L2_Award_in_Support_Work_in_Schools

Examples of the different stages of development SENSORIMOTOR -This type is most associated with infancy. It involves the different senses; for example, tactile, movement, sound, and visual experiences. The young infant was crawling across the carpet and stopped to observe when he noticed that the carpet ended and the tiles started. This could have been because the tiles were cold or they were smooth or because they made a different sound when crawling across them. Whatever the reason the child was aware of his surroundings. PREOPERATIONAL - The preoperational stage occurs between ages two and six. Language development is one of the hallmarks of this period. Piaget noted that children in this stage do not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally manipulate information, and are unable to take the point of view of other people, which he termed egocentrism. The 5 year old girl was playing with the broom and pretending it was a horse, while her 6 year old brother had a stick and was imitating the actions and sounds of a gun. This is an example of children being able to use an object to represent something else, which occurs in this preoperational stage. 3.CONCRETE OPERATIONAL –The concrete operational stage begins around age seven and continues until approximately age eleven. During this time, children gain a better understanding of mental operations. Children begin thinking logically about concrete events, but have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concept. For example, a child might be able to recognize that his or her dog is a Labrador, that a Labrador is a dog, and that a dog is an animal. Being able to reverse the order of relationships between mental categories is an example of concrete operational development. 4.FORMAL OPERATIONAL - While children tend to think very concretely and specifically in earlier stages, the ability to think about abstract concepts emerges during the formal operational stage. Instead of relying solely on previous experiences, children begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences of actions. This type of thinking is important in long-term planning An example of the distinction between concrete and formal operational stages is the answer to the question “If Kelly is taller than Ali and Ali is taller than Jo, who is tallest'” This is an example of inferential reasoning, which is the ability to think about things which the child has not actually experienced and to draw conclusions from its thinking. The child who needs to draw a picture or use objects is still in the concrete operational stage, whereas children who can reason the answer in their heads are using formal operational thinking. CHILDREN LEARN BY BEING WITH OTHERS Children learn by being with others in a school or home environment. By the time a child is about seven or eight the child will have formed special friendships with one or two other children, usually the same sex. Playing games with others and being in the classroom with others helps children to learn about rules, fair play, and right from wrong. There is often allotting of talk from children about what is fair. What’s learned: Being with others helps them to respect their ideas. They develop their social skills and social competence is an underlying goal of early childhood education. Children in cooperative play learn to contribute to joint efforts. They also learn how to problem solve by working together to find a solution. An example of this is the child that watches the demonstration whether it be singing, cooking, listening to stories, and retelling stories going for walks and interacting; will be able to recall from watching and imitating others and learn from them. It is important that children are able to access this whole range of learning opportunities, as they learn from watching and imitating others as well as by exploring and experimenting. . CHILDREN LEARN BY WATCHING OTHER PEOPLE This was a theory of Bandura. An example of this is the first time my daughter had piano lessons. The piano teacher helped her learn to play by starting to play a simple piece of music, then she mimicked him and the notes she had seen. Now that she has had a few lessons she realizes that it is important to watch the teacher or she might miss out on what the teacher does next. When three year old Hannah wanted a toy from her brother Jack she grabbed it off him and often lashed out to get her own way. Now that Jack is older and from watching his sisters behavior has learnt that the way to get what you want is to snatch and hit out. I noticed that her mother grabbed the toy off Hannah and gave it back to Jack sometimes giving her a tap on the back of the hand. By setting a good example this wouldn’t have happened. This shows me that children do learn their social skills from other people. As parents we learn that we are probably their most important teachers. You are the first person in their lives and most important for some time. A child learns how to behave and misbehave by observing and imitating your behavior and the behavior of others. Don’t unintentionally demonstrate behavior that you wouldn’t like to see in the child. So for the T.A it is important to model only behavior that is acceptable for the child to imitate. When