Cognitive Development of Infants and Toddlers*** It talks about how Infants psychological processes involved in thinking and knowing develop into young children.

The term cognitive development refers to the process of growth and change in intellectual/mental abilities such as thinking, reasoning and understanding. It includes the acquisition and consolidation of knowledge.

Cognitive development in infancy refers to development in the way a baby thinks. This includes his/her language, communication and exploration skills.

Examples of cognitive activities: paying attention remembering learning to talk interacting with toys identifying faces

***There are four stages of cognitive development according to Jean Piaget1. SENSORIMOTOR STAGE2. PREOPERATIONAL STAGE3. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE4. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE

***These were discussed in Part 1, Unit 2, Module 6

***This module 13 will focus on the SENSORIMOTOR STAGE, 1st stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development that covers the infant and the toddlers cognitive development. This stage begins at birth and continues until about age 2.

**During the sensorimotor period, they respond to immediate stimuli—what they see, hear, taste, touch, and smell—and learning takes place through the senses and motor activities.

SENSORIMOTOR STAGE (the senses really develop)- birth to 2 years- Initially “think” with their eyes, ears, and hands- By the end, children can solve problems and represent their experiences in speech and gesture

*** After extensive observations of infants and toddlers, especially hisown three children, Piaget described the sensorimotor stage as a series of six substages:

1. SIMPLE REFLEXES (birth to 1 month) **In the first month of life, infants’ behaviors reflect innate reflexes—automatic responses to particular stimuli.For instance, if you put a nipple or pacifier in or near a newborn’s mouth, she will automatically suck on it. If you put something against the palm of a newborn’s hand, hisfingers will automatically close around it. Many of these inborn reflexes are designed to keep the infant alive. The infant soon begins to modify some reflexes to better accommodate to the environment—for instance, by learning to distinguish between a nipple and the surrounding areas of a breast or bottle. And other reflexes, such as the tendency to grab onto something placed in the hand, fade away over time.

**Coordination of sensation and action through reflexive behaviors. Three primary reflexes are described by Piaget. These are:

a) Sucking of objects in the mouth (Babies suck, grasp, and look in much the same way no matter what experiences they encounter), (Ex. 2 week old laying in bed next to her father, begins sucking on his arm)

b) Moving or interesting objects with the eyesc) Closing of the hand when an object makes contact with the palm

2. FIRST HABITS AND PRIMARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS (1-4 MONTHS)**It involves coordinating sensation and new schemas. In the first few months of life, infants‘ behaviors are focused almost exclusively on their own bodies (in Piaget‘s terminology, the behaviors are primary) and are repeated over and over again (i.e., they are circular). Infants also begin to refine their reflexes and combine them into more complex actions.

For example: A child may suck his or her thumb by accident and then later intentionally repeat the action. These actions are repeated because the infant finds them pleasurable.

(Repeat chance behaviors largely motivated by basic needs), (Ex. 1 month old will open its mouth differently for a nipple than for a spoon)

3. SECONDARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS (4-8 MONTHS)**In this stage the infants become more object-oriented, moving beyond self- preoccupation repeat actions that bring interesting or pleasurable results. This stage is associated primarily with the development of coordination between vision and prehension. Three new abilities occur at this stage: intentional grasping for a desired object, secondary circular reactions , and differentiations between ends and means.

At this stage, infants will intentionally grasp the air in the direction of a desired object, often to the amusement of friends and family. Secondary circular reactions, or the repetition of an action involving an external object begin: for example , moving a switch to turn on a light repeatedly. This means that a secondary action is focused on an object outside the body of an infant. The differentiation between

means and ends also occurs. This is perhaps one of the most important stages of a child’s growth as it signifies the drawn of logic.

(Try to repeat interesting events in the surrounding environment that are caused by their own actions)

Ex. 4 month old accidentally knocks a toy hanging in front of her producing a fascinating swinging motion and attempts to repeat this effect.

4. COORDINATION OF REACTIONS STAGE SECONDARY CIRCULAR (8-12 months)**Coordination of vision and touch-hand-eye coordination; of schemes intentionally. This stage is associated primarily with the development of logic and the coordination between means and ends.

**This is an extremely important stage of development , holding what Piaget calls the “first proper intelligence”.

** Also, this stage marks the beginning of goal orientation ,the deliberate planning of steps to meet an objective. The action is directed towards a goal.

**Combine schemes into new, more complex action sequences

**Intentional or goal directed behavior – coordinating schemes deliberately to solve simple problems.GOAL DIRECTED BEHAVIOR... They behave in ways that they know will bring about desired results. They also begin to combine behaviors in new ways to accomplish their goals.

