How Children Learn*
Early Childhood Education I - 4.03
 Children learn best when their physical needs are
met and they feel psychologically safe and secure.
(Maslow, Erikson)
 Children construct knowledge. (Piaget)
 Children learn through social interaction with adults
and other children. (Vygotsky)
 Children’s learning reflects a recurring cycle that begins in awareness and
moves to exploration, to inquiry, and finally to utilization.
 Children learn through play.
 Children’s interests and “need to know” motivate learning.
 Human development and learning are characterized by individual variation.
(Gardner)
Guiding Principles of Child Development
1. Each child is unique.
2. Development occurs in predictable patterns.
3. Preschool-age children are active learners.
4. Many factors influence a child’s development.
5. Children with disabilities learn best in inclusive settings.
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More guiding principles of development - NAEYC
Principles of child development and learning that
inform practice
Copyright © 2009 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children 1
1. All the domains of development and learning—physical,
social and emotional, and cognitive—are important, and they are
closely interrelated. Children’s development and learning in one
domain influence and are influenced by what takes place in other
domains.
2. Many aspects of children’s learning and development follow
well documented sequences, with later abilities, skills, and
knowledge building on those already acquired.
3. Development and learning proceed at varying rates from
child to child, as well as at uneven rates across different areas of a
child’s individual functioning.
4. Development and learning result from a dynamic and continuous interaction of
biological maturation and experience.
5. Early experiences have profound effects, both cumulative and delayed, on a
child’s development and learning; and optimal periods exist for certain types of
development and learning to occur.
6. Development proceeds toward greater complexity, self-regulation, and symbolic
or representational capacities.
7. Children develop best when they have secure, consistent relationships with
responsive adults and opportunities for positive relationships with peers.
8. Development and learning occur in and are influenced by multiple social and cultural contexts.
9. Always mentally active in seeking to understand the world around them, children
learn in a variety of ways; a wide range of teaching strategies and interactions are
effective in supporting all these kinds of learning.
10. Play is an important vehicle for developing self-regulation as well as for promoting language, cognition, and social competence.
11. Development and learning advance when children are challenged to achieve at a
level just beyond their current mastery, and also when they have many opportunities to practice newly acquired skills.
12. Children’s experiences shape their motivation and approaches to learning, such
as persistence, initiative, and flexibility; in turn, these dispositions and behaviors
affect their learning and development.
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Maslow’s Motivation Theory (Heirarchy of
Needs)
Directions: Use the pyramid to label elements of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs.
Use the open space on either side to write in your own words how the items in the pyramid
are related to human motivation.
Maslow identified five human needs, and placed them in order from the lowest level need to the highest need.
The order of lowest to highest indicates that each lower need must be met before the next higher need can be
met. The needs from lowest to highest are: physical, safety and security, love and belonging, esteem, and selfactualization. Maslow’s hierarchy is often pictured in a pyramid to illustrate the order from lowest to highest.
Implication of Maslow’s theory for teaching young children. Young children are not ready to fully participate in an
early childhood learning environment until their basic physical and safety needs are met. Children who are tired,
hungry, and/or do not feel physically and/or psychologically safe and secure are unlikely to be able to participating
fully in the early childhood learning environment. These needs must be met before concentrating on helping
children learn.
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Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Directions: Use the stages to label Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development. Use the open space on the
side to write in your own words what each stage includes.
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Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development is important to
the study of early childhood education because Piaget’s ideas are
helpful in understanding the quality of thinking children at various
ages.
Unlike Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget had a long career, and died in
1980 at the age of 84. His first works were published in the 1920’s,
and his work and publications have been an inspiration to child
development researchers for the better part of the 20th century.
The purpose of this section is to clarify terms and ideas related to Piaget’s theory that are
useful in understanding the quality of children’s thinking.
Piaget’s Key Ideas About How Children Learn and Grow Intellectually
 “Children have mental structures that are different from those of adults. They are not adults in
miniature; they have their own distinct ways of determining reality and of viewing the world.
 Children’s mental development progresses through definite stages. Those stages occur in a
fixed sequence - a sequence that is the same for all children.
 Although the stages of mental development occur in a fixed order, different children move from
one stage to another at different ages. Further, a child may function in one stage for some
matters while he functions in a different stage for other matters.
 Mental development is influenced by four interrelated factors:
Maturation - physical maturing, especially of the central nervous system.