you are frustrated with another person it is important to remember that there might be 30 pairs of eyes watching you and learning how he/she might handle their own frustrations and conflicts in the future. Another example was a group of boys were watching “Power Rangers” a children’s program on television, there were quite allot of karate moves, later on the children were playing outdoors mimicking the moves from the program. Another example showing me that children do learn their social and academic skills from other people was when I was playing alongside a 7 year old boy in the classroom and they were all building towers. I made my own version of a house and when I looked up to see how they were getting on I noticed that two of them had made identical houses with the same colored Lego bricks. I asked them if they were going to make an upstairs and they made them independently of each other. One of the children noticed that the second layer of Lego bricks that he was building with was slightly larger than his friends and not as stable so he knocked down his top layer down and copied his. This shows that they were learning from watching other people how to correct their own mistakes. Communication and intellectual development Communication The word ‘Communication’ can be defined as; * To get your point across to others where they understand. * Through language/ body language and gestures get our point across. * Sign language or Braille. * Expressions. * Written, Radio or Computer. * Physical presence (looking). * The way we pass and receive information. * Language and development. Forms of communication Two forms of communication I have seen in the classroom are verbal and non verbal. Speaking to a child and explaining what their task is an example of verbal communication. An example of non verbal communication would be to signal or point at the child if they are behaving incorrectly or smiling at them if they are behaving correctly. Communication changes as we grow older this can be seen in the way we cry; at 0-1 months you cry whenever you need something. At 2-3 months there is difference in your cry for different needs. At 3-6 months you will respond to environmental factors such as seeing what you want or responding when it is mentioned by cooing or babbling. The way crying progresses as we grow is an example of intellectual development Intellectual devlopment / c0gnitive development Cognitive / Constructivist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Piaget believed that the way children think and learn is governed by their age and stage of development, because learning is based on experiences which they build up as they become older. As children’s experiences change, they adapt what they believe; for example a child who only ever sees green apples will believe that all apples are green. Children need to extend their experiences in order to extend their learning, and will eventually take ownership of this themselves so that they can think about experiences that they have not yet developed. Bandura (social learning theory) Bandura’s approach was also one of behaviorism; in other words it accepts the principles of conditioning. However, Bandura stated that learning takes place through observing others rather than being taught or reinforced. Children will sometimes simply copy the behavior or activities of adults or their peers without being told to do so, meaning their learning are spontaneous. B F Skinner (conditioning or trial and error) Skinner suggests that children will respond to praise and so will repeat behavior that gives them recognition or praise. This may take the simple form of verbal praise, which is very powerful, or stamps, stickers or merit marks. Children who receive praise or attention for positive behavior, such as kindness towards others are more likely to repeat this behavior. Children may also attempt to gain attention through undesirable behavior, so you will need to be aware of this and try to ignore it where possible, instead giving attention to those children who are behaving well. Lev Vygotsky Children are more likely to understand and develop skills if they are allowed to discover things for themselves. Your own role should be viewed as FACILITOR. Lev Vygotsky stressed the importance of the adult to provide activities which are both achievable and challenging. He called the stage when children had achieved their target by reaching a level of understanding or had mastered something the zone of actual development. At this stage children are able to work independently. The stage when children are working towards their targets he called the zone of proximal development! At this stage children are able to achieve with some help and support from an adult. ------------------------------------------------- ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT what children can do with support of an adult. ------------------------------------------------- ZONE OF ACTUAL DEVELOPMENT what children can do independently. Jerome Bruner Jerome Bruner built on Vygotsky’s theory. He used the term “scaffolding” to describe the assistance given to children to support them to achieve the next level of learning. As children begin to understand a concept or master a new skill, the scaffolding or assistance can be gradually