WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?

Are young children selfish or just self-

centered?

Do children get confused if they hear two

languages?

Is preschool for play or learning?

Thinking During Early Childhood

Piaget: Preoperational intelligence

• Occurs between the ages of about 2 and 6

• Suggests thinking occurs in symbols, not just

via senses and motor skills (symbolic thought)

• Includes language, imagination, animism

Piaget: Preoperational Thought

Four limitations of preoperational thought that make logic difficult until about age 6.

Centration• Includes characteristic of preoperational thought

whereby a young child focuses (centers) on one idea, excluding all others; may include egocentrism

Focus on appearance• Characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a

young child ignores all attributes that are not apparent

Piaget: Preoperational Thought

Static reasoning

• Characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a

young child thinks that nothing changes. Whatever

is now has always been and always will be.

Irreversibility

• Characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a

young child thinks that nothing can be undone. A

thing cannot be restored to the way it was before a

change occurred.

Piaget: Preoperational Thought

All four characteristics of preoperational thought are evident in classic conservation task errors.

Young children fail to understand conservation of liquids because they focus (center) on what they see (appearance) noticing only the immediate (static) condition.

It does not occur to them that they could reverse the process and re-create the liquid’s level of a moment earlier (irreversibility).

Piaget: Preoperational Thought

Conservation– Principle that the amount of a substance remains the same (i.e.,

is conserved) when its appearance changes.

Demonstration of Conservation. Sarah, here at age 5., demonstrates

Piaget's conservation-of-liquids experiment.

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Types of Conservation

Volume

Number

Matter

Length

Piaget: Preoperational Thought

Limitations of Piaget’s research

• Piagetian conservation tasks require words.

• Modification of tasks resulted in better

performance of younger children.

• Piaget underestimated cognition during early

childhood.

Vygotsky: Social Learning

Vygotsky: Social learning• Every aspect of children's cognitive development is

embedded in the social context.

Apprentice in thinking• Someone whose intellectual growth is stimulated and

directed by older and more skilled members of society

Mentors• Present challenges

• Offer assistance (without taking over)

• Add crucial information

• Encourage motivation

Vygotsky: Social

Learning

Guided participation• Process by which people

learn from others who guide

their experiences and

explorations

Zone of proximal

development (ZPD)• Skills that a person can

exercise only with assistance,

not yet independently

Words Fail Me

Could you describe how to tie

shoes?

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Vygotsky: Social

Learning

Scaffolding• Temporary support that is

tailored to a learner's needs and

abilities and aimed at helping the

learner master the next task in a

given learning process.

• A large, attractive abacus could

be a scaffold. However in this toy

store, the position of the balls

suggests that no mentor is

nearby.

• Children are unlikely to grasp the

number system without a

motivating guide.

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Vygotsky: Social Learning

Overimitation

• Tendency of children to copy an action that is

not a relevant part of the behavior to be learned

• Common among 2- to 6-year-olds when they

imitate adult actions that are irrelevant and

inefficient

Vygotsky: Language As a Tool

Words are the mediator between brain potential and comprehension.

Language advances thinking

• Internal dialogue or private speech

• Social mediation

STEM learning (science, technology, engineering, math)

• Practical use of Vygotsky’s theory

• Examples: Math learning

Vygotsky: Language As a Tool

Words enable many children between 2 and 6

to learn math.

• Using one-to-one correspondence

• Remembering time and dates

• Understanding sequence

• Knowing what numbers are higher than others

Children’s Theories

Theory-theory

• Children attempt to explain everything they see

and hear.

• Theories do not appear randomly.

• Children develop theories about intentions

before they employ their impressive ability to

imitate.

Children’s Theories

Theory of mind• Involves person's theory

of what other people might be thinking

• Is slow to develop but typically beginning in most children at about age 4

• Can be seen when young children try to escape punishment by lying

Candies in the Crayon Box

Any one would expect crayons in a

crayon box, but once a child sees

that candy is inside, he expects that

everyone else will also know that

candies are inside!

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Brain and Context

What strengthens theory of mind in young

children?

• Child's ability to develop theories correlates with the

maturity of the prefrontal cortex and with advances in

executive processing.

• Context and experience are relevant.

• Context and culture matter.

Is Child Testimony Accurate?

• People of all ages misremember.

• Young children do not have adult-like

stereotypes, but they may confuse a variety of

other things.

• False ideas can be created with words and

expressions.

Brain and Context

Child’s ability to develop theories

Correlates with neurological maturation

Correlates with advances in executive processing

Language Learning

Language is pivotal to every kind of

cognition in early childhood.

