When evaluating a preschool one of the things some parents will look at is academics that are taught to their child.

1- What are the most important things a parent should be looking for when deciding placement in a

preschool?

2-  How do parents evaluate skill development with regards to problem solving, make-believe and artistic activities within

a preschool?  Explain why these factors may be important for this evaluation?

 

Criteria/ 300 Level   Forum Rubric

Possible Points

Student Points

 

Initial post

 

Analyzed the   question(s), fact(s), issue(s), etc. and provided well-reasoned and   substantive answers.

20

 

Supported ideas and   responses using appropriate examples and references from texts, professional   and/or academic websites, and other references.  (All references must be   from professional and/or academic sources. Websites such as Wikipedia,   about.com, and others such as these are NOT acceptable.)

20

 

Post meets the 300   word minimum requirement and is free from spelling/grammar errors

10

 

Timeliness:    initial post meets the Wed deadline

10

CHFD 308 | WEEK 7
Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

In this lesson, you will learn about four main ideas that revolve around cognitive development in early childhood. In general, early childhood is roughly between the ages of two and seven years old. Children go through great amounts of change during this time of their life, especially in the realm of cognitive development and advancement.

TOPICS TO BE COVERED INCLUDE:

· The advances in mental representation during the preschool years, including changes in make-believe play

· The advances in attention, memory, and problem-solving during childhood

· The development of vocabulary, grammar, and conversational skills in early childhood

· The factors that support language learning in early childhood

Advances in Mental Representation

Make-believe play has spurred enormous amounts of research, especially made by psychologist and developmental biologist Jean Piaget. Jean Piaget believed that sensorimotor activity is truly what leads to internal images of experience. In other words, he believed that significant advances are made in mental representation as children move from sensorimotor thought to preoperational thoughts.

MENTAL REPRESENTATION

REPRESENTATIONAL SCHEMES

SOCIO-DRAMATIC PLAY

MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY CONTRIBUTES TO DEVELOPMENT

LANGUAGE ROLE IN COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

How Make-Believe Develops

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· As a result of conducted research it is observed that make-believe play develops in stages. There are three important changes that reflect the preschool child’s growing symbolic mastery.

Benefits of Make-Believe Play

· BENEFIT OF MAKE-BELIEVE PLAY

· SOCIODRAMATIC PLAY

· IMPROVEMENTS IN COGNITIVE CAPACITY

· METACOGNITION

Undoubtedly, children benefit when they participate in make-believe play. Not only does make-believe play reflect the way children are thinking and cognitively developing, but it also contributes to or has an effect on children’s cognitive and social skills.

Information Processing

Over the course of early childhood, brains mature and more real-world experiences happen on a daily basis. As a result of that, advances in information processing, such as attention, memory, and problem solving, start taking place. These happenings allow children to become more efficient thinkers and grow metacognitively. It is through these practices that children begin to process information.

Information processing is a term for the cognitive operations and mental strategies that children use to make connections with and transform events and experiences into their mental systems. The various components of executive function that enable children to succeed in cognitively challenging situations – attention, impulse control, working memory, and planning – show impressive gains, leading to more efficient and flexible ways of manipulating information and solving problems, at this stage.

Facets of information Processing: Attention and Memory

Most of us have had conversations about “attention span.” Some people have greater attention spans than others, where they can hold their focus on something for a longer period of time. It is important to note that children’s attention is developed as their information processing develops.

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· Attention is selecting certain events or objects to focus on long enough to gain needed information without being distracted.

Recognition, Recall, and Episodic Memory

· Recognition

· Recall

· Episodic

Memory can also be broken into several other categories: recognition, recall, and episodic.

RECOGNITION

RECALL

EPISODIC

Problem Solving

Problem-solving is the mental process of recognizing, discovering, defining, identifying alternative plans to resolve, choosing a plan, organizing steps, implementing steps, and evaluating the outcome.

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· Problem-solving is a type of information processing. The act of planning shows improvement during early childhood. The child’s ability to think ahead about a sequence of acts or a series of steps is complex thinking. Children this age are especially successful at completing this task if the task is simple and familiar, which is related to their working memory.

Metacognition, Theory of the Mind

· DEFINITION OF METACOGNITION

· METACOGNITION AT AGES 1 AND 2

· METACOGNITION AT AGE 3

· METACOGNITION AT AGE 4

Metacognition is reflection on one’s own thought processes; the “theory of mind.” As mental representation and problem-solving improve, children begin to reflect on thought processes. In other words, they begin to construct a ‘theory of mind: a coherent set of ideas about mental activities. As with many other areas of thinking related to the brain, in this case, the left-prefrontal cortex is utilized.

Speech and Language Development

The first three years of a child’s life are essential when it comes to speech and language development. It is during these years that children journey through vocabulary building, grammar rules, and become conversational beings. This intense period of language acquisition is essential for children so they can continue to develop such skills.

EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

COMMUNICATION RELATED TO COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

INFANTS’ SPEECH RECOGNITION

COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the body of words known to someone. It builds slowly, then rapidly turns into babbling, then becomes more meaningful speech. The timeline below describes the growth of the average child’s vocabulary.

INFANCY

TODDLER

PRESCHOOLER

FAST MAPPING

FIRST NOUNS, THEN VERBS

BOOTSTRAPPING

Grammar

Grammar is how words are combined into meaningful phrases and sentences.

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· At age two, children begin speaking in simple sentences and follow the subject-verb order for English speaking children. Children that communicate in other languages use the word order pattern that they hear.

Conversation

Conversation is when there is engagement in effective and appropriate communication. When participating in a conversation, children need to understand that when talking, it is important to take turns. They also need to know that conversations need to stay on a topic. They need to state the message clearly if they want to convey information. And further, children must conform to their culture’s language rules, called pragmatics.

 

Age

Milestone

 

Birth to 3 months

Attend to speaker’s   mouth or eyes; move in response to voice; express feelings by cooing,   gurgling, crying; tries to imitate sounds.

 

4 to 6 months

Exchange facial   expressions (like smiling), vocalize to objects; laugh; babble to gain   attention; show pleasure by vocalizing; listen to others’ conversations.

 

7 to 9 months

Continue making and   repeating babbling sounds, start adding gestures to noises being made.

 

9 to 12 months

Use body language and   facial expression to convey feelings.

 

12 to 24 months

Carry on conversations   with toys, self, and others.

 

By 2 years

Skilled conversationalist;   taking turns talking; can respond and ask questions.

 

By 3 years

Sustains interaction   over several turns in a conversation; maintains topic of conversation.

 

By 4 years

Adapt to social   expectations; adapt to stereotypical expectations; for example: more dominant   when playing male roles, more polite when playing female roles.

Language Learning Support

· THE INFLUENCE OF SIBLINGS

· RICH ADULT CONVERSATION BENEFITS LANGUAGE SKILLS

· CONVERSATIONS

· CORRECTING ERRORS

If a child has siblings, then that child is immersed in conversation between siblings and parents and may try to join in on conversations. Having siblings is related to pragmatics.

Children monitor conversations between siblings and parents and may even try to join in the conversation. When the child who is developing their language skills does get to interact in the conversation, the conversations last longer and more turns are taken during talking.

Correcting Inaccuracies

Two strategies are effective and lead to long-lasting improvements to help correct children’s incorrect speech: recasts and expansions.

RECASTS

EXPANSIONS

ASSISTING LOW SES CHILDREN

TECHNOLOGY NOT PREFERRED

CHILDCARE

Literacy

Literacy is the ability to read and write, which is highly intertwined with language skills development. The path to literacy competency begins at birth. This can be done through book-sharing, reading together, telling stories, singing songs, and conversations. Early learners need a strong foundation in oral language; they need to both hear and speak with others. Children need to be immersed in language practices and reading. Children should also understand that print is a tool for sharing meaning and is another way to communicate. This is called “print awareness.” Children become aware of the print-rich environment when they see adults reading and writing.

Knowledge Check

1

Question 1

One of these is not an outcome of make-believe play. Which one is it?

 

Language   and literacy skills are enhanced.

 

Children   tend to be more scared.

 

Social   skills are enhanced.

I don’t know

One attempt

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Lesson Overview

In order for children’s language skill, development, and acquisition to grow, they must be exposed to opportunities to communicate with themselves, other children, and adults that use rich vocabulary. Based on research, there are several different stages (ages) at which we can expect children to start participating in make-believe play; start understanding metacognition; start communicating with others, both real and make-believe, both alive and imaginary, objects, etc.; and start understanding grammar. Exposure to these practices will improve language skills and practices.

Key Terms:

MENTAL REPRESENTATION

METACOGNITION

INFORMATION PROCESSING

ATTENTION

MEMORY

WORKING MEMORY

LONG-TERM MEMORY

IMPLICIT (NON-DECLARATIVE)

EXPLICIT (DECLARATIVE)

RECOGNITION

RECALL

EPISODIC

PROBLEM SOLVING

METACOGNITION (THEORY OF MIND)

MENTAL REPRESENTATION

VOCABULARY

GRAMMAR

CONVERSATION

LITERACY

Works Cited:

· (2010, September 24). Early childhood: physical and cognitive development. Retrieved from http://psychology.illinoisstate.edu/aehouse/213/units/7_early_childhood.htm

· Overlapping Waves – Robert Siegler et al. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://quizlet.com/47019858/overlapping-waves-robert-siegler-et-al-flash-cards/

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