removed as they begin to work independently. At this stage there is a review of learning and children will begin to work towards a new set of targets The Sensorimotor Stage The Sensorimotor Stage is the first stage Piaget uses to define cognitive development. During this period, infants are busy discovering relationships between their bodies and the environment. Researchers have discovered that infants have relatively well developed sensory abilities. The child relies on seeing, touching, sucking, feeling, and using their senses to learn things about themselves and the environment. Piaget calls this the sensorimotor stage because the early manifestations of intelligence appear from sensory perceptions and motor activities. Countless informal experiments during the sensorimotor stage led to one of the important achievements. They enable the infant to develop the concept of separate selves, that is, the infant realizes that the external world is not an extension of themselves. The sensorimotor stage is also marked by the child's increasing ability to coordinate separate activities. An example of the fundamental importance of this is coordination between looking and reaching, without this an action as simple as picking up an object is not possible. Infants realise that an object can be moved by a hand (concept of causality), and develop notions of displacement and events. An important discovery during the latter part of the sensorimotor stage is the concept of "object permanence". Object permanence is the awareness that an object continues to exist even when it is not in view. In young infants, when a toy is covered by a piece of paper, the infant immediately stops and appears to lose interest in the toy (see figure above). This child has not yet mastered the concept of object permanence. In older infants, when a toy is covered the child will actively search for the object, realizing that the object continues to exist. After a child has mastered the concept of object permanence, the emergence of directed groping" begins to take place. With directed groping, the child begins to perform motor experiments in order to see what will happen. During directed groping, a child will vary his movements to observe how the results will differ. The child learns to use new means to achieve an end. The child discovers he can pull objects toward himself with the aid of a stick or string, or tilt objects to get them through the bars of his playpen. The child begins to recognise cause-and-effect relationships at this stage, allowing the development of intentionally. Once a child knows what the effects of his activities will be, he can intend these effects. . The Preoperational Stage In the preoperational stage a child will react to all similar objects as though they are identical (Lefrancois, 1995). At this time all women are 'Mummy' and all men 'Daddy'. While at this level a child's thought is transductive. This means the child will make inferences from one specific to another (Carlson & Buskist, 1997). This leads to a child looking at the moon and reasoning; 'My ball is round, that thing there is round; therefore that thing is a ball' . From the age of about 4 years until 7 most children go through the Intuitive period. This is characterized by egocentric, perception-dominated and intuitive thought which is prone to errors in classification (Lefrancois, 1995). Most preoperational thinking is self-centred, or Egocentric. According to Piaget, a preoperational child has difficulty understanding life from any other perspective than his own. In this time, the child is very me, myself, and I oriented. Egocentrism [ 2 ] is very apparent in the relationship between two preschool children. Imagine two children are playing right next to each other, one playing with a colouring book and the other with a doll. They are talking to each other in sequence, but each child is completely oblivious to what the other is saying. Julie: "I love my dolly, her name is Tina" Carol: "I'm going to colour the sun yellow" Julie: "She has long, curly hair like my auntie" Carol: "Maybe I'll colour the trees yellow, too" Julie: "I wonder what Tina's eyes are made of'" Carol: "I lost my orange crayon" Julie: " I know her eyes are made of glass." These types of exchanges are called "collective monologues". This type of monologue demonstrates the "egocentrism" of children's thinking in this stage. According to Piaget, egocentrism of the young child leads them to believe that everyone thinks as they do, and that the whole world shares their feelings and desires. This sense of oneness with the world leads to the child's assumptions of magic omnipotence. Not only is the world created for them, they can control it. This leads to the child believing that nature is alive, and controllable. This is a concept of egocentrism known as "animism", the most characteristic of egocentric thought. Closely related to animism is artificialism, or the idea that natural phenomena are created by human beings. Such as the sun is created by a man with a match. "Realism" is the child's notion that their own perspective is objective and absolute. The child thinks from one perspective and regards this reality as absolute. Names, for example, are real to the child. The child can't realize that names are only verbal labels, or