• Early childhood is a sensitive period or best

time to master vocabulary, grammar, and

pronunciation.

• The average child knows about 100-2000 words

at age 2 and more than 5000 to 30000 at age 6.

Language Learning

Vocabulary explosion

• Vocabulary builds quickly and comprehension is greater than production.

• Verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and many nouns are mastered.

Fast-mapping• Speedy and sometimes imprecise way in which

children learn new words by tentatively placing them in mental categories according to their perceived meaning

Characteristic or Achievement in First

Language

Let’s take a closer look at vocabulary,

sentence length, grammar, and questions.

• Age 2 years

• Age 3 years

• Age 4 years

• Age 6 year

Words and the Limits of Logic

Logical extension

• Closely related to fast-mapping

• Occurs when children use word to

describe other objects in same category

• Bilingual children often use code-

switching.

Language Learning

Grammar of a language• Structures, techniques, and rules that communicate meaning

• Word order and word repetition, prefixes and suffixes, intonation and emphasis

Overregularization• Application of rules of grammar even when exceptions occur

• Makes language seem more “regular" than it actually is

Pragmatics• Practical use of language that includes the ability to adjust

language communication according to audience and context

Learning Two Languages

Language-minority children

• Lower school achievement, diminished self-

esteem, and inadequate employment

• Both languages sited in the same areas of their

brains

• Adult second language learners usually show

different activation sites for each language and

are slowed down.

Mastering English: The

Younger, the Better

Mastering English: The Younger, the Better

Of all the schoolchildren whose home language is not English, this is the proportion who, according to their parents, speak English well.

Immigrant children who attend school almost always master English within five years.

Should a Nation Have One Official

Language?

Positions

1. National unity is threatened by language-minority speakers.

2. International understanding is crucial and everyone should speak several languages.

Which position is best? Justify you response.

Language Losses and Gains

Language shifts

• Becoming more fluent in the school language

than in their home language

Balanced bilingual

• Being fluent in two languages, not favoring one

over the other

• Occurs if adults talk frequently, listen carefully,

and value both languages

Strategies and Experiences to Support

Literacy Learning

• Code-focused teaching

• Book reading

• Parent education

• Language enhancement

• Preschool programs

Early Childhood Education

Homes and schools

• Quality matters.

• If the home educational environment is poor, a good preschool program aids health, cognition, and social skills.

• If a family provides extensive learning opportunities and encouragement, the quality of the preschool is less crucial.

Early Childhood Education

Child-centered programs

• Stress children's natural inclination to learn through

play rather than by following adult directions.

• Encourage self-paced exploration and artistic

expression.

• Show the influence of Vygotsky, who thought that

children learn through play with other children and

through cultural practices that structure life.

Early Childhood

Education

Child-centered

programs

• Montessori schools

emphasize individual

pride and

accomplishment,

presenting literacy-

related tasks (such as

outlining letters and

looking at books). ELIZ

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Early Childhood Education

Teacher-directed programs• Stress academic subjects taught by a teacher to an

entire class

• Help children learn letters, numbers, shapes, and colors, as well as how to listen to the teacher and sit quietly

• Make a clear distinction between work and play

• Are much less expensive, since the child/adult ratio can be higher

Learning from One

Another

Every nation creates its

own version of early

education.

In this scene at a

nursery school in Kuala

Lumpur, Malaysia, note

the head coverings,

uniforms, and distance

between sexes.

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Comparing Child-Centered and Teacher-

Directed

Most child-centered programs

• Advocate child-centered programs

• Believe learning comes from within

• Resist legislative standards and academic tests

• Argue social skills and creative play are essential

Most teacher-directed programs

• Instruct, rather than facilitate learning

• Are more consistent in beliefs and behaviors

• Are often influenced by parents who want academic skills and respect for authority to be taught

Early Childhood

Education

Intervention programs: Head Start

• Most widespread early-childhood education program in the United States

• Begun in 1965 and funded by the federal government

• Initially, the program was thought to be highly successful at raising children's intelligence; ten years later, early gains were found to fade © J

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Long-Term Gains from Intensive Programs

Early intervention is effective if it is

sufficiently intense and involves effective

teachers.

Evidence

• Perry(High/Scope)

• Abecedarian

• Child-Parent Centers

Long-Term Program Effectiveness

State programs

• 40 states sponsor public education for young

children—although usually only for low-income

4-year-olds.

• Leading state is Oklahoma

• Only four states have high quality programs

(Alabama, Alaska, North Carolina, Rhode

Island).