WHAT IS COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT ?

• Development of children’s thinking, reasoning and problem-solving skills.• Children develop their thinking from the

simple to the complex and from the concrete to the abstract.• How a person perceives, thinks, and gains

understanding of his or her world through the interaction of genetic and learned factors.

Cognition is the mental activity and behavior that allows us to understand the world.

The Benefits Of UnderstandingCognitive Development

• Whether you believe or agree with Piaget’s complex theories of cognitive development, they at least allow parents to understand what is normal and appropriate for general age groups.

• Toys, games, and activities are easier to choose if you understand the stages of a child’s cognitive development. If you know that most children do some things at a certain age, you will know that you don’t need to change that behavior. You will understand that it is not your fault your child is doing something annoying.

• By understanding normal development, you can tell when a child’s development may be lagging behind their peers. In most cases, it’s fine, but there are some red flags in children’s development that may be worth raising with a doctor or specialist.

PRE OPERATIONAL STAGE

SYMBOLIC FUNCTION (2-4 Years)

INTUITIVE THOUGHT (4-7 Years)

Symbolic Function Sub-stage, which spans ages 2-4 years

Symbolic functioning

• It is the ability to use symbols such as words, images, and gestures to represent objects and events.

• Between the ages of 2 and 4, a child can perform Symbolic Functions or think about objects even though they are not real or present. At this stage, they engage in rich pretend play and use more language.

Transformation

• It is a person's ability to understand how certain physical characteristics change while others remain the same in a logical, cause and effect sequence. According to Piaget, Preoperational Children do not readily understand how things can change from one form to another. To demonstrate this concept, Piaget first showed young children two 1-inch round balls of clay. Then, he presented the children with one 1-inch round ball of clay and one 1-inch ball of clay squished flat. A young person in the Preoperational stage would not understand that the flat ball had been round before and was squished to make its new shape.

Egocentrism

• Piaget also believed that Preoperational children have a style of thinking characterized by Egocentrism, or the inability to see the world someone else's point of view.

• According to Piaget, children with Egocentrism explain situations from their own perspective and understanding. Preoperational children also have a hard time understanding why banging on pots and pans or playing with a musical toy could increase their mother's headache when they're having so much fun.

• The child thinks only about himself – on his own needs and desires and can’t accommodate to other people.

Animism or Animistic Thinking• Characteristics of the symbolic function sub stage in preoperational

stage. Children believe that inanimate objects are given human characteristics.

• They belief that everything that exists has some kind of consciousness.

• For example, children often believe that a car won't start because it is tired or sick.

• Children may talk about cars like animals, as if they're growling or that they're hungry.

• Similarly, young children may blame chairs or toys for causing them to fall or trip.

• Children under the age of 4 don't have the ability to organize things into hierarchical categories.

• Young children are unable to group items in larger sub-groups and smaller sub-groups based on similarities and differences.

Transductive thinking in preoperational stage:

Transductive thinking is prominent in children’s thoughts. They create a connection between two situations that occurs at the same time, even though there’s nothing in common to both of them.

Transductive reasoning leads to illogical conclusions, since it involves reasoning from one particular instance to another particular instance without reference to the general . Transduction can sometimes yield a correct conclusion, but the overgeneralization resulting from this type of reasoning often leads to stubborn, rigid behavior .

• As the child matures, he becomes capable of logical thought based on inductive and deductive reasoning.

“Inductive reasoning” proceeds from specific to general “Deductive reasoning” moves from general to specific.

IDENTITY CONSTANCY

• Preschoolers aged 3-4 years have not yet attained “identify constancy”, or the understanding that features of individuals, like their sex, age, or species, are permanent and unaffected by appearance.

NUMBERS

• At this stage, children lack a mature concept of numbers as separate values. Four or five year olds can count relatively easily from 0 to 10, but it is hard for them to answer, six is more or less than three.

Intuitive Thought sub-stage, which spans ages 4-7 years

Intuitive Thought• Children in this sub-stage of development learn by asking questions such as,

"Why?" and "How come?" Piaget labeled this "intuitive thought" because he believed that children at this stage tend to be so certain of their knowledge and understanding that they are unaware of how they gained this knowledge in the first place (i.e., knowing by intuition).

• In this process the child builds cognitive thinking based on impression at the current moment.