For example: when an infant sees the string of a pull-toy near her, rather than crawling over to the toy she might instead reach out and grab the string and then purposely pull the string in order to acquire the toy.** Yet another acquisition at this substage is object permanence Object permanence – understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight

For example, when a caregiver hides an attractive toy beneath a pillow, the infant knows that the toy still exists, also knows where it exists, and will attempt to retrieve it.

Ex. Mother shows 11 month old, a toy, then hides it under a blanket*****Infant coordinates two schemes, “pushing” the blanket aside and “grasping” the toy

**Still make the A-not-B search error **If they reach several times for an object in 1st hiding place (A), then see it moved to a 2nd hiding place (B), they still search for it in the first hiding place (A)

5. TERTIARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS ,NOVELTY, AND CURIOSITY (12-18 months)

** Infants become intrigued by the many properties of objects and by the many things they can make happen to objects; they experiment with new behavior.** This stage is associated primarily with the discovery of new means to meet goals.

** Piaget describes the child at this juncture as the “ young scientist., “ conducting pseudo- experiments to discover new methods of meeting challenges. **By the end of the sensorimotor period, objects are both separate from the self and permanent

Object permanence - is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen. ** Toddlers repeat behaviors with variation or experiment

Ex. 16 month old figures out how to fit a shape through a hole in a container by turning and twisting it until it falls through.

Ex. 18 month old figures out how to use a stick to get toys that are out of reach

6. INTERNALIZATION OF SCHEMES ( INVENTION OF NEW MEANS THROUGH MENTAL COMBINATION) (18-24 months)** Infants develop the ability to use primitive symbols and form enduring mental representations.**This stage is associated primarily with the beginnings of insight , or true creativity.** This marks the passage into the preoperational stage.** Evidence of an internal representational system. Symbolizing the problem- solving sequence before actually responding.**Arrive at solutions suddenly rather than through trial-and-error, like they are experimenting with actions inside their heads.

Ex. 19 month old bumps his new push toy against a wall, pauses for a moment as if “thinking,” then immediately turns the toy in a new direction

The capacity for mental representation is seen in the emergence of deferred imitation, the ability to recall and copy another person’s behaviors hours or days after their behaviors have been observed. Although infants show some ability to imitate others’ actions quite early in life, up until now, Piaget suggested, they have imitated only the behaviors they see someone else demonstrating on the spot. Their newly acquired ability to recall and imitate other people’s past actions enables them to engage in make-believe and pretend play—for instance, by “talking” on a toy telephone or “driving” with the toy steering wheel attached to their car seats. As children move into more advanced stages of cognitive development, they don’t entirely discard sensorimotor ways of interacting with the environment. Even as adults we continue to use the behavioral and perceptual schemes we acquired as infants (reaching and grasping, following a moving object with our eyes, etc.), and sometimes trial-and-error experimentation is the only way to interact with a new and puzzling object.

ABSTRACTION

The six sub stages of the sensorimotor shows the development begins form reflexive behaviors to more refined and more coordinated activities. Cognitive development of infants evolves in orientation from becoming focused on themselves to becoming object or world-oriented , from one that is action-based to one that is mentally-based , from one that does not involve much of coordination of schemes to one involving intentionally, novelty and curiosity and from a thinking that is purely sensorimotor to a symbolic one.

Piaget’s sub stages are termed circular because the adaptive behavior to the world involves repeated actions. Circular reactions are attempts to repeat an event that the baby likes.

Primary circular reactions are oriented toward the infant’s own body, whereas secondary circular reactions are aimed toward the environment including others. Here is an example of a primary circular reaction:

At first, by accident , the baby gets her thumb in her mouth. But she doesn’t know how to do it again. She waves her hand around and, after many attempts , eventually succeeds in doing it again. Gradually , she learns how to do it at will.

Secondary circular reactions are repetitive actions that involve recreating events which 4-10 month old babies observe outside of their own bodies, such as making their mobile crib shake by kicking their legs.

Tertiary circular reactions, seen from approximately 10 to 18 months, is when a baby does things over and over again, just a little differently each time. When a baby seems to enjoy dropping the spoon over and over again in many different ways, a proof of the creation of novel variations in events. Piaget described the baby at this stage as the “scientist”.

Acquiring the sense of object permanence is one of the infant’s most important accomplishments, according to Piaget’s.” Object permanence is the understanding that objects are not immediately perceptible through the senses.

LEARNING AND REMEMBERING

Do infants learn and remember?Yes! Pavlov’s classical conditioning and Skinner’s operant conditioning have been proven to apply to infants.

All of us experience infantile amnesia , the inability to recall events that happened when we were very young. Generally, we can remember little or nothing that has happened to us before the age of about 5 years, and it is extremely rare for someone to recall many memories before 3 years. Reports of childhood memories usually involve memories of significant events (e.g. birth of a sibling or the death of a parent).