conceive the idea that they could have been given a different name. During the pre-operational period, the child begins to develop the use of symbols (but can not manipulate them), and the child is able to use language and words to represent things not visible. Also, the pre-operational child begins to master conservation problems. By the age of four children are developing a more complete understanding of concepts and tend to have stopped reasoning tranductively (Lefrancois, 1995). However their thought is dominated more by perception than logic. This is clearly illustrated by conservation experiments. In such an experiment a pre-operational child may be shown two balls of clay, that the child acknowledges are equal in size, one of which is then squashed. The child is now asked if both lots of clay are equal. A child at this stage will say they are no longer equal. Although the child is still unable to think in a truly logical fashion, they may begin to treat objects as part of a group. The pre-operational child may have difficulty with classification. This is because, to a pre-operational child, the division of a parent class into subclasses destroys the parent group (Lefrancois, 1995). For example, a child has a pile of toy vehicles which are then split into trucks and cars. Next the child is asked 'Tell me, are there more trucks than vehicles, or less, or the same number'' the child will almost always say there are more trucks than vehicles! In the latter part of the preoperational period, the child begins to have an understanding between reality and fantasy. The Concrete Operational Stage During this stage, children begin to reason logically, and organize thoughts coherently. However, they can only think about actual physical objects, and cannot handle abstract reasoning. They have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts. This stage is also characterized by a loss of egocentric thinking. During this stage, the child has the ability to master most types of conservation experiments, and begins to understand reversibility. Conservation is the realization that quantity or amount does not change when nothing has been added or taken away from an object or a collection of objects, despite changes in form or spatial arrangement. The concrete operational stage is also characterized by the child’s ability to coordinate two dimensions of an object simultaneously, arrange structures in sequence, and transpose differences between items in a series. The child is capable of concrete problem-solving. Categorical labels such as "number" or "animal" are now available to the child. Logic: Piaget determined that children in the concrete operational stage were fairly good at the use of inductive logic. Inductive logic involves going from a specific experience to a general principle. On the other hand, children at this age have difficulty using deductive logic, which involves using a general principle to determine the outcome of a specific event. Reversibility: One of the most important developments in this stage is an understanding of reversibility, or awareness that actions can be reversed. An example of this is being able to reverse the order of relationships between mental categories. For example, a child might be able to recognize that his or her dog is a Labrador, that a Labrador is a dog, and that a dog is an animal. A large portion of the defining characteristics of the stage can be understood in terms of the child overcoming the limits of stage two, known as the pre-operational stage. The pre-operational child has a number of cognitive barriers which are subsequently broken down, and it is important to note that overcoming these obstacles is not due to gradual improvement in abilities the child already possesses. Rather the changes are genuine qualitative shifts, corresponding to new abilities being acquired. The first, and most discussed, of these limitations is egocentrism. The pre-operational child has a “'self-centred' view of the world” (Smith, Cowie and Blades, 2003, p. 399), meaning that she has difficulty understanding that other people may see things differently, and hence hold a differing point of view. Piaget's classic test for egocentrism is the three mountains task (Piaget and Inhelder, 1956), which concrete operational thinkers can complete successfully. A second limitation which is overcome in the concrete operational stage is the perceptual domination of one aspect of a situation. Before the stage begins, the child's perception of any situation or problem will be dominated by one aspect; this is best illustrated by the failure of pre-operational children to pass Piaget's conservation tasks (Piaget and Inhelder, 1974). Perhaps the most important limitation, yet the most difficult to describe and measure, is that of the turn to logical operators. A pre-operational child will use mostly simple, heuristic strategies in problem solving. Once a child reaches the concrete operational stage, they will be in possession of a completely new set of strategies, allowing problem solving using logical rules. This new ability manifests itself most clearly in children's justifications for their answers. Concrete operational thinkers will explicitly state their use of logical rules in problem solving (Harris and Butterworth, 2002). This area also