Early_Years_Language_Development

Drawing on workplace experiences, critically analyse the role of language in the development of children’s thinking. During the course of this assignment, the perspectives and debates related to cognitive power will be discussed, whilst evaluating the contributions of key theorists. The sequential development of linguistic competency will also be examined and the link between language and cognitive development will be discussed. Cognitive development is about the way a person’s thought processes develop. It is about the way thinking is organised. (Tassoni, Beith & Eldridge, 2000). Cognitive development covers thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, memory, aspects of perception through the senses, concept formation, concentration, attention, and many other mental functions. (O’Hagan & Smith, 1999). These intellectual processes or cognitive components are inter-related, and are defined during the next part of the assignment; Memory involves the ability to recall or retrieve information stored in the mind. Memory skills involve recalling information on past experiences, events, actions or feelings, recognising information and making connections with previous experiences, and predicting – that is, using past information in order to anticipate future events. (Hilgard, 1996). Many cognitive processes involve all three memory skills. Within the workplace, it is important to encourage children’s memory and recall; this enables a child to make the most of learning opportunities. “Adults should draw children’s attention to the links with the past and help develop memory and encourage children themselves to make the connections.” (O’Hagan & Smith, 1999, p7). Perception is how people extract information from the world around them. Research into how babies perceive the world around them has revealed that they are far more able to make use of their surrounding environment than had ever before been realised. (O’Hagan & Smith, 1999). It is therefore important to note that early years workers should provide not only a loving and caring environment for young children, but also a stimulating one. This involves meting the child’s physical needs, giving consistent care, developing firm attachments between children and carers and surrounding them with appropriate levels of sensory stimulation. Concentration involves the ability to pay attention to the situation or task in hand. (Hilgard, 1996). If children are to learn effectively, it is important that they can concentrate and attend. Children should be encouraged to concentrate and adults should expect them to be able to attend for periods of different lengths depending on their stage of development. A choice of activities that interests children and enables them to succeed will encourage concentration. Language provides the means to process information in an easily accessible form, understand concepts, interact with others in order to gain new experiences and information, verbalise thoughts, and express opinions and ideas. Language is an integral part of children’s cognitive development. When the various components of cognitive development are put together they constitute what is usually known as ‘intelligence’. (O’Hagan & Smith, 1999). From the beginning of the 20th. Century, it was thought that intelligence in children could be measured. This was a very attractive idea, because, if it was possible to know how intelligent a child was, schools could group children according to their potential. The first intelligence tests were developed by Binet and Simon, and were later revised to become the Stanford-Binet test. In the 1950’s, Britain’s secondary education system was based on the principle of intelligence testing at the age of eleven. (Tassoni, Beith & Eldridge, 2000). Research in the 1960’s revealed that this exam was not so much a fair assessment of ‘intelligence’ as a selection based on culture and social class. (O’Hagan & Smith, 1999). Later work has challenged the idea that it is possible to test intelligence fully, and that the best can be done is to test certain components such as memory span or number ability. Many workers and researchers do not agree with tests on the grounds that ‘intelligence’ as a separate concept is not open to definition, and testing is socially biased. However, some educationalists and psychologists consider there are advantages to using tests that are especially designed to be bias-free as they can be used to assess a child’s particular abilities and whether extra help is required. (O’Hagan & Smith, 1999). There is considerable discussion concerning whether intelligence is determined by genetic inheritance or by the environment a child is brought up in. Research on identical twins who have been brought up separately has been used to study intelligence in the ‘nature/nurture’ debate. These studies generally support the idea that a great deal of intelligence is inherited, but some studies have been criticised for being biased and unscientific. (Davenport, 1996). There have been other studies that stressed the importance of the environment in