• The child thinks through Subjective impression, which means that the child cannot carry out conservational tasks.

• Preoperational stage shows that children at this sub-stage can’t act with reversible thinking and they Cannot concentrate on more than one dimension of the problem – concentrations.

• The intuitive thought Cause concentrate only about what appears to be prominent at the moment.

Illustrative Example: intuitive thought in preoperational stage:

I showed to Doron and Dan Two apples at equal size. I sliced the two apples into ten equal pieces. I put the first 10 pieces on a saucer and the other 10 on a tray .When I asked the children What Apple they prefer? The one the saucer or the one on a tray?Doron and Dan chose the Apple I sliced on a tray.Doron and Dan are thinking that the amount of apple pieces on the tray is larger thenthe amount of pieces on the plate.In conclusion:Doron and Dan cannot concentrate on the number of apple pieces and the same time, pay attention to the surface area of the plate or the tray – concentration.They cannot remember the apple in his original state, to realize that the apple stays the same size, even though it was cut to pieces, changing it’s form - reversible thinking.

Centration

• Piaget also suggested that Intuitive Thinking children show a style of thinking he called "Centration". These children typically hone in on one characteristic of someone or something, and base their decisions or judgment on that one characteristic (rather than considering multiple characteristics).

• For example, a 4 yr. old who was asked to put blocks into groups might focus his or her attention on the color of the blocks instead of the shape or the material from which they are constructed. De-centering, combined with the concept of conservation (described above) are prerequisites to more sophisticated logical thinking abilities.

More Rational

• Children in the Intuitive Thought sub-stage also show many advances in cognitive skills. For example, young children shift from depending on magical beliefs to using rational beliefs to explain situations or events that they haven't encountered before. Very young children may explain that a new house "grew out of the ground," while older children understand that human beings put boards, bricks, and other materials together to build it.

Ability to comprehend dual relationships

• Another large gain during this sub-stage is the ability to comprehend dual relationships. Children now understand that something can be both an object itself as well as a symbol for something else. For example, a stuffed toy dog is a fun, furry toy as well as a representation of living and toy dogs in general.

FINALISM

• It is the belief that all movements accomplishes some purpose.

• Since preschoolers believe themselves to be the center of the universe, they feel they can alter reality by their thoughts or wishes. Such a belief is called “ MAGICAL THINKING”.

Concreteness

• A final characteristic of preschoolers’ cognitive development is the static quality, or “concreteness” of their language. Young children tend to describe tangible and observable aspects of the environment, disregarding subtleties and abstractions.

REASONING & CONCEPT FORMATION

Concatenative Thought

• Egocentrism and centration both affect the preschool child’s ability to reason and to solve everyday problems. When attempting to explain causes and effect, preschoolers assume that the observable characteristics of an object have something to do with the outcome.

CONCEPT FORMATION

• According to Piaget’s concept formation is one of the most important cognitive achievements of childhood. Concepts are cognitive categories that help children-and adults- organize information and acquire new knowledge.

• Children acquire more basic concepts such as dog, house, and toy relatively early.

• Other more abstract concepts , such as number, distance, and space, require more time.

Conservation• The most important acquisition of the preoperational period is an elementary

understanding of the notion of conservation.• Typically, the child learns to conserve number at the end of the period of pre

conceptual thought but cannot yet conserve other characteristics such as mass and volume.

• Conservation is a person's ability to understand that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same, even if their appearance has changed. To demonstrate the concept of Conservation, Piaget showed young children two identical cups filled with identical volumes of water (reaching to the same measuring line). Preoperational youth agreed the cups had the same amount of liquid in them. Piaget proceeded to pour the liquid from one of the original cups into a wide, short cup. Then, he poured the liquid from the second original cup into a tall, narrow cup. When he asked Preoperational kids which cup had more liquid, they chose the taller cup. To these children, the taller cup looked like it had more volume even though the same amount of fluid filled both cups.

• The concept of conservation can apply to number as well. For example, according to Piaget, a Preoperational child will not understand that rearranging six keys to make a different formation (e.g., spreading them out or moving them closer together) does not change the number of items present.

IRREVERSABILITY

• Another limitation of preoperational thought is “irreversibility”.

• Children at this stage cannot play back actions in their imaginations in order to reconstruct the original.

