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Cognitive Development DuringThe First Three Years

Chapter 5

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Did You Know…

Parental responsiveness to a child’s needs can affect the child’s intelligence?

Early intervention can boost IQs of at-risk children?

Newborns as young as 2 days prefer new sights to familiar sights?

Brain growth spurts coincide with changes in cognitive behavior?

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Use of gestures helps babies to learn how to talk?

Infants and toddlers who are read to frequently learn to read earlier?

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There are 6 Approaches to Studying Cognitive Development

Behaviorist: how behavior changes in response to experience Psychometric: measures quantitative differences in abilities that make

up intelligence Piagetian: looks at changes, or stages, in the quality of cognitive

functioning. Concern is for how the mind structures its activities and adapts to the environment

Information processing: focuses on perception, learning, and problem solving

Cognitive Neuroscience Approach: seeks to identify what brain structures are involved in specific aspects of cognition

Social-contextual approach: examines the effects of the environment on learning. Specifically, parents.

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Behaviorist Approach

Babies are born with the ability to learnClassical Conditioning

Learning based on associating a stimulus that does not ordinarily bring about a response with another stimulus that does elicit the response

Operant Conditioning Learning based on reinforcement and

punishment

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Classical Conditioning

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Infant Memory

Infantile amnesia: Inability to remember events prior to age 3 years

• Theories:• Piaget: the brain is not yet developed

• Freud: these memories are repressed, because they are emotionally troubling

Operant conditioning with mobiles• Babies can remember mobiles they played with days or weeks

ago

• Infants and toddlers can remember toy trains and mobiles

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Psychometric Approach

IQ Tests• Psychometric tests that seek to measure intelligence by comparing a

test-taker’s performance with standardized norms Developmental Tests: psychometric tests that compare a baby’s

performance on a series of tasks with standardized norms for particular ages

• Bailey Scales of Infant and Toddler Development: Measures current development, not future functioning. Designed for ages 1 to 3½ and indicates strengths, weaknesses, and competencies in the following developmental areas: cognitive, language, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive

• Mental Scale• Motor Scale• Behavior Training Scale

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HOME

Intelligence was once thought to be fixed at birth, but we now know it is influenced by inheritance and experience.

What characteristics of the home environment may influence intelligence?

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HOME

Home Observation of the EnvironmentMeasures the influence of home environment on

children’s cognitive growth.

Among other things, assesses:– Parental responsiveness– Number of books in home– Presence of educational playthings

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Early Intervention

Early intervention: process of providing services to help families meet young children’s needs

• Project CARE:• Involved 174 children from North Carolina born into at-risk

homes. An experimental group was enrolled in Partners for Learning, a full day education program at a university center. The program had low teacher-student ratios and fostered cognitive, linguistic, perceptual-motor, and social skills.

• By age 3 the average IQ for these children was 105, where as the control group’s average was 84 to 93

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Most effective interventions: Start early and continue through preschool years Time-intensive Provide direct educational experiences Include health, family counseling, and social services Tailored to individual differences and needs

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Piagetian Approach: The Sensorimotor Stage

Sensorimotor Stage: the first of Piaget’s four stages. During this stage infants learn about themselves and their world through their developing sensory and motor activity. Babies change from creatures who respond primarily though reflexes and random behavior to goal-oriented toddlers.

• Consists of 6 stages: • During the first 5 stages babies learn to coordinate input from their senses and organize their

activities in relation to their environment• During the 6 stage they learn to use symbols and concepts to solve simple problems.

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Piagetian Sensorimotor Stage

SubstageAge in Mos

Description

Reflexes Up to 1 Gain control over reflexes

Primary Circular 1-4Repeat pleasurable chance behaviors (thumb sucking)

Secondary Circular 4-8 Repeat interesting actions

Coordinate Secondary Circular

8-12 Purposeful & deliberate behavior

Tertiary 12-18 Curiosity and experimentations

Mental Combinations

18-24 Symbolic thought; insight

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Circular Reactions

Process by which infants learn to reproduce desired occurrences, originally discovered by chance

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Object Permanence

Realizing that an object exists even when out of sight

Prior to 8 months� If I drop my toy and I can’t see it….it is gone!� …..THIS is why peek-a-boo is so much fun!

8-12 months� You hid my toy…I’m looking for it the last place I saw it!

After a year� You hid my toy…I’m looking for it!