indicates the way in which the concrete operational stage can be negatively defined; although children can now use logical strategies, these can only be applied to concrete, immediately present objects. Thinking has become logical, but is not yet abstract. These shifts in the child's thinking lead to a number of new abilities which are also major, positively defined characteristics of the concrete operational stage. The most frequently cited ability is conservation. Now that children are no longer perceptually dominated by one aspect of a situation, they can track changes much more easily and recognise that some properties of an object will persevere through change. Conservation is always gained in the same order, firstly with respect to number, followed secondly by weight, and thirdly by volume. A second new ability gained in the concrete operational stage is reversibility. This refers to the ability to mentally trace backwards, and is of enormous help to the child in both their problem solving and the knowledge they have of their own problem solving. For the former this is because they can see that in a conservation task, for example, the change made could be reversed to regain the original properties. With respect to knowledge of their own problem solving, they become able to retrace their mental steps, allowing an entirely new level of reflection. Concrete operational children also gain the ability to structure objects hierarchically, known as classification. This includes the notion of class inclusion, e.g. understanding an object being part of a subset included within a parent set, and is shown on Piaget's inclusion task, asking children to identify, out of a number of brown and white wooden beads, whether there were more brown beads or wooden beads (Piaget, 1965). Seriation is another new ability gained during this stage, and refers to the child's ability to order objects with respect to a common property. A simple example of this would be placing a number of sticks in order of height. An important new ability which develops from the interplay of both seriation and classification is that of numeration. Whilst pre-operational children are obviously capable of counting, it is only during the concrete operational stage that they become able to apply mathematical operators, thanks to their abilities to order things in terms of number (seriation) and to split numbers into sets and subsets (classification), enabling more complex multiplication, division and so on. Finally, and also following the development of seriation, is transitive inference. This is the name given to children's ability to compare two objects via an intermediate object. So for instance, one stick could be deemed to be longer than another by both being individually compared to another (third) stick The Formal Operational Stage The Formal Operational stage [ 3 ] is the final stage in Piaget's theory. It begins at approximately 11 to 12 years of age, and continues throughout adulthood, although Piaget does point out that some people may never reach this stage of cognitive development. The formal operational stage is characterized by the ability to formulate hypotheses and systematically test them to arrive at an answer to a problem. The individual in the formal stage is also able to think abstractly and to understand the form or structure of a mathematical problem. Another characteristic of the individual is their ability to reason contrary to fact. That is, if they are given a statement and asked to use it as the basis of an argument they are capable of accomplishing the task. For example, they can deal with the statement "what would happen if snow were black". Notes Note 1: Although Piaget attached ages to each stage (Sensorimotor Period - birth to 2 years, PreOperational Thought- 2 to 6 or 7 years, Concrete Operations -6/7 to 11/12, & Formal Operations - 11/12 to adult), these were only rough guidelines and it is the universal sequence of the stages, not the age, which is by far the most important aspect. Regarding the issue of cross-cultural differences, this does cause more trouble for Piaget, but he still explicitly allows for the fact that abilities may show up at different times on different tasks, but it is the underlying mechanisms and strategies that he is concerned with. [ BACK ] Note 2: Egocentrism In psychology, egocentrism is defined as a) the incomplete differentiation of the self and the world, including other people and b) the tendency to perceive, understand and interpret the world in terms of the self. The term derives from the Greek egô, meaning "I." An egocentric person has no theory of mind, cannot "put himself in other people's shoes," and believes everyone sees what he sees (or that what he sees in some way exceeds what others see.) It appears that this is shown mostly in younger children. They are unable to separate their own beliefs,thoughts and ideas from others. For example, if a child sees that there is candy in a box, he assumes that someone else walking into the room also knows that there is candy in that box. He reasons that "since I know it, you should too". As stated previously this may be rooted in the limitations in the child's theory of mind skills. However, it does not mean that children are unable to put their selves in someone else's shoes. As far as feelings are concerned, it is shown that children exhibit empathy early on and are able to cooperate with others and be aware of their needs and wants. