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Childhood
Piagets Perspectives
Transition from Sensorimotor into
Preoperational Thought
Capable of using symbolic thought to
perform mental tasks
According to Piagets work, lacks the
ability to operate on those mental tasks
Mental operations may not be available
for reflective consideration
Piagets Perspectives
Progression of mental capabilities
Use of language to represent symbols
Recognizes when stories are told out of
order
Explanations are more complex
Use of art to represent symbols
Drawings tend to be more realistic as the
child progresses across the early
childhood years
Use of play to model roles and objects
Can use one object to represent other
objects
Piagets Perspectives:
Preoperational Thought
Intuitive thought
Based on personal experiences
Logic based on unanalyzed personal
experiences (e.g. flag theory of wind
and air conditioner theory of summer)
Piagets Perspectives
Egocentrism
Failure to take others perspectives
Sees others as having ones own perspective
Animistic thought
Attributes animate qualities to inanimate
objects
Artificialism
Attributes natural phenomena (sunsets,
tides) to direct human action
Piagets Perspectives
Conservation
Ability to recognize the constancy of
invariants (e.g. number, mass) in spite
of transformations of variable attributes
Discontinuous fluids
Continuous fluids
Number
Mass
Piagets Perspectives
Centration
Tendency to isolate one attribute as a focus of
attention and ignore other relevant aspects (e.g.
height and diameter of a cylinder in the liquid
conservation task)
Reversibility
Failure to mentally reverse the operations that led
to the change in attribute or end point.
Static endpoints
Tendency to focus on beginning and end states
regardless of the nature of the transformation
Vygotskys Perspective
Theoretical orientation reflected a
Marxist dialectical view
Social speechinteraction with
othersprecedes private speech
monologue by the child
Private speech precedes the
internalization of the concept to a
mental representation
Vygotskys Perspective
Development (for Vygotsky)
occurred in a social or intermental plane first
and then on an internal or intramental plane
required the presence of a more competent
other
required the more competent other to
mediate the process of learning and
development
Vygotskys Perspective
Concepts for Application:
Zone of Proximal Development: more
competent other assists the child in moving
from what the child can do independently to
that which the child can do only with support
Scaffolding: the process of supporting the
child across the zone of proximal development
Developmental Considerations
Capacity increasesamount of
information one can process
Maturation of the CNS (central nervous
system)
Increased practice at particular tasks
(e.g. naming, answering questions)
Rehearsal strategies (e.g. rote vs.
meaningful)
Developmental Considerations
Efficiency increasesamount and /or
complexity of processing by unit time
Maturation of the CNS
Acquisition of more efficient strategies
Transition from controlled to automatic
processing
Developmental Considerations
Controlled Processes
Conscious (child is aware of the steps)
Each step is monitored (child knows
outcomes)
Requires additional processing resources
(limited capability for parallel tasks
multitasking)
Examples:
Early reading behavior
Early mathematics computation
Learning to drive a manual transmission
Developmental Considerations
Automatic Processes
Steps largely outside of awareness (Child
is not aware of discrete processes)
Overall progress is monitored (outcomes
of each step likely not monitored but
overall task success is monitored)
Requires fewer conscious processing
resources (multi-tasking is possible)
Examples:
Reading familiar texts
Simple arithmetic computations
Driving a manual transmission car after
practice
Developmental Considerations
Transition from automatic to
controlled processes occurs through
Practice
Acquisition of knowledge base
Acquisition of more efficient strategies
Developmental Considerations
Controlled Attentionability to
sustain focus of mental resources
Early on, young children typically require
an adult or more competent individual
to help sustain attention (ala Vygotsky)
As CNS matures and more effective
strategies are acquired, child is able to
manage own focus (pruning, mylination,
elaboration)
Developmental Considerations
Metacognition
Executive function
Monitors ongoing mental processing
Controls strategic thinking
Can manage attention
Becomes able to assess performance on
relatively simple mental tasks
Tends to develop rapidly across early childhood
Tend to overestimate their knowledgeunclear
whether the overestimation is a true
overestimation or a desire to please an adult
questioner
Developmental Considerations
Theory of Mind (ToM)Attributing mental
states to oneself and other
Appearancereality distinction (Maynard the cat
who wore a dog mask)
Younger children were sure Maynard became a
dog
Older children did not succumb to the prank
Recognizing the difference between ones own
feelings and others is key to understanding mental
states differ
Maturation, experience with language, opportunities
to communicate specifically but ones mental states
seem to be linked to development of ToM.
Additive
One language is learned first
Second language is learned following some
fluency in first language
Most common in the USA culture
Bilingual Children
Three models
Subtractive
First language is learned to some fluency
Second language is learned as a
preferential language or as a replacement
for the first language
Child Care
Nature of Program
Entry Criteria
Readiness
Assessment
Open Access
Placement w/in
Program
Placement Tests
Movement across
levels
Advancement based
on achievement
Social Skills
Language
Answering personal questions (name, age, sex)
Articulation (for referral to speech assessment)
Concepts
Naming body parts
Counting
Naming parts of a house
Social
Play with other children
Compliance with adult-given instructions
Following rules