STAGES OF CHILD

DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED

DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES
CIK ZAINAB HJ NAWAB KHAN

TOPICS
4.1

Explain the stages of cognitive

and language development of
children
4.2 Synthesis information related to
the characteristics of cognitive and
language development in a
conceptual map

 COGNITIVE

AND LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT
PRENATAL

ADOLESCEN
CE

INFANT

CHILD

THEORIES
JEAN
PIAGET

Four Stages of
development

VYGOTSKY
`

Zone of
proximal
development

PIAGETS THEORY
PROCESS IN COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
SCHEMA various skills and
behaviors that child can exercise in
relation to objects or situations.
Concept that already exist in a
childs mind.
Eg:

sucking, kicking, crawling etc

 ADAPTATION

( consist of 2 activities)
a. ASSIMILATION use current
schemes t0 interpret the external
world
b. ACCOMMODATION-create new
schemes or adjust old ones after
noticing that current way of thinking
does not capture the environment
completely

EQUILIBRIUM
During time of rapid cognitive change,
children are in state of disequilibrium or
cognitive discomfort
Realizing that new information does not
match their current schemes, they shift
from assimilation to accommodation
After modifying their schemes, they move
back toward assimilation, exercising their
newly changed structures until they are
ready to be modified again

 ORGANIZATION-

Piagets concept of
grouping isolated behavior into a
higher order, more smoothly
functioning cognitive system ( the
ability to organize , coordinate ideas
or knowledge of information)

 Schemes

Current Skills
Child throw
egg hard
ASSIMILATIO
N

CHILD KNOWS
HOW TO
THROW
Egg Breaks
Child
frustrated
( create new
schemes)
ADAPTATIO
N

EQUILIBRIUM

GIVE CHILD
AN EGG

Child learn
new skills of
handling egg
(adjustment)
ACCOMODATIO
N

 FOUR

STAGES COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Children actively construct their
understanding of the world and go
thru four stages of cognitive
development
Sensorimot
Sensorimot
or
Birth 2
years

Preoperation
al
2 7 years

Concrete
Operational
7-11 years

Formal
Operational
11 yearsadulthood

FOUR DEVELOPMENT
STAGES
SENSORIMOTOR ( birth 2 years)
Children organize and coordinate
sensations with physical movements
and actions thru reflexes
Most schema are reflexes

OBJECT PERMANENCE
Objects

and events continue to exist

even when they cannot directly be
seen, heard or touched.
Stage one- out of sight out of mind

 PREOPERATIONAL

STAGE ( 2 -7

years)
Stable concepts are formed
Mental reasoning
Operation- internalized sets of
actions that allow children to do
mentally what before they did
physically. are highly organized and
conform to certain principles and
logic.

 Symbolic

Function Substage ( 2 4

years)
Young child gain the ability to
mentally
represent an object that is not
present.
Egocentrism the inability to
distinguish between ones own and
someone elses perspective.
Children often pick their view from

 ANIMISM

belief that inanimate

objects have lifelike
CONSERVATION TEST- the idea that
an amount stays the same
regardless of a container shape.

 PIAGET

TEST

a. numbers ( coins)
b. matter ( clay )
c. length ( two sticks)
d. water ( two glasses of water)
e. area ( space and cardboard)

 CONCRETE

OPERATIONAL THOUGHT

( 7 11 years)
Reversible mental action on real
concrete objects
Can coordinates information in
many dimension ( eg. Clay test )
Ability to to classify and divide
things to sets or subsets.

 Family

tree test able to understand

that a person can be a grandfather ,
uncle, brother, brother in law etc.

FORMAL OPERATIONAL ( 11 years to adult)

adult are more capable of examining
their own thought
Think more logically , abstractly and
idealistically.
Hypothetical deductive reasoningadolescence have the cognitive ability
to develop hypotheses and problem
solving.

IMPLICATIONS OF PIAGETS
COGNITIVE THEORY
Constructivist approach
Children learn best when they are
active and seek solution s for
themselves
2. Facilitate rather then direct
learning
design situations that allow
students to
learn by doing.
3. Consider childs level of thinking
1.

4. Use ongoing assessment Evaluate

students progress with tools like
portfolios, individual conference or
verbal explanations.
5. Promote the students intellectual
health- Children should not be
pushed and pressured
6. Turn the classroom into a setting of
exploration and discovery

VYGOTSKY COGNITIVE
DEVELPOMENT THEORY
ZONE

OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
The range of tasks that are too
difficult for children to master alone
but that can be mastered with the
guidance and assistance of adults
or more skilled children.
Child cognitive maturity can be
achieved by assistance.

 SCAFOLDING

changing the level of support of

a more skilled person adjusts the
amount
of guidance to fit the students
current
level.

 Teaching

in the zone reflects the

concept of developmentally
appropriate teaching

IMPLICATIONS OF VYGOTSKY
COGNITIVE THEORY
1.
2.

3.
4.
5.