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) claimed that young children are egocentric. This does not mean that they are selfish, but that they do not have the mental ability to understand that other people may have different opinions and beliefs from themselves. Piaget did a test to investigate egocentrism called the mountains study. He put children in front of a simple plaster mountain range and then asked them to pick from four pictures the view that he, Piaget, would see. Younger children picked the picture of the view they themselves saw. However the Mountains Study has been criticized for judging children's visual spatial awareness, rather than egocentrism. A follow up study involving police dolls showed that even young children were able to correctly say what the interviewer would see. It is thought that Piaget overestimated the levels of egocentrism in children[ BACK ] having certain behaviors rewarded and others discouraged. Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development The most well-known and influential theory of cognitive development is that of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980). Piaget's theory, first published in 1952, grew out of decades of extensive observation of children, including his own, in their natural environments as opposed to the laboratory experiments of the behaviourists. Although Piaget was interested in how children reacted to their environment, he proposed a more active role for them than that suggested by learning theory. He envisioned a child's knowledge as composed of schemas, basic units of knowledge used to organize past experiences and serve as a basis for understanding new ones. Schemas are continually being modified by two complementary processes that Piaget termed assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation refers to the process of taking in new information by incorporating it into an existing schema. In other words, people assimilate new experiences by relating them to things they already know. On the other hand, accommodation is what happens when the schema itself changes to accommodate new knowledge. According to Piaget, cognitive development involves an ongoing attempt to achieve a balance between assimilation and accommodation that he termed equilibration. At the centre of Piaget's theory is the principle that cognitive development occurs in a series of four distinct, universal stages, each characterized by increasingly sophisticated and abstract levels of thought. These stages always occur in the same order, and each builds on what was learned in the previous stage. They are as follows: * Sensorimotor stage (infancy): In this period, which has six sub-stages, intelligence is demonstrated through motor activity without the use of symbols. Knowledge of the world is limited, but developing, because it is based on physical interactions and experiences. Children acquire object permanence at about seven months of age (memory). Physical development (mobility) allows the child to begin developing new intellectual abilities. Some symbolic (language) abilities are developed at the end of this stage. * Pre-operational stage (toddlerhood and early childhood): In this period, which has two sub stages, intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, language use matures, and memory and imagination are developed, but thinking is done in a non-logical, non-reversible manner. Egocentric thinking predominates. * Concrete operational stage (elementary and early adolescence): In this stage, characterized by seven types of conservation (number, length, liquid, mass, weight, area, and volume), intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. Operational thinking develops (mental actions that are reversible). Egocentric thought diminishes. * Formal operational stage (adolescence and adulthood): In this stage, intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts. Early in the period there is a return to egocentric thought. Only 35 percent of high school graduates in industrialized countries obtain formal operations; many people do not think formally during adulthood. The most significant alternative to the work of Piaget has been the information-processing approach, which uses the computer as a model to provide new insight into how the human mind receives, stores, retrieves, and uses information. Researchers using information-processing theory to study cognitive development in children have focused on areas such as the gradual improvements in children's ability to take in information and focus selectively on certain parts of it and their increasing attention spans and capacity for memory storage. For example, researchers have found that the superior memory skills of older children are due in part to memorization strategies, such as repeating items in order to memorize them or dividing them into categories. Infancy As soon as they are born, infants begin learning to use their senses to explore the world around them. Most newborns can focus on and follow moving objects, distinguish the pitch and volume of sound, see all colours and distinguish their hue and brightness, and