is instructive, especially when the words are linked to the pleasures of daily life. Well-taught infants become well-spoken children. If adults want children who speak, understand, and (later) read well, they must talk to their infants.

Theories of Language Learning Theory Two: Social impulses fosters infant language. Infants communicate because humans have evolved as social beings. The emotional messages of speech, not the words, are the focus of early communication. Each culture has practices that further social interaction, including talking. The social content of speech is universal, which is why babies learn whatever specifics their culture provides.

Maternal Responsiveness and Infants’ Language Acquisition

Theories of Language Learning Theory Three: Infants teach themselves. Language learning is innate; adults need not teach it, nor is it a by-product of social interaction. Language itself is experience-expectant, although obviously the specific language is experience- dependent.

Theories of Language Learning Theory Three: Infants teach themselves. Chomsky Language too complex to be mastered through step-by- step conditioning. Language acquisition device (LAD) is innate. Allows us to learn language including grammar, vocabulary and intonation All babies are eager learners, and language may be considered one more aspect of neurological maturation.

Which Perspective Is Correct? All perspective offer insight into language acquisition. Hybrid theory Some aspects of language learning may be best explained by one theory at one age and other aspects by another theory at another age. Multiple attentional, social and linguistic cues contribute to early language. Different elements of the language apparatus may have evolved in different ways.