PSYC 2314 Lifespan Development

1. PSYC 2314Lifespan Development Chapter 9 The Play Years: Cognitive Development

2. How Young Children Think • Piaget’s Preoperational Thought • Symbolic thought • Centration • Egocentrism • Conservation

3. How Young Children Think • Vygotsky: Children as Apprentices • Guided participation • Zone of proximal development (ZPD) • Scaffolding

4. Vygotsky’s • Believed that language advances thinking in two ways: • Private speech • Social mediation

5. Piaget Active learning Egocentrism Structure Symbolic thought Vygotksy Guided participation Apprenticeship in thinking Scaffold Proximal development Comparing Piaget and Vygotsky

6. Children’s Memory • Abilities and Limitations • Deficient in storage and retrieval skills • Do not attend to the features of an event that are most pertinent to adults • Scripts: skeletal outlines of the usual sequence of events during certain common, recurring experiences. • Meaningful past experiences

7. Children’s Eyewitness Testimony • When children are required to give eyewitness testimony, they should be provided a structure sequence that enhances their ability to remember accurately. • Children should be interviewed by a neutral professional who asks specific but not misleading questions in a friendly—not stern or shocked—manner.

8. Children’s Eyewitness Testimony • The interview of a child should occur only once, soon after the event, and be videotaped for later trial use. • Although young children can provide accurate details concerning what happened, remembering who was involved may be more difficult. • Children sometimes add false information to follow a script that makes sense to them, especially if a long delay occurs between the event and the account.

9. Theory of Mind • An understanding of human mental processes: • Clearly distinguish between mental phenomena and the physical events to which they refer • Appreciate how mental phenomena (like beliefs, expectations, and desires) can arise from experiences in the real world • Understand that mental phenomena are subjective

10. Theory of Mind • An understanding of human mental processes: • Recognize that people have differing opinions and preferences • Realize that beliefs and desires can form the basis for human action • Realize that emotion arises not only from physical events but also from goals and expectations

11. Theory of Mind • Preschoolers’ conceptual growth quickly becomes enlisted for practical purposes, such as persuasion, sympathy, and teasing. • Theory of mind is strengthened by a combination of factors: brain maturation, language ability, having at least one sibling, and culture.

12. Language • Fast mapping: used by children to add words to their vocabulary, the process of hearing word once or twice and then quickly defining it by categorizing it with other words.

13. Language • Young children have greater difficulty with abstract nouns as well as with words that express comparisons or relationships. • Have difficulty understanding metaphors and analogies • By age 3, children typically demonstrate extensive grammatical knowledge.

14. Preschool Education • Characteristics of high-quality preschool programs: • Low teacher-child ratio • Well-trained staff • A curriculum geared toward cognitive development rather than behavioral control • An organization of space that facilitates creative and constructive play.

15. Head Start • Children score higher on achievement tests, have higher grades, and less likely to be placed in special classes or develop a criminal record.