start anticipating events, such as sucking at the sight of a nipple. By three months old, infants can recognize faces; imitate the facial expressions of others, such as smiling and frowning; and respond to familiar sounds. At six months of age, babies are just beginning to understand how the world around them works. They imitate sounds, enjoy hearing their own voice, recognize parents, fear strangers, distinguish between animate and inanimate objects, and base distance on the size of an object. They also realize that if they drop an object, they can pick it up again. At four to seven months, babies can recognize their names. By nine months, infants can imitate gestures and actions, experiment with the physical properties of objects, understand simple words such as "no," and understand that an object still exists even when they cannot see it. They also begin to test parental responses to their behaviour, such as throwing food on the floor. They remember the reaction and test the parents again to see if they get the same reaction. At 12 months of age, babies can follow a fast moving object; can speak two to four words, including "mama" and "papa"; imitate animal sounds; associate names with objects; develop attachments to objects, such as a toy or blanket; and experience separation anxiety when away from their parents. By 18 months of age, babies are able to understand about 10–50 words; identify body parts; feel a sense of ownership by using the word "my" with certain people or objects; and can follow directions that involve two different tasks, such as picking up toys and putting them in a box. Toddlerhood Between 18 months to three years of age, toddlers have reached the "sensorimotor" stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development that involves rudimentary thought. For instance, they understand the permanence of objects and people, visually follow the displacement of objects, and begin to use instruments and tools. Toddlers start to strive for more independence, which can present challenges to parents concerned for their safety. They also understand discipline and what behaviour is appropriate and inappropriate, and they understand the concepts of words like "please" and "thank you." Two-year-olds should be able to understand 100 to 150 words and start adding about ten new words per day. Toddlers also have a better understanding of emotions, such as love, trust, and fear. They begin to understand some of the ordinary aspects of everyday life, such as shopping for food, telling time, and being read to. Preschool Preschoolers, age’s three to six, should be at the "preoperational" stage of Piaget's cognitive development theory, meaning they are using their imagery and memory skills. They should be conditioned to learning and memorizing, and their view of the world is normally very self-cantered. Preschoolers usually have also developed their social interaction skills, such as playing and cooperating with other children their own age. It is normal for preschoolers to test the limits of their cognitive abilities, and they learn negative concepts and actions, such as talking back to adults, lying, and bullying. Other cognitive development in preschoolers are developing an increased attention span, learning to read, and developing structured routines, such as doing household chores. School Age Younger school-age children, six to 12 years old, should be at the "concrete operations" stage of Piaget's cognitive development theory, characterized by the ability to use logical and coherent actions in thinking and solving problems. They understand the concepts of permanence and conservation by learning that volume, weight, and numbers may remain constant despite changes in outward appearance. These children should be able to build on past experiences, using them to explain why some things happen. Their attention span should increase with age, from being able to focus on a task for about 15 minutes at age six to an hour by age nine. Adolescents, ages 12 through 18, should be at the "formal operations" stage of Piaget's cognitive development theory. It is characterized by an increased independence for thinking through problems and situations. Adolescents should be able to understand pure abstractions, such as philosophy and higher math concepts. During this age, children should be able to learn and apply general information needed to adapt to specific situations. They should also be able to learn specific information and skills necessary for an occupation. A major component of the passage through adolescence is a cognitive transition. Compared to children, adolescents think in ways that are more advanced, more efficient, and generally more complex. This ability can be seen in five ways. First, during adolescence individuals become better able than children to think about what is possible, instead of limiting their thought to what is real. Whereas children's thinking is oriented to the here and now—that is, to things and events that they can observe directly—adolescents are able to consider what they observe against a backdrop of what is possible; they can think hypothetically. Second, during the passage into adolescence, individuals become better able to think about abstract ideas. For example, adolescents find it easier than children to