Midterm 1
• November 13, @ 18:30-20
• Places to be announced later
• Midterm covers modules 1-8 and 15
Module 8
Infancy and Childhood
Physical/Motor Development
Cognitive Development
Infancy and Childhood:
Physical Development
 The brain is immature
at birth
 As the child matures,
the neural networks
grow increasingly more
complicated
– Rapid growth is
observed coordination
(maturation)
– in the frontal lobes
– Association areas are
the last areas to develop
 Developing brain also
enables physical
coordination
At birth
3 months
15 months
Cortical Neurons
Infancy and Childhood:
Physical Development
• Maturation
– biological growth processes that enable
orderly changes in physical coordination &
behavior
• Sit, stand, walk, run  maturation of the
cerebellum
– relatively uninfluenced by experience, the
sequence of motor/physical devepment is
universal.
During the First Year
•
•
•
•
Rolls over at 3 months
Sits without support at 6 months
Stands alone at about 11 months
Walks at just over one year old
Prop up to get a stronger back
Sit up without support
Crawling
Standing supported
Standing unsupported
Cruising
Walking
Infancy and Childhood:
Cognitive Development
 Cognition
– All the mental activities associated with
thinking, knowing, remembering, and
communicating
What is the driving force of
cognitive development? Jean
Piaget
• Mind develops through a series of stages
– Cognitive capacity develops through
children’s constant trials to make sense of the
world.
• Mind develops using schemas
– a concept or mental framework that organizes
and interprets information/experiences
• E.g. Animal, dog, love etc.
Infancy and Childhood:
Cognitive Development, J. Piaget
• Concept of Assimilation
– New cognitive elements are fitted in with old
elements or modified to fit more easily
• Concept of Accommodation
– Restructuring cognitive structures and
building new schemas so that new
information can fit into them more easily
Infancy and Childhood:
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
Development
Typical Age
Range
Description
of Stage
Developmental
Phenomena
Birth to nearly 2 years
Sensorimotor
Experiencing the world through
senses and actions (looking,
touching, mouthing)
•Object permanence
•Stranger anxiety
About 2 to 6 years
Preoperational
Representing things
with words and images
but lacking logical reasoning
•Egocentrism
•Language development
About 7 to 11 years
Concrete operational
•Conservation
Thinking logically about concrete
•Mathematical
events; grasping concrete analogies
transformations
and performing arithmetical operations
About 12 through
adulthood
Formal operational
Abstract reasoning
•Abstract logic
•Potential for
moral reasoning
Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years
old)
• Key developmental phenomon is
Object permanence (7-9 months).
– The awareness that an object continues
to exist even when you cannot see or
touch it.
Preoperational Stage
(2-7 years old)
• Children cannot
grasp the concept of
conservation.
– Understanding that
quantities of objects
can remain the same
even when their shape
changes
Conservation
• the principle that
properties such as
mass, volume, and
number remain the
same despite
changes in the
forms of objects
Conservation of Number
 Conservation of
Number
 Two identical rows
of coins
 One row is
rearranged
 “Do the two rows
have the same
number of coins?”
Preoperational Stage
(2-7 years old)
• Children cannot grasp the concept of
conservation.
• Egocentrism:
– Seeing the world from only your point of view;
the inability to take someone else’s perspective.
• Begin forming a Theory of Mind:
– People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental
states – (thoughts, emotions and beliefs) and that
these may be distinct
• People with autism have an imparied theory of mind.
Concrete Operational Stage
(7-11 years old)
• Can understand conservation
• Loss of egocentric thinking
• Begin to reason logically,
categorize objects, but they cannot
fully handle abstract reasoning
Formal Operations Stage
(12 years to adulthood)
• Abstract and hypothetical thinking (imagined
realities and symbols)
• Reason about situations not personally
experienced
• Search systematically for solutions to
problems
e.g., If John is in school, then Mary is in school.
John is in school. What can you say about
Mary?
Infants may be smarter than
Piaget’s conclusions indicate
• Baby Mathematics – 5 months
– Shown a numerically impossible outcome,
infants stare longer (Wynn, 1992)
4. Possible outcome:
Screen drops, revealing
one object.
1. Objects placed
in case.
2. Screen comes
up.
3. Object is removed.
4. Impossible outcome:
Screen drops, revealing
two objects.
Contemporary Perspectives on Piaget’s
Theory of Cognitive Development
• Cognitive development is probably more
continuous
– The beginnings of each type of thinking emerge at
earlier ages
• Social and Cultural Influences
– Role of social interactions in cognitive development.
• Stimulation, schooling
– Cultural differences in Piaget’s stages.
• Still, it is helpful for practitioners to think about
the stages of cognitive development when
dealing with young children
– Children are not passive receipients of info.