Use the childs zone of proximal

development in teaching
Use scaffolding to help children
move to higher level of skill and
knowledge
Use more skills peers as teachers
Monitor and encourage childrens
use of private speech
Access the childs ZPD rather then
IQ

IMPLICATIONS
(Vygotsky)
5. Language plays important roles
- speech is used to solve task
- private speech
6. Peer collaboration
- varying abilities
7. Meaningful activities

4. Vygotskys based innovation in

teaching & learning
a. Reciprocal teaching
- a mall group of students
and a
teacher take turns leading
dialogues
on the content of a passage

- leader begins by asking questions

about the
content of the passage.
- Students offer answers , rise
additional
questions
- leader summarizes the passage
- students clarify unfamiliar ideas

b. Cooperative Learning
- small groups of classmates
work toward
common goals.

LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT

LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT

BIOLOGICAL

BEHAVIORAL &
ENVIRONMENTA
L

BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCE
Language

is housed in the left

hemisphere of the cerebral cortex.
Research shows that damage of this
area might cause communication
disorders
Brocas area- support grammatical
processing and language production
Wernickers area comprehending
word meaning

 Chomsky

(1957) all children have

an innate language acquisition
device (LAD)
A system that permits them to
combine words and understanding
meaning of sentences

Erik Lenneberg (1967) children must

acquire language during the age
span of brain lateralization - critical
period hypothesis

2. Behavioral &
Environmental Influences
View

language as a complex learned

skill
Language represents chains of
responses
( Skinner,1957 ) or
imitation( Bandura,1977 )
Home language studies (1995)
Professional parents talked much
more to their young children than
welfare parents- different vocabulary

 Style

of talk varied across parents

Welfare parents heard fewer
descriptions, less talk about past
events and less elaboration

Theories of Language
Development
Empiricist
Nativist

approach: Chomsky

Language

Piaget

approach: Skinner

and Cognition:

Socio-cultural

Bruner

approach:

VYGOTSKY THEORY
Children use language for social
communication and also to plan,
guide and monitor their behavior in a
self regulatory fashion ( inner
speech)
Language and thought initially
develop independently of each other
and merge.

PIAGET THEORY
Self talk reflects immaturity
Language has a minimal role

Nativist approach - Chomsky

Language acquisition device (LAD)

Universal set of rules for grammar
Specific brain areas with localised
functions of language
e.g., Broca (production) and Wernickes (comprehension)

area

Sensitive period for language

development

HOW LANGUAGE
DEVELOPS
INFANCY
Babbling and other vocalizations
Babies actively produce sounds to attract
attentions.
Crying , cooing, babbling and gestures
Infants have learned the sounds of their
native language by the age of sex months.
13 months first word spoken
18 24 months babies can say two words
e.g. big car - telegraphic speech
short and precise words
1.

2.EARLY CHILDHOOD
Preschool years- children became
sensitive to the sounds of spoken
words ( rhymes, poems etc..
Children begins to understands
morphology , syntax , pragmatics
6 years old- 8,000 to 14,000 words

 Bloom(1998)

three continuous
framework help us better understand
early childhood language
development:
a. The emerge of words and a basic
vocabulary ( end of first year end )
b. The transition from saying one word
combining words and phrases into
simple sentences ( end of second
year)

c. The transition from simple

sentences expressing a single
proposition to complex sentences
( begin between 2 and 3 years and
continues into the elementary school
years)

3.MIDDLE AND LATE CHILDHOOD

Increasingly using language in a
displace manner, learning what a
word is and how to recognize and
talk about sounds
( Berko Gleason,2002)
Became more analytical in their
approach to words e.g. when you say
the word dog the child might
respond barks

 all

theories suggest that language

development depends on both
biological and socio-environmental
factors
No child would ever talk unless
he were taught; and no child
could be taught unless he already
possessed, by inheritance, a
particular series of nervous
arrangements ready for training"
(Marshall 41)

HOW PARENTS CAN FACILITATE

CHILDRENS LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT
INFANTS
1. Be an active conversational
partner
2. Talk as if the infant understand
what you are saying
3. Use a language style with which
you feel comfortable

TODDLERS
Continue to be an active
conversational partner
Remember to listen
Expand childs ability

Other ways
Always listen others talking .
( Huttenlocher et. Al ,1991)
Name objects that capture
childrens interest
( Dunham, Dunham, &
Curwin,1993)
Ask questions

Watch television : Sesame Street ,

( Rise et. Al., 1990)
5. Read story books or magazine
( Hayes, 1988)
6. Speak effectively
4.

 Children

will learn language better if

they are involved as an active
learner.

LANGUAGE DISORDERS
Involves :
Speech - Pertuturan
Language bahasa
Hearing - pendengaran

Speech and language

problems
pronuntation
fluency
difficulty in using words
Late speech development

ISL
Carry

out a library research and surf

the net
to download resources pertaining
to childs
cognitive and language
development .
Namely :
Piagets Cognitive Theory ,
Vygotsky Social Cultural theory and