Intellectual Development What exactly is it?

What is cognitive development? Refers to how a person: Perceives things Thinks and gains understanding of his world through the interaction of genetics and learned factors (environment)

Learning in the First Year Newborns can hear, see, taste, smell and feel. Babies’ ability to learn from the senses is called perception. They use these abilities as the building blocks of learning.

Abilities In the first year babies develop four abilities that show growing and thinking power Remembering A two- or three- month old baby may stop crying when someone enters the room because the baby know that he or she is now likely to be picked up an comforted. Making Associations The baby crying example also explains associations because the baby associates stopping crying with receiving comfort

Abilities Understanding cause and effect Paying Attention Idea that one actions results in another action or condition. Every time an infant does something, something else happens. Example: closes eyes  gets dark, opens eyes  gets light, pull string on toy  makes a noise. Paying Attention A baby’s ability to concentrate on a task without getting bored grows stronger

Developmental Changes Chart Age 1-2 months 3-4 months 5-6 months 7-8 months 9-10 months 11-12 months

Jean Piaget A child psychologist who studies how children solve problems. He found: Children use different kinds of though processes as they grow The processes always occur in the same order but may vary in length or overlap He divided the different levels of cognitive development into 4 stages

Piaget Four Stages Sensorimotor 0-2 yrs Preoperational 2-7 yrs Concrete Operations 7-11 Formal Operations 11 into adulthood

1. Sensorimotor Ages 0-2 Children explore and learn about their world using their senses Children are figuring out new ways to use objects Toward the end of this stage children learn that objects exist even when they are out of site, this is called object permanence. (they can even find partially hidden objects)

Find the mouse …

1. Sensorimotor Children also may become egocentric as they reach the end of this stage. Egocentrism

2. Preoperational Age 2-7 Children start to take an interest in the world around them but still think the world revolves around them (“look at me” “look what I did”) Children develop language and want to learn the names and functions of objects. Once they think they have figured something out they have difficulty forming a new conclusion if new evidence is presented. This is called cognitive dissonance.

Trick Questions … Some months have 31 days but others have 30. How many months have 28 days?

2. Preoperational Children in this stage learn: Classification: sorting or arranging items by common trait (color or shape) Seriation: arranging items according to size or number

2. Preoperational Children in this stage can pretend, fantasize and think symbolically.

3. Concrete Operations Ages 7-11 Operations means: making something carry out it’s function Concrete means: able to see and touch because it is real

3. Concrete Operations Children can think about actions without actually doing them.

Concrete Operations Children can do mental operations such as relating objects in different ways and they understand that objects keep the same weight, area and amount when they are moved. Piaget called this conservation.

Conservation Conservation

3. Concrete Operations Children in this stage have the ability to think about how an object was before they used it. Piaget called this reversibility.

Reversibility Reversibility

4. Formal Operations Ages 12 – adulthood In this stage, abstract and hypothetical thinking can occur without the help of real objects. Abstract questions are understood and can be discussed. Example “What is Love?”

4. Formal Operations Predicting consequences and the use of reasoning and creativity to solve problems also occurs during this stage. Deductive Reasoning Piaget believed some people never reach this stage at all.

Intellectual Development Sensorimotor Stage

Sensorimotor Stage Infant Scientist! In this stage children learn about the world through their senses and body movements This stage is broken up into 6 different steps

Sensorimotor Stage Stage 1: Birth – 1 month Practices inborn reflexes Does not understand self as a separate person

Sensorimotor Stage Stage 2: 1 - 4 months Combines two or more reflexes Develops hand-mouth coordination

Sensorimotor Stage Stage 3: 4 - 8 months Acts intentionally to produce results (drops something on the ground to see what will happen) Improves hand-eye coordination

Sensorimotor Stage Stage 4: 8 – 12 months Begins to solve problems Can find partially hidden objects Imitates others

Sensorimotor Stage Stage 5: 12 – 18 months Can find totally hidden objects Explores and experiments Understands that objects exist independently

Sensorimotor Stage Stage 6: 18 – 24 months Solves problems by thinking through sequences Can think using symbols Begins imaginative thinking

Talking on a Banana Imaginative thinking