For example, some adults have recalled their own hospitalization or the birth of a sibling as far as age 2 years, and the death of a parent or a family move may be recalled from as far back as age 3 years.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

** Language development is a process starting early in human life. Infants start without language, yet by 4 months of age, babies can distinguish speech sounds and engage in babbling. Some research has

shown that the earliest learning begins in utero when the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother's voice.

From day one, infants appear to be programmed into their linguistic environment with the specific goal of acquiring language. Infants clearly have remarkably acute language learning abilities even form an early age.

Within the first years of life, we humans seem to progress through the following stages in producing language:

1. Cooing, which comprises consonant as well as vowel sounds***Infants produce soft vocalizations around 3 months of age

2. Babbling, which comprises consonant as well as vowel sounds; to most people’s ears, the babbling of infants growing up among speakers from different language groups sounds very similar.example: “bababababa” or “nanananana”

3. One- word utterances; these utterances are limited in both the vowels and the consonants they utilizeexample: Usually they refer to important people (“mama,” “dada”), animals (“doggie,” “kitty”), objects that move (“ball,” “car”), foods (“milk,” “apple”), familiar actions (“bye-bye,” “more”), or outcomes of familiar actions (“wet,” “hot”)

4. Two-word utterances (telegraphic speech)example: "go car,” “mommy shoe,” “door open” OR "WHERE DADDY GO?"

5. Basic adult sentence structure ( present by about age 4 years) with continuing vocabulary acquisition.

As children become more sophisticated in their language, they overgeneralize rules in ways that are inconsistent with common usage.for example, "I comed home" for "I came home" (sometimes called creative grammar). Correct forms are temporarily replaced as rules are internalized.

*****The infant utters his/her word- followed by one or two more, and soon after, yet a few more. The infant uses these one- word utterances termed holophrases- to convey intentions, desires and demands. Usually, the words are nouns describing familiar objects that the child observes (e.g. book, ball, and baby) or wants (e.g. Mama, Dada)

By 18 months of age, children typically have vocabularies of 3 to 100 words ( Siegler, 1986). Because the young child’s vocabulary is very limited at this point in the developmental process, the child overextends the meaning of words in his/her existing lexicon to cover things and ideas for which a new word is lacking. For example the general term for any kind of four- legged animal may be “doggie” . In linguistics this is called overextension error.

Gradually between 1.5 and 2.5 years of age, children start combining single words to produce two-word utterances. These two-word or three-word utterances with rudimentary syntax but with articles and prepositions missing are referred to as telegraphic speech.

***HALOPHRASE

"[A]round six months children begin babbling and eventually imitating the linguistic sounds they hear in the immediate environment. . . . By the end of the first year, the first true words emerge ( mama, dada, etc.). In the 1960s, the psycholinguist Martin Braine (1963, 1971) noticed that these single words gradually embodied the communicative functions of entire phrases: e.g. the child's word dada could mean 'Where is daddy?' 'I want daddy,' etc. according to situation. He called them holophrastic, or one-word, utterances. In situations of normal upbringing, holophrases reveal that a vast amount of neuro-physiological and conceptual development has taken place in the child by the end of the first year of life. During the holophrastic stage, in fact, children can name objects, express actions or the desire to carry out actions, and transmit emotional states rather effectively."

FOR EXAMPLE: Around 9 months of age, toddlers use single words (holophrases) to make requests or express feelings. For example, "Doot!" might mean "Get me juice!"

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE (LAD)

The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is the innate biological ability of humans to acquire and develop language. The LAD was developed by linguist Noam Chomsky who contributed to the field of cognitive psychology through his language research. He challenged the prevailing behaviorist theory that language (like any other behavior) was acquired through exposure to it in our environment. He theorized that all humans share a mechanism which allows us to comprehend, develop, and use language like no other animal. Animals raised around humans don't develop the ability to speak but humans do. He called this biological language mechanism the Language Acquisition Device.

Our capacity for language is the same all over the world in wildly different cultures and environments. Children quickly learn language and learn in developmental stages that occur at the same age no matter what differing environments they grow up in. Cognitive psychologists use the LAD theory as evidence to support the concept that language is both a learned and innate capability.

***Noam Chomsky, noted linguist, claims that humans have an innate language acquisition device (LAD). This means that we, humans seem to be biologically primed to be ready to acquire language.

***Noam Chomsky believes that children are born with an inherited ability to learn any human language. He claims that certain linguistic structures which children use so accurately must be already imprinted on the child’s mind.

***The language acquisition device (LAD) was proposed by Noam Chomsky to explain how children, when exposed to any human language, are able to learn it within only a few years following birth. Chomsky argued that all humans are born with the knowledge of what makes a human language. Included in this innate knowledge must be details of important characteristics of all the world's languages.

***According to Chomsky, humans are born with the LAD, but other species are not. Nonhuman primates and other species do not spontaneously learn human languages.

THANK YOU!!!

Prepared by:

MS. REYBETH DINEROS RACELIS