determining intelligence. (e.g. Dennis’ study on Lebanese orphans in 1955 and 1970.) Partly as a result of these studies, workers from the 1960’s onwards introduced compensatory education programmes designed to benefit the poor and socially disadvantaged; The American Operation Headstart programme emphasised social and cognitive development. The general aim was that 100,000 deprived children would receive some pre-school remedial education. Most of the children benefited from their early enrichment. (Davenport, 1996). The evidence for either side of the nature/nurture debate is not clear cut, and on balance it would appear that both factors play a part in children’s cognitive ability. There are many theories of how children learn, but they follow three essential strands; behaviourist theories, social learning theories and constructivist theories. Behaviourists, such as Pavlov and Skinner, believe that learning takes place through conditioning or through observation of role models. (O’Hagan & Smith, 1999). The work of Pavlov on the behaviour of dogs is a famous example of classical conditioning. Pavlov discovered that if a light was flashed before a dog was fed, the dog would learn to associate the light with food and eventually would salivate in anticipation of being fed in response to the light alone. This learning was based on association of an event with a particular result often linked with a reflex action. It has been suggested that humans also learn some things in this way. (Tassoni, Beith & Eldridge, 2000). Research with humans is more difficult to achieve than with dogs and the concept of operant conditioning is perhaps more relevant. This is also learning by association, but it is the association of a behaviour with the consequence of that behaviour. Operant conditioning suggests that learning takes place as subjects’ responses to various stimuli are either rewarded or punished – positive or negative reinforcement. Behaviour may be changed over time by rewarding a person through a variety of reinforcers. Unacceptable behaviour may be modified or changed by offering rewards for change, withholding rewards or avoiding unpleasant happenings. (Davenport, 1996). Operant conditioning is very powerful; it means that if a child has a pleasant experience, he/she is more likely to repeat that behaviour in order to repeat the experience. For example, a baby shakes a rattle, likes the sound and shakes it again. In this way the baby learns what to do with a rattle. Social learning theorists agree that much of a child’s behaviour is learnt through conditioning, but they add to the work of conditioning by suggesting that a child also learns by observing others’ behaviour, which they call ‘observational learning’. Albert Bandura was able to show that children learn from watching others. In a famous experiment in 1965, he looked into the effects that seeing aggressive adults had on children. He showed three groups of children a film in which they saw an adult being aggressive towards a ‘bobo’ doll. There were three endings to the film; Group A saw only the aggressive behaviour, group B saw the adult being praised and rewarded for beating the doll, and group C saw the adult being punished for beating the doll. Afterwards, the children were given the same doll and their behaviour was observed. Groups A and B imitated the aggressive behaviour that they saw, while children in group C were less aggressive. (Tassoni, Beith & Eldridge, 2000). The social learning theory offers a clear idea of children’s learning but does not adequately explain the complex beings that children are. Children often experiment and play in new ways not because they are shown, but because they are enjoying themselves. This theory does not explain where new behaviour that has not been observed, imitated or reinforced, comes from. However, it is important to note that many early years workers often use the concept of modifying behaviour through reinforcement and modelling. Constructivist psychologists suggest that rather than children learning because of things happening to them – for example, being given praise – they learn from action and from exploring their own environment. (Tassoni, Beith & Eldridge, 2000). Jean Piaget (1896-1980) has been a powerful influence on the understanding of children’s development, and his work has been widely used by educationalists and many who work with children. (O’Hagan & Smith, 1999). He became interested in the way children’s thought processes developed while working on intelligence tests. He discovered that children’s answers were not random, but followed a logical pattern based on conclusions drawn from their own experiences. Piaget called these conclusions ‘schemas’. Piaget believed that children are able to adapt their schemas when they have new experiences. This process is often called ‘assimilation’ and ‘accommodation’; assimilation occurs when children discover that an existing schema fits another situation – accommodation happens when children realise that their schema does not ‘fit’ what is happening. This forces the child to develop a new schema based on the