copyright © allyn & bacon 2007 what are the developmental tasks of infancy and childhood?...

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What Are theDevelopmental Tasks ofInfancy and Childhood?

Infants and children face especially important

developmental tasks in the areas of cognition and social

relationships – tasks that lay a foundation for further growth in

adolescence and adulthood

Jean Piaget and

Cognitive Development

Children undergo a revolution of thought in each stage

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Theories• Piaget's theory is based on the idea that

the developing child builds cognitive structures

• Used mental "maps" or schemas for understanding and responding to physical their environment

• Piaget's theory supposes that people develop schemas (conceptual models) by either assimilating or accommodating new information

• Showed that a child's cognitive structure increases in sophistication with development

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Cognitive Development

• The process by which thinking changes over time

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Schemas • Mental structures that

guide thinking

• According to Piaget, they are the building blocks of development

• Schemas form and change as we develop knowledge

• Right now, you are building a schema about schemas

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Assimilation

• Mental process that modifies new information to fit it into existingschemas

A baby will begin to suck o a bottle the way he or she sucked a breast

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Accommodation• Mental process

thatrestructures existingschemes so that newinformation is better understood

• Example: When children learn a butterfly is not a bird

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Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

SensorimotorSensorimotor

PreoperationalPreoperational

Concrete Concrete OperationalOperational

Formal Formal OperationalOperational

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Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

SensorimotorSensorimotor

Preoperational

Concrete Operational

Formal Operational

• Birth to about age 2Intelligence takes the form of motor actions. Experiencing the world through senses and

actions (looking, touching, mouthing)

• Sensorimotor intelligence

• Mental representations

• Object permanence

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Developmental Milestones

Mental Representation

Ability to form internal images of objects and events

Object Permanence Knowledge that an object exists independently

of one’s own actions or awareness

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Object Permanence

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Object Permanence; A not B error

Watch Object Permanence videoAt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue8y-JVhjS0&feature=related

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Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor

PreoperationalPreoperational

Concrete Operational

Formal Operational

Age 2 – 7 yearsIntelligence is intuitive in nature Representing things with words and images but

lacking logical reasoning

• Egocentrism

• Animistic thinking

• Centration

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Developmental Milestones

Egocentrism • Self-centering point of

view• The inability to realize

there are other viewpoint beside theirs.

• (the world revolves around the child and was invented for them)

“The only reason bees make honey is so I can eat it”

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Developmental Milestones

Animistic Thinking• Inanimate objects are

imagined to have life and mental process

Centration• The inability to consider

more than one factor at a time

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Developmental Milestones • Irreversibility: • The inability to think

through a series of events or mental operations and then reverse the steps

For example, a child can’t imagine pouring the juice from the tumbler back into the bottle.

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Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor

Preoperational

Concrete Concrete OperationalOperational

Formal Operational

• About age 7 to age 11

The cognitive structure is logical but depends upon actual events.

• Acquires Conservation

• Mental operations

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Developmental Milestones

• Conservation• The child in this stage

masters this ability, to logically determine that a certain quantity will remain the same despite adjustment of the container, shape, or apparent size.

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This child lacks conservation abilities…she still cannot see that both glasses have the same amount in them

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A Lack of Conservation

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Developmental Milestones

Mental Operations• Solving problems by manipulating images in

one’s mind

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.

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Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor

Preoperational

Concrete Operational

Formal Formal OperationalOperational

• From about age 12 on

• Abstract thought appears

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Developmental Milestones

• To think abstractly• To reason logically and draw conclusions from

the information available• To apply all these processes to hypothetical

situations.

• During this stage the young adult is able to understand such things as love, "shades of gray", logical proofs, and values.