PRE-SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT (Conception though early childhood):
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
- Childhood:
- Needs freedom and space to move and exercise at will (SAFELY)
- Friends: free (unstructured) play
- Toilet training-- encourage; don't punish.
Celebrate success (in other things, too); don't dwell on failures.
- Teach the concept of "dirty" and the need to wash hands (after 'dirty', before eating, etc.)
"Any problem that can be cleaned up with soap and water is a SMALL PROBLEM"
--Dr. Benjamin Spock, pediatrician & author
- Encourage choices, preferences (among foods, toys, etc.):
teaches self-reliance (offer guidance if needed)
- Teach that certain things BELONG here or there or "in the toy box";
when child is old enough to trust, teach that certain things BELONG in the GARBAGE
(without touching what's already in there)
- Teach the concepts of AGAIN or MORE; also ENOUGH.
Babies as young as 2-3 months can learn to respond to MORE by smiling.
- Punishments and rewards: give age-appropriate reasons.
Rewards and encouragement work better than punishment
No harsh punishment-- standing in corner ("time out") teaches well
Take toy away if used destructively
- Conversations, language development, frequent naming of objects and places
UP and DOWN are easy concepts to teach early (including "pick me UP")
See the father shown on page 86: lift the child and say "up, up, UP!", then "Doowwn!"
- Importance of READING EARLY (never too early) and often
Many children can learn to read before age 4 or 5!
- TV and electronic media: OK but limited; use in social context with parent;
don't let it interfere with time outside, etc.
- Counting and adding: develop math skills with Cheerios, Fruit Loops or raisins, later with shapes drawn on paper
- Enrichment: new objects, new places and experiences (store, restaurant, park, zoo, museum)
- Interrelated knowledge: reminders of seemingly unrelated things can pop up anywhere-- Be prepared, take advantage.
- Piaget's stages and early cognition:
- Sensorimotor phase (~0-2 yr.): Child tests "schemes" (hypotheses) "like a little scientist"
- Assimilation (of similarity among objects & situations)
- Accommodation (revises hypotheses if needed)
- Example: motor skills for picking up different objects (light vs heavy, big vs small)--
fascination with lightweight large objects (empty box, beach ball, balloon)
- Learning by repetetive play: back & forth, in & out, open & closed (drawers, boxes, doors)
Compare Fisher's "Busy Box"; also fun filling up box then dumping it all out
Learning that objects make different sounds when dropped
- Equilibration: totally new theory
- Learns object permanence (looks for hidden objects)
- Begins to point and use symbols (gestures, words), incl. "pick me up"
- Learns to pretend
- Preoperational phase (~2-4 yr.)
- How 3-D object looks to another person (p. 122)
- Liquid in tall vs wide vessels (p. 123-124)
"centration" = focus on one feature only
- Animism: attributing thought to inanimate objects
- "Learning by doing"-- free play with objects teaches texture, weight, 3-D shape, etc.
- Early distinction between living and inanimate objects
- Attention: focus on a stimulus, then process further
- Orienting response-- Strong or unexpected stimulus provokes changes in heart rate, brain waves (also sucking in infants)
- Learning:
- Habituation: no longer responds to a familiar or repeated stimulus if inconsequential
- Classical conditioning: If A is followed by B, then A leads to expectation of B
- Operant conditoning: If action is rewarded, then repeat it (and remember)
- Sense-pleasure play (e.g., splashing with water; rolling downhill)
- Memory: duration improves
- "Peek-a-boo" games teach object permanence
- Autobiographical memory of childhood: hardly any before age 3; depends on language
- Learns counting and adding with small objects (safest: Cheerios or Fruit Loops)
- Vygotsky:
- Intersubjectivity =social context (guidance of teacher, but also of society at large)
Example: child talks to herself (private speech, self-talk) as social reminder
- "Scaffolding": minimally needed instructional hints (words or gestures)
- "Zone of Proximal Development" = tasks that child cannot do alone,
but accomplishes with adult assistance (then learns to do alone)
Example: tying shoelaces
- Language and speech:
- Crying; also listening (may stop crying to listen).
Newborns recognize mother's voice, cadence (rhythm & pitch) of mother's language
- Imitation begins ~3 months (show tongue, smile, open & close fingers ("bye-bye")
- Babies understand many words before they can talk-- "baby", "boo-boo", some body parts ("tongue"), "pick me up", name of family pet
- Articulate sounds (like "ma" or "ba") begin ~6 months.
- ~9 months: repeating sounds, then babbling (usually with musical intonation)
- Infant-directed speech ("motherese"): slower, more pauses, more emphasis
of important words
- Cadence and pitch of language is learned. Newborns often pay more attention
to Mother's spoken language than to other languages.
- Nouns (names for things) come first; verbs come later.
Many early words are partial, like "ju" for "juice"
- Simple gestures-- reaching, pointing, opening and closing fingers ("bye-bye", no wrist motion yet)
- Parents can help: TALK A LOT, incl. to child; also READ (early and often)
Also SING SONGS ("Head and shoulders, knees and toes..."), play word games ("Abdomen")
- Videos, TV, etc.: best if used socially together with parent, but in limited amount.
- Sentences: 2-3 words at first; more complex later
- Telegraphic speech: early, not grammatically varied: "Two cat"; "Mama good"; "Boy bad"; "I draw picture"
- Grammar comes slowly, through imitation and repetition
- "Critical period" for language learning (~age 2-6): easier to learn at this time;
native fluency if learned early (more difficult later, usu. not native fluency);
severely impaired mental and social development if no language is learned by age 5-6 (evidence: abused and abandoned children,
"wild boy of Aveyron" and similar cases)
- Social interactions necessary for language development
- Very strong desire to communicate ("Terrible Twos" may result if the desire greatly exceeds the ability, --> frustration)
- Social conversations: Imitation comes first; taking turns understood early (crying baby often stops to listen to talk)
"Terrible twos"
- Importance of "NO!"
- Self-assertion; concept of self ("me")
- Prohibitions and punishments (beginning around age 2)--
Punishments seldom have any effect before ~age 2.
NEVER PUNISH a child for acting their age !
(Don't punish a 3-year old for acting like a 3-year old)
"Time out" often works best-- "Go stand in the corner!" or similar
- Tantrums in some-- often best to ignore, or calmly say "We can talk when you calm down"
- Theories about "terrible twos"--
Toilet training?
Frustration from inadequate language ability to express desires or requests
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