latest experience. (Hilgard, 1996). Piaget also stated that as well as learning about their world by developing and adapting schemas, children also seemed to pass through four stages of conceptual development which linked to their biological development. He used several tests to show the different stages in the cognitive process; The first operation in the cognitive process (as described by Piaget) is ‘Object Permanence’. At first, babies learn through their senses – they do not have a mental image of the world. This means that if they cannot see an object, they believe that it no longer exists. At around 8 months, babies develop the concept of object permanence; if they are shown an object and it is hidden, they look for it or cry. The second operation is egocentricism. Children under the age of 6 or 7 tend to be ‘self-centred’ in the way they view the world. Piaget called the concept of being able to see things from someone else’s view ‘decentring’. The third operation is animism. Children under the age of 6 or 7 tend to imagine that objects and animals have the same thoughts and feelings as they have. The fourth operation is conservation. Piaget conducted several tests to see if children could understand that, even if a material changed shape or form, its other properties would remain the same. These tests concentrated upon volume, mass and number. Piaget suggested that most children under six would not be able to conserve. Children over the age of 7, however, would be able to conserve. Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development are; Sensory Motor (0-18 months/2 yrs), Pre-operational (2-6/7 yrs), Concrete operations (7-11 yrs), and Formal operations (11-18+). (Tassoni, Beith & Eldridge, 2000). Piaget believed that language is dependent on other cognitive and perceptual processes and follows cognitive stages of development. In his view, early language is egocentric. Piaget suggests that a prerequisite for language development is the understanding of some key concepts. (Cardwell, Clark & Meldrum, 1996). It is important to note, however, that Piaget’s emphasis on stages of development resulted in serious underestimations of children’s abilities. (Whitbread, 1996). Many developmental psychologists have since demonstrated that Piaget’s tasks were difficult for children to understand. Piaget has also been criticised for under-emphasising the role in children’s learning of language and of social interaction with other children and adults. (Whitbread, 1996). Vygotsky – like Piaget – suggested that children were active in their learning, although Vygotsky placed much more emphasis on the role language played in the cognitive process. Vygotsky is particularly noted for his suggestion that children had unlocked potential that adults had to discover. This is referred to as the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is the gap between what the child is currently able to do and what he has the potential to do. Vygotsky stressed the importance of the role of the adult, and for other children in the process of a child’s learning. (Tassoni, Beith & Eldridge, 2000). Jerome Bruner agreed with many areas of Piaget’s work, but built on the ideas of Vygotsky. He too suggested that children are active in their learning. He did not agree that children passed through stages, but rather that they developed different ways of thinking. He called these models of representation. There are three models; children start with one mode and gradually develop the other two. Adults can use all three of these modes. A significant difference between Piaget and Bruner was the link between cognitive and language development. Bruner thought that the appearance of language allowed children to think in a symbolic mode because language allows people to categorise things. He also felt that adults have an important role to play in this process. Children can be helped to learn how to use symbols and thus speed up the cognitive process. (Hilgard, 1996). Bruner felt that adults need to be active in helping and encouraging children in their learning. He adopted the image of a scaffold being erected by adults to support a child’s learning, which occurs little by little. Bruner found that most of this learning took place in informal interactions and routines. These routines allow children to learn and talk about regular events that make up their lives. Eventually the scaffold can be removed and the child has achieved competence. (O’Hagan & Smith, 1999). It is important to note that in the workplace, early years staff should use everyday informal opportunities for learning, stressing adult support and ‘scaffolding’ of the child’s learning until mastery is achieved. The social constructivist model of learning draws particularly on the work of Vygotsky and Bruner and aspects of Piaget’s work. The model stresses that the child learns through interaction with its environment, usually through talk and play. It emphasises the importance of the child’s social world and the role of the adult in supporting learning and providing an effective learning environment. (O’Hagan & Smith, 