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Representational Thinking

Pictorial Competence

– Ability to understand the nature of pictures

– Develops about 19 months of age– Seeing a picture of sun

and saying “suh”

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Dual RepresentationHypothesis

Pictorial competence develops slowly because it is difficult for children to simultaneously mentally represent:– a picture

AND – the object the picture represents

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Info-Processing Approach

Info-Processing Approach:Analyze the separate parts of a complex task to figure out what

abilities are necessary for each part of the task and at what age these abilities develop

Habituation

A type of learning in which familiarity is indicated by reduced response

Dishabituation

Increase in responsiveness after presentation with a new stimulus

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Visual Preferences

Novelty Preference– Paying more attention to new visual

stimuli– Demonstrating ability to tell new from old,

or ‘visual recognition memory’

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Cross-Modal Transfer

Using one or more senses to guide another sense Feeling your way through a dark

room, then finding the way visually when lights are on

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Information Processing: Categorization

Perceptual Based on how things look

Birds and planes both have wings and can fly

Conceptual Based on what things are

Chairs, tables, and sofas are all furniture items

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Information Processing: Causality

Understanding that one event causes another

Allows us to control and predict worldDevelops at around 6 months

Manipulating a mobile

with hands or feet

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Cognitive Neuroscience: Types of Memory

Explicit– Conscious or intentional– Facts, names and events

– Develops in late infancy or toddlerhood

Implicit– Unconscious recall– Habits and skills – procedural memory

– Develops in early infancy

Working– Short-term storage of active information– Develops during second half of first year– This may account for why object permanence develops later

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Social Contextual Approach: Learning from Caregivers

Interactions with adults during activities Helps bridge level of knowledge between

adult and child Cultural Differences

– US children engage in more play activities– Guatemalan children engage in more work

activities

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Language Development

Language A communication system based on word,

grammar and cognitive development

Literacy The ability to read and write

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Early Vocalizations

Crying� Newborns

Cooing� Repeating vowel sounds – ‘ahhhh’

� 6-8 weeksBabbling

� Repeating consonant sounds – ‘ma-ma-ma’

� 6-10 months

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Recognizing Language Sounds

Precedes language ability Fetuses’ heart rates slow when they hear

familiar nursery rhymes By 6 months, babies learn to recognize

basic sounds of their native language - phonemes

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Gestures

Conventional Social� Waving bye-bye, nodding head to mean ‘yes’

Representational� Holding arms up means ‘pick me up’

Symbolic� Blowing means ‘hot’

Learning gestures helps babies learn to talk

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First Words

Linguistic Speech� Verbal expression that conveys meaning

� First word usually around 10-14 months of age

Holophrase� Simple syllables that have complete meanings

�‘Da’ could mean “Where is Daddy?”

‘Naming explosion’ occurs at 16-24 months

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First Sentences

Telegraphic Speech� 2-3 words expressing one idea

� ‘No do’ means “Do not do that”

Competence in syntax gradually increases

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Early Speech Characteristics

Understanding of grammar precedes use of it

Underextension of word meanings� The word ‘doggy’ only refers to your dog

Overextension of word meanings� All men with gray hair are ‘Grampa’

Overregularizing of rules� “I thinked about it!

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Theories of Language Acquisition

Nature v. nurture?Is linguistic ability learned or inborn?

Behaviorist view: Reinforcement and imitationChild says “Kitty” which is reinforced by the appearance of the family cat

Chomsky’s nativism– Brain has the innate capacity to learn language, reinforcement and

imitation contribute, but they can’t fully explain linguistic ability.– Word nuances are too many and complex

– Chomsky believed in nativism: human brains come equipped with the capacity to learn language

– Language Acquisition Device (LAD): programs children’s brains to analyze the language they hear and to figure out its rules. Support comes from infant’s ability to differentiate similar sounds

Synthesis of innate capacity and behaviorist principles most likely

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Influences on Early Language Development

Maturation of the brainSocial interaction with parents and

caregivers

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Language is a Social Act

Prelinguistic Period

� Adults repeat sounds baby makes helping the baby advance to toward true speech

Vocabulary Development

� Parent holds ball while saying “This is a ball”

Parents can boost vocabulary development by repeating words and pronouncing them correctly

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Child-Directed Speech

‘Parentese’ – baby talkSimplified words Exaggerated vowel soundsMay help children learn native tongue

faster

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Adult Reading Styles with Children

Describer– Adult focuses on describing events in story– Invites child to do so, too

Comprehender– Encourages child to look deeper into meaning of

story (What will the lion do now?)

Performance-oriented– Introduces themes of story and asks questions

after reading

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Dialogic Reading

Shared readingChild becomes the storytellerAdult is active listenerAdult asks open-ended

questions�‘Why do you think

the bunny is afraid?’