Cognitive Development Across The Lifespan

Cognitive Development Across the lifespan-

Cognitive development is the construction of thought processes. It refers to how a person perceives, thinks, and understands his/her world through the interaction of genetics and environmental factors.

Piaget's Theory- Piaget believed children's cognitive processes develop in an order of stages. The four stages consisted of sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

Vygotsky's Theory- Vygotsky believed that children learn through teaching. Like Piaget, Vygotsky thought children adapt to his/her social and cultural interactions. The zone of proximal development and scaffolding are the key concepts in Vygotsky's theory.

The differences between Piaget and Vygotsky were that Piaget thought that development came from within whereas Vygotsky believed external factors such as culture and caregivers played a more significant role.

Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development-

Sensorimotor- (Birth - 2 years) The first stage is characterized by increasingly complex

coordination of sensory experiences with motor activity. Piaget broke down the sensory stage into 6 substages:

1) Simple Reflexes: (1 month old) The infant understands it's environment through reflexes

such as sucking, visual tracking, and grasping

Ex: If you hold your finger to an infants hand, the infant will automatically grab your finger and will hold on tight

2) Primary Circular Reactions: (1 month - 4 months old) At this stage, coordination begins to take place

Ex: A child may accidently suck his thumb. Later he will intentionally repeat the action

because it was pleasurable

3) Secondary Circular Reactions: (4 months - 8 months old) The infant begins to focus on objects and environmental events. They will begin to repeat an action in order to trigger a response

Ex: A child may shake a toy in order to hear the sound it makes, like a rattle

4) Coordination of Secondary Schemes: (8 months - 12 months old) During this stage, the

infant will begin to coordinate schemes to attain specific goals. They start to explore the

environment around them and will often imitate the observed behavior of others

Ex: A child may lift a blanket to find the toy they saw placed under there earlier

5) Tertiary Circular Reactions: ( 12 months - 18 months old) This is a trial and error stage. They may deliberately try things over and over to figure out how something works

Ex: A child is given a box with shapes cut out in it and a few different shapes to fit into the cut-outs. The child will try over and over again to fit the shapes in the cut-outs until they go in the correct cut-out

6) Invention of new means through mental combinations: (18 months - 24 months old) This stage serves as a transitional stage between sensorimotor and symbolic thought. Children begin to move towards understanding the world through mental operations rather than actions.

Ex: A child is given a box with cut-outs and shapes to fit in the cut-outs. The child is able to observe the shapes in the box and the shape he is holding and put it in the correct cut-out

Preoperational- ( 2 years - 7 years old) The second stage involves children beginning to engage

in symbolic play and learning to manipulate symbols

Concrete Operational- (7 years - 12 years old) The third stage is characterized by the development of organized and rational thinking. A child can now use logical thought or operations, but can only apply logic to physical objects

Formal Operational- (11/12 years - adulthood) The fourth stage children can think about abstract and theoretical concepts. They can use logic to come up with creative solutions to problems. We also begin to see reasoning, and systematic planning at this stage

What makes each stage unique? The uniqueness between each stage is how the infant starts out discovery pleasure for itself by the brush on it's skin from a hand, to finding's it's own thumb and sucking on it. These are all acquired by innate reflexes. The child then begins to grow through sensory experiences, like the pleasure received from shaking a rattle or moving an object out of the way to get to a ball. The child then learns to manipulate objects or caregivers seek pleasure or response.

Examples of sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational:

Sensorimotor: A baby notices his Mom hid a ball under the blanket. The baby will then lift the blanket to find the ball he watched his Mom hide

Preoperational: A child playing outside might pretend that a rock is it's own pet

Concrete Operational: You show the child 4 pink blocks and 2 green blocks. You then ask the child if there are more pink blocks or more blocks. The child will be able to recognize that there are move blocks than pink blocks

Formal Operation: You show a child three blocks with three different letters, A,B, and C. If A comes before B, and B comes before C. The child will be able to interpret that A comes before C.

Vygotsky's Theory of Development- Vygotsky believes interacting with caregivers, peers, society, and teachers are an individual's process of cognitive development. This is a process of acquiring knowledge, problem solving, and beliefs from those that are more knowledgeable. The key concepts in Vygotsky's theory are "The Zone of Proximal Development" and "Scaffolding".

The Zone of Proximal Development: This is a range of tasks a child can carry out with the help of someone who is more knowledgeable.

An example of "zone of proximal development"- A child struggles to bake cupcakes on his own. But with the direction of his Mom, he is able to bake the cupcake's and eventually learn to bake it on his own

Scaffolding: skills that support the learning process, that eventually the learner does not need to rely on because the learner has mastered it on his own

An example of scaffolding- Students are learning a dance for their recital. Their teacher shows the steps one by one eventually not needed to stop between. The students will eventually be capable to doing to dance on their own

References

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[Easy, just right, too hard meter]. (n.d.). powerrackstrength.com

https://www.powerrackstrength.com/the-zone-of-proximal-development/

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