1999). Noam Chomsky believed that human beings are born with an instinct to learn language. He believed that humans possess an innate understanding of grammar that allows us to distinguish between acceptable sentence structure and meaningless strings of words (Cardwell, Clark & Meldrum, 1996). Other psychologists, such as Skinner proposed that children learn language in the same way that they learn other skills – by reinforcement. (Myers, 1995). The linguistic relativity hypothesis was proposed by Benjamin Whorf (1956). Whorf argued that the kinds of concepts and perceptions we can have are affected by the particular language we speak. Therefore, people who speak different languages perceive the world in different ways. Much of the evidence used in favour of the hypothesis is based on vocabulary differences. For example, English has only one word for snow, whereas Eskimo has four. Consequently, speakers of Eskimo may perceive differences in snow that English speakers do not. (Hilgard, 1996). Language and the use of symbols help children to communicate their needs to the outside world. They help to extend their experience beyond their immediate environment, and to express their feelings. Children can communicate in different ways other than through spoken language, e.g. non-verbal communication such as body language and facial expression, crying and gestures. (O’Hagan & Smith, 1999). The first stage in the process of children learning to use a language is often referred to as the pre-linguistic stage. This is an important stage, because, although babies are not able to use the rules and words of the language, they seem to use this stage to learn about how to communicate. Psychologists have noted that this pre-linguistic stage is common to all languages and that the early babbles of babies all over the world are similar. This may support the idea that humans are born with an instinct to communicate with others. During the first year of life, babies quickly learn how to communicate with their carers, so that by the age of twelve months, most babies understand what is being said to them and are starting to communicate their needs by pointing to objects. (Tassoni, Beith & Eldridge, 2000). At approximately twelve months of age, children are able to start using words to communicate. One year olds already have concepts for many things, and when they begin to speak, they are mapping these concepts onto words that adults use. The beginning vocabulary is roughly the same for all children (within one particular language). While these words name some of the young child’s concepts, they do not name them all. Consequently, young children often have a gap between the concepts they want to communicate and the words they have at their disposal. To bridge this gap, children aged 1 to 2 ½ years old overextend their words to neighbouring concepts. For example, “apple” may mean any small, round object to a young child. At the age of approximately 2 ½ years, overextensions begin to disappear, because the child’s vocabulary has grown and therefore eliminating many of the gaps. (Hilgard, 1996). Gradually, children put two words together to form a mini-sentence – for example, “Daddy gone”. Linguists call these two-word sentences telegraphic speech. Telegraphic speech allows children to be more expressive and gradually verbs appear in speech as well as nouns. (Tassoni, Beith & Eldridge, 2000). The rules of a language – the grammar – are learnt gradually. Children imitate the word order that they hear, although they often cut down the length of the phrase. While learning the rules of a language, children often make mistakes. Roger Brown, who looked at children’s speech in detail, called these mistakes virtuous errors. He suggested that children made these mistakes because they were trying to apply what they know to all situations. (Hilgard, 1996). It is important to note that, as with cognitive development, language development is made up of many different components and in many ways it is like one big jigsaw puzzle! During the course of this assignment, the processes of cognitive and language development have been discussed, whilst examining some of the many different theories of cognitive and language development. “The greatest accomplishments of our species stem from our ability to entertain complex thoughts, to communicate them, and to act on them. Thinking includes a wide range of mental activities…in all cases thought can be conceived of as a “language of the mind”. (Hilgard, 1996, p296). 3119 WORDS BIBLIOGRAPHY Cardwell, M., Clark, L. & Meldrum, C. [1996] Psychology for A-Level London, Harper Collins. Davenport, G. [1996] An Introduction to Child Development London, Collins Educational. Hilgard, E. [1996] Introduction to Psychology London, Harcourt Brace. Myers, D. [1995] Psychology New York, Worth Publishers. O’Hagan, M. & Smith, M. [1999] Early Years ChildCare & Education: Key Issues London, Harcourt Publishers. Tassoni, P., Beith, K. & Eldridge, H. [2000] Child Care and Education Oxford, Heinemann. Whitbread, D. (ed) [1996] Teaching & Learning in the Early Years London, Routledge.