Chapter 9Early Childhood Cognitive Development.ppt

A preschooler’s having imaginary playmates is a sign of loneliness or psychological problems. Two-year-olds tend to assume that their parents are aware of everything that is happening to them, even when their parents are not present. “Because Mommy wants me to” may be a perfectly good explanation – for a 3-year-old. One and 2-year olds are too young to remember the past. Children’s levels of intelligence – not just their knowledge – are influenced by early learning experiences. A highly academic preschool education provides children with advantages in school later on. During her third year, a girl explained that she and her mother had finished singing a song by saying, “We singed it all up.” Three-year-olds usually say “Daddy goed away” instead of “Daddy went away” because they do understand the rules of grammar. Jean Piaget’s Preoperational Stage Symbolic thought and play Pretend play 12-13 months – familiar activities; i.e. feed themselves 15-20 months – focus on others; i.e. feed doll 30 months – others take active role; i.e. doll feeds itself Imaginary Friends More common among first-born and only children Lack of logical operations No flexible or reversible mental operations Egocentrism Only view the world through their own perspective Three-mountain test Causality Influenced by egocentrism Caused by will Precausal thinking Transductive reasoning Animism Artificialism Confusion between mental and physical phenomena Believe their thoughts reflect external reality Believe dreams are true Properties remain the same even if you change the shape or arrangement Preoperational children fail to demonstrate conservation Centration Irreversibility Including new objects/categories in broader mental classes Requires child focus on more than one aspect of situation at once Describe Jean Piaget’s preoperational stage of development. How does the ability to use mental symbols to represent objects change the way that children interact in the world? Describe the beh