Classification

• Sorting objects into categories or classes on the basis of color, shape or size.

• Preschoolers have the inability in sorting objects.• Children under 7 cannot consistently order objects

according to some dimension or the other.• Although they can identify the end points of the

classification.• They are rarely able to sort multicolored shapes

correctly.• Can focus only on single attribute while classifying.

Seriation

• Transitivity is the term used by Piaget & Inhelder for Seriation.

• The arranging of the things in a logical progression i.e., tallest to shortest or lightest to darkest.

• Cannot see a relation between more than two elements at one time or between the individual parts & the whole.

Class Inclusion

• Preschoolers have a difficulty in understanding that one item can belong to several subsets or classes.

• Training can aid the acquisition of class inclusion skills.

• For example, a preschooler given a subset of 3 chairs & a table and asked, “Are there more Chairs or more Furniture?” will usually respond “More Chairs.”

WHAT CHILDREN CAN DO

HOW PARENTS CAN HELP

Be confused about present, past and future.

(3 to 4 years)

When reading a story, ask your child what happened first, next and last. Use a calendar to count down days to anticipated events and to help him/her understand the passage of time.

Sort and classify objects by color, shape, sizes, etc.

(3 to 4 years)

Ask your child to help you sort the laundry and separate light and dark clothes into different piles. Play “I Spy” and encourage him/her to

identify things by color, or shape. Go on a “shape/color hunt” and try to point out things

that are blue, green, round, square, etc.

WHAT CHILDREN CAN

DO

HOW PARENTS CAN HELP

Learn through causality (cause and effect) and problem solving.

(4–5 years)

Encourage your child to find the solution to a problem by providing assistance rather than giving

him/her the solution. Ask questions, such as, “What do you think will happen if we take the

snow inside the house?” At bath time, ask, “What do you think will happen if we put a heavy object

in the water? Will it sink or float?”

Organize objects from small to big, light to heavy, etc.

(4–5 year olds)

Play games in which your child can sort objects from small to big (buttons, plastic containers, etc.)

or light to heavy (feathers, cardboard, wood blocks, etc.).

AGE APPROPRIATE TOYS

DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS

APPROPRIATE TOYS

Advances in pouring & measuring cooking

Learns mechanical skills Sturdy record player, magnets, jewelry kits like big beads

Refines listening Songs, nursery rhymes

Enjoys simple stories Story books

Love language Important to read aloud to children until they can read comfortably (age 7-8)

classifies Good blocks-variety of good shapes & sizes

Manipulates better Large crayons/markers for drawing

Plays imaginatively, makes houses Dolls(for boys, too), old clothes/hats, puppets, small gym set for multi-use

2 TO 3 YEARS

DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS

APPROPRIATE TOYS

Imitates parent of same gender (ages 3-6) Toys to play house, store, doctor

Begins small muscle coordination (girls have better fine motor skills and wrist rotation for turning knobs, dressing and brushing teeth at

this age)

Small tools, cooking equipmentDrawing equipment (big pad of paper, liquid paints & wide brushes-small watercolor sets

too frustrating)Modeling clay

Begins to cut Safety scissors, paste & colored paper

Begins to play Houses, forts from boxes, sheets

Continues big muscle development Tricycle, wheelbarrow, small rake, jungle gym

Gains leg strength, balances Small bunk to throw/catch

3 TO 4 YEARS

DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS

APPROPRIATE TOYS

Builds complex structures Lincoln Logs

Wants highly realistic miniature toys (ages 4-7) Dollhouse, cars, fire station

Needs eye-hand coordination Spiro graph, caroms, big needlepointBig ball to bounce

Needs foot-eye coordination Sidewalk games

Begins math/science concepts Simple board games with counting (dice or diamond cards)

By age 5, can tell long story accurately & add fantasy

Short fiction & nonfiction in areas of interest (dinosaurs)

Asks how things work and meanings of words

4 TO 5 YEARS

DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS

APPROPRIATE TOYS

Has lots of energy Ball games items

Likes complex projects (continues for days) Simple model boat, house

Likes cutting, pasting & folding Paper dolls, activity books, easy origami

Counts to 30s Cribbage, games with adding/substracting

5 TO 6 YEARS

PREPARED & COMPILED BY:AASHNA (05)

Semester-IVDelhi University