comprehend the sorts of higher-order, abstract logic inherent in puns, proverbs, metaphors, and analogies. The adolescent's greater facility with abstract thinking also permits the application of advanced reasoning and logical processes to social and ideological matters. This is clearly seen in the adolescent's increased facility and interest in thinking about interpersonal relationships, politics, philosophy, religion, and morality. Third, during adolescence individuals begin thinking more often about the process of thinking itself, or metacognition. As a result, adolescents may display increased introspection and self-consciousness. Although improvements in metacognitive abilities provide important intellectual advantages, one potentially negative by-product of these advances is the tendency for adolescents to develop a sort of egocentrism, or intense preoccupation with the self. A fourth change in cognition is that thinking tends to become multidimensional, rather than limited to a single issue. Whereas children tend to think about things one aspect at a time, adolescents can see things through more complicated lenses. Adolescents describe themselves and others in more differentiated and complicated terms and find it easier to look at problems from multiple perspectives. Being able to understand that people's personalities are not one-sided or that Cognitive development | | | | Pre-linguistic stageOne month | The pre-linguistic phase is the time period before children say their first meaningful words which lasts from approximately 0-12 months. During this time infants bring attention to objects non-verbally by pointing and touching. Watch person when spoken to. At 6 weeks an infant will cry, coo, and babble. | Two months | Smiles at familiar person talking. Begins to follow moving person with eyes. | Four months | Shows interest in bottle, breast, familiar toy, or new surroundings. | Five months | Smiles at own image in mirror. Looks for fallen objects. | Six months | -Ma ma May stick out tongue in imitation. Laughs at peek-a-boo game. Vocalizes at mirror image. May act shy around strangers. | Seven months | Responds to own name. Tries to establish contact with a person by cough or other noise. | Eight months | Reaches for toys out of reach. Responds to "no." | Nine months | Da da, dat ,dink. Simple words put together. Shows like and dislikes. May try to prevent face-washing or other activity that is disliked. Shows excitement and interest in foods or toys that are well-liked. | Ten months | Starts to understand some words. Waves bye-bye. Holds out arm or leg for dressing. | Eleven months | Repeats performance that is laughed at. Likes repetitive play. Shows interest in books. | Twelve months | Waving bye connecting with physical skills. – Tone commands – no. May understand some "where is...'" questions. May kiss on request. | Fifteen months | Asks for objects by pointing. Starting to feed self. Negativism begins. | Eighteen months | Points to familiar objects when asked "where is...'" Mimics familiar adult activities. Know some body parts. Obeys two or three simple orders. | Two years | Between 18 -24 months children will have a more extensive vocabulary. It will increase between 10 -30 words a month. (By 2 can understand about 200 words and can understand two languages.) Names a few familiar objects. Draws with crayons. Obeys found simple orders. Participates in parallel play. | Two-and-a-half years | Between 2-3 lots of questions (why') Lots more extensive vocabulary and longer sentences and able to do more for themselves. Names several common objects. Begins to take interest in sex organs. Gives full names. Helps to put things away. Peak of negativism. | Three years | Between 3-4 there is more use of grammar (Bit mixed up). Virtuous errors mimic body language and adult’s .Constantly asks questions. May count to 10. Begins to draw specific objects. Dresses and undresses doll. Participates in cooperative play. Talks about things that have happened. | Four years | Has achieved a degree of fluency. May make up silly words and stories (jokes) rhymes. Beginning to draw pictures that represent familiar things. Development in reading and writing Pretends to read and write. May recognize a few common words, such as own name. | Five years 7-19 | Develop skills in reading and writing. Can recognize and reproduce many shapes, letters, and numbers. Tells long stories. Begins to understand the difference between real events and make-believe ones. Asks meaning of words. | Social situations can have different interpretations depending on one's point of view permits the adolescent to have far more sophisticated and complicated relationships with other people. Finally, adolescents are more likely than children to see things as relative, rather than absolute. Children tend to see things in absolute terms—in black and white. Adolescents, in contrast, tend to see things as relative. They are more likely to question others' assertions and less likely to accept facts as absolute truths. This increase in relativism can be particularly exasperating to parents, who may feel that their adolescent children question everything just for the sake of argument. Difficulties often arise, for example, when adolescents begin seeing their parents' values as excessively relative.