Experience - handling, moving, and thinking about concrete objects and thinking through
processes involving them.” (Charles, 1974 , 1-2)
Social Transmission - “The influential interactions with the other people that enable a child to
learn and adapt to his environment. Parents, teachers, and peers are all social influences on
the child.“ (Singer & Revenson, 1978, 134).
Equilibration - “the process of bringing maturation, experience, and socialization together so as
to build and rebuild mental structures.” (Charles,1974, 1-2)”
 “Knowledge cannot be given to children. It must be discovered and constructed through the
learners’ activities.
 Children learn best from concrete experiences.
 By nature, children are continually active. They must find out about and make sense of their world.
As they do so, they remake the mental structures that permit dealing with ever more complex
information.” (Charles, 1974 , 4)
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Terms Related to Piaget’s Theory
Assimilation - “Taking in and adapting experience or objects to one’s existing strategies or concepts.” (Bee,
1982, 225). (The child tries to fit, or assimilate, the new information into his present level of reasoning.)
Accommodation - “Modifying and adjusting one’s strategies or concepts as a result of assimilation of new
experiences or information. (Bee, 1982, 225) (The new information may result in the child’s altering, or
accommodating, his manner of thinking so that it is consistent with this new information.)
Adaptation - The child’s ability to adapt to the environment through the processes of assimilation and
accommodation.
Scheme - “A strategy or structure. Schemes are organized patterns of behavior. They may be visible actions,
such as grasping for a ball looking at faces, or they may be internal patterns or strategies, such as classifying
things into groups, comparing, adding, subtracting, etc.” (Bee, 1981, 228)
Operation - “Used to describe the more complex internal schemes (ones performed in the mind) i.e.
classification, conservation, adding, subtracting, etc. Operations permit the child to think about actions which
he/she previously had to perform physically.” (Singer & Revenson, 1978, 133)
Characteristics of Preoperational Thought
Egocentrism – “The interpretation of all events in terms of one’s own subjective experience. A lack of awareness
that there are points of view different than one’s own. The child who persists in egocentric thinking may believe
that when his soup is hot, everyone’s soup is hot.”(Singer & Revenson, 1978, 132)
Centration – “The focusing or centering on one aspect of an object and disregarding its other features. It is
difficult for a child to explore all aspects of a particular stimulus. By the elementary school age, a child can
usually decenter, or focus on all aspects of a stimulus, and incorporate them into a total plan or pattern.” Singer &
Revenson, 1978, 131)
Lack of Reversibility – “Reversibility is when the individual is able to mentally reverse the direction of his
thought. By such a process, we can add and subtract, or retrace our steps along a path.“ (Singer & Revenson,
1978, 133) Children in the preoperational stage find reversibility difficult, if not impossible.
Characteristics of Concrete Operational Thought
Conservation - (of identity, mass, liquid, number, etc.) “The ability to see that the qualities or inherent properties
of objects do not change despite a change in physical appearances.“ (Singer & Revenson, 1978, 132) (i.e. The
amount stays the same regardless of how its container changes; a person stays the same even if she puts on a
costume and a mask.)
Classification - “The grouping of objects by similar properties.” (Singer & Revenson, 1978, 131) Eventually he
can classify or divide things into sets or subsets, and consider their interrelationships. (Roses are also flowers;
brown beads are also wooden, etc. Are there more brown beads or wooden beads? This ability to answer these
questions correctly points to the child’s ability to understand class inclusion. (Bee. 1981, 237)
Seriation - (serial ordering) “To put things into order from the tallest to the shortest or darkest to lightest.
Eventually they will be able to understand that numbers have a serial order as well. (One of the relationships
within a serial order that the child learns at about this time is the concept of transitivity. For example, if Jane is
taller than Sarah, and Sarah is taller than Ann, then Jane is taller than Ann.) (Bee. 1981, 242)
Mnemonic Strategies -“A system for remembering things, such as repeating a list over to yourself.” (Bee. 1981,
255)
Animism – “The notion that inanimate objects are alive.” (Singer & Revenson, 1978, 34) (“The moon is following
our car.” “That tree pushed the leaf off, and it fell down.”) “Children often ascribe life to forces of nature, such as
wind, rivers, clouds, the sun…they reason incorrectly that they are alive because they move.” (Singer &
Revenson, 1978, 34)
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Inductive Logic – “Reasoning from the particular to the general, from experience to broad rules.” (Bee, 1982,
255) “A child can reason inductively, going from his/her own experience to a general principle. But he/she has
trouble going the other way from a general principle to some anticipated experience (deductive reasoning).
He/she has a hard time with abstract concepts when they are not linked to specific objects. He/she knows there
is more furniture than couches only when the toy furniture pieces are right there to look at and to count.” (Bee,
1981, 242)
Temporal Relationships- (time sequences) Ability to understand time concepts, i.e. time of day, yesterday,
tomorrow, last week, last year.
Spatial Relations – The ability to understand spatial relationships, i.e. constancy of shape, perspective,
proximity. Other space concepts to be learned are in front of, in back of, under, over, inside of, outside of, etc.
Characteristics of Formal Operational Thought
From Actual to Possible - “One of the first steps in this process if for a child to extend her reasoning abilities to
objects and situations which he/she has not seen or experienced first
hand. Instead of thinking only about real things and actual occurrences, he/she must start to think about
imaginary things and possible occurrences.“ (Bee, 1982, 245) A child is told this story: “A man is driving down
the road in his car; the car goes off the road, and hits a tree. Find out what happened.” To find out what
happened, the person must be able to imagine all the possible reasons for such an accident, and then organize
these imaginary possibilities. Did the driver make a mistake to cause the accident?’ ‘Did the weather cause the
accident? Did a bee sting the man driving?” (Bee, 1982, 246)
Systematic Problem Solving - “Searching systematically and methodically for the answer to a problem. (Bee,
1982, 246) A concrete operations stage child playing the game Twenty Questions will randomly ask the
questions to determine the object to win the game. A formal operations stage person will ask questions that are
more inclusive to determine the object and reduce possibilities with each question such as “Is it hanging on the
wall?, or “Is it in this half of the room?” (Bee, 1982, 245)
Deductive Logic – The more difficult kind of reasoning: “reasoning from the general to the particular, from a rule
to an expected instance, or from a theory to a hypothesis.” (Bee, 1982, 255) “A great deal of the logic of science
is of this deductive type. We begin with a theory and propose: ‘If this theory is correct, then I should observe
such and such. In doing this, we are going well beyond our observations. We are conceiving things that we have
never seen that ought to be true or observable. (Bee, 1982, 247)
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Theory of Behaviorism
Directions: The Theory of Behaviorism is about cause and effect.
Use the blocks and arrows to represent main ideas of this theory.
Use the open space to write in your own words what the theory
means to you.
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Behaviorist theory of learning (Skinner)
Here are some principles that B.F. Skinner identified in his research:
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Pleasant experiences (such as rewards or praise) are positive reinforcers. They cause
learners to make desired connections between stimuli and responses.
Unpleasant experiences (such as punishment) are negative reinforcers. They cause
learners to avoid undesirable responses to stimuli.
Continuous reinforcement increases the rate of learning.
Intermittent reinforcement contributes to longer retention of what is learned.
Both positive and negative reinforcement can shape behavior.
If people receive no acknowledgement of their behavior, they will likely change that
behavior until they receive some kind of reinforcement.
BF Skinner -Biography
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born and raised in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. He earned his BA in
English and hoped to be a writer. However, this profession did not work out, and at the age of 24, he
applied and was excepted to the psychology graduate program at Harvard. Here he happened to meet
William Crozier in the physiology department. Young Skinner was taken by Crozier, an ardent advocate
for animal studies and behavioral measures, and began to tailor his studies according to Crozier's highly
functional, behaviorist framework. Working across disciplines, he integrated methods and theories from
psychology and physiology and developed new ways of recording and analyzing data.
As he experimented with rats, Skinner noticed that the responses he was recording were influenced not
only by what preceded them but also by what followed them. The common behavioral approach at the
time was influenced by the work of Pavlov and Watson, both of whom focused on the stimulus-response
paradigm. Their form of classical conditioning focused on what occurred prior to a response and how
these stimuli affected learning. Skinner, however, focused on what occurred after a behavior, noting that
the effects or repercussions of an action could influence an organism's learning. By 1931, he had his
PhD in psychology and was well on his way to developing operant conditioning, the behaviorist
paradigm that ruled for the second part of the 20th century.
He continued to do research at Harvard until 1936, when he moved to Minneapolis with his new wife. In
1945, he and his family moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where he served as the chair of the psychology
department until 1948, when he was offered a position at Harvard. He remained at Harvard for the rest
of his intellectual career. During the 1950s and 60s, Skinner published and experimented extensively.
Working with numerous graduate student who themselves became eminent psychologists, he formalized
his theory or schedules of reinforcement and operant conditioning.
In 1957, Skinner published his book Verbal Behavior, in which he attempted to account for language
development in humans. During his later years, Skinner turned his attention to the social implications of
his theory until he of leukemia in 1990.
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Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Directions: Use the space identify and provide a brief explanation of Gardner’s
eight intelligences. Then write in your own words what the Theory of Multiple
Intelligences is all about.
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Howard Gardner viewed intelligence as 'the capacity to solve
problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or
more cultural setting' (Gardner & Hatch, 1989). He reviewed the
literature using eight criteria or 'signs' of an intelligence.
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 Howard Gardner
Background Notes
“Howard Gardner is a psychologist who has studied the development of symbolic skills in
normal and gifted children, and the impairment of such skills in brain-damaged adults.”
(Gardner, 1993a, 31) Howard Gardner was asked to participate in a research project by the
Bernard van Leer Foundation. One of the outcomes of this project is Howard Gardner’s
Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
The Beginning: The Project on Human Potential
“The Bernard van Leer Foundation of the Hague, Netherlands, is an international nonprofit
institution dedicated to the cause of disadvantaged children to realize their potential.”
(Gardner, 1993a, 31) “In 1979, the foundation asked the Harvard Graduate School of
Education to assess the state of scientific knowledge concerning human potential and its
realization. Proceeding from this general directive, a group of scholars at Harvard has over the
past several years, been engaged in research exploring the nature and realization of human
potential.” (Gardner, 1993a, 31) “The principal investigators of the Project on Human
Potential represent a variety of fields and interests” (Gardner, 1993a, 31) Three volumes have
been published, taking a multifaceted approach to issues of human potential. They include:
Frames of Mind, by Howard Gardner, Of Human Potential by Israel Scheffler, and Human
Conditions: The Cultural Basis of Educational Development by Robert LeVine and Merry
White. (Gardner, 1993a, 31-32)
Gardner’s goal in this project was to come up with a view of human thought that was
broader and more comprehensive than that which was then accepted in the cognitive
studies. He states that “there is persuasive evidence for the existence of several relatively
autonomous human intellectual competencies…the exact nature and breadth of each
intellectual ‘frame’ has not so far been satisfactorily established, nor has the precise number of
intelligences been fixed. But the conviction that there exist at least some intelligences, that
these are relatively independent of one another, and that they can be fashioned and combined
in a multiplicity of adaptive ways by individuals and cultures, seems to me to be increasingly
difficult to deny.” (Gardner, 1993a, 8-9) “In formulating my brief on behalf of multiple
intelligences, I have reviewed evidence from a large and hitherto unrelated group of sources:
studies of prodigies, gifted individuals, brain-damaged patients, idiots savants, normal children,
normal adults, experts in different lines of work, and individuals from diverse cultures.”
(Gardner, 1993a, 9) “The MI Theory is based on neurological, evolutionary, and crosscultural evidence.” (Gardner, 1993a, 12)
How Gardner’s Group Identified Intelligence
The group consulted evidence from several different sources: knowledge about normal
development, and development in gifted individuals, information about the breakdown of
cognitive skills under conditions of brain damage, studies of exceptional populations, including
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prodigies, idiots savants, autistic children, and children with learning disabilities. They also
studied data about the evolution of cognition over the millennia, cross-cultural accounts of
cognition, psychometric studies, including examinations of correlations among tests, and
psychological training studies, particularly measures of transfer and generalizations across
tasks. (Gardner, 1993b, 9)
Gardner’s Definition of Intelligence
Intelligence is the ability to solve problems, or to fashion products, that are of consequence in
a particular cultural setting or community. (Gardner, 1993b, 7)
Gardner’s Characteristics and Criteria of an Intelligence
Each intelligence must have an identifiable core operation, or set of operations. As a neural
based computational system, each intelligence is ”activated or triggered by certain kinds of
internally or externally presented information.” (Gardner, 1993a, 64) For example, one core of
musical intelligence is the sensitivity to pitch relations, whereas one core of linguistic
intelligence is the sensitivity to phonological features. (Gardner, 1993a, 64).
An intelligence must be susceptible to encoding in a symbol system “a culturally contrived
system of meaning, which captures and conveys important forms of information. Language,
picturing, and mathematics are but three of the symbol systems that have become important
the world over for human survival and human productivity.” (Gardner, 1993a, 66)
The Eight Intelligences as Identified in the
Theory of Multiple Intelligences
 Musical Intelligence
 Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
 Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
 