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.

AbilitiesIn 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

– 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

Four Stages

•Sensorimotor0-2 yrs•Preoperational2-7 yrs•Concrete Operations 7-11•Formal Operations11 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. PreoperationalChildren 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 DevelopmentSensorimotor 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

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

person

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

Stage 3: 4 - 8 months• Acts intentionally to produce results (drops

something on the ground to see what will happen)

• Improves hand-eye coordination

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

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

independently

Stage 6: 18 – 24 months• Solves problems by

thinking through sequences

• Can think using symbols

• Begins imaginative thinking

IMAGINATIVE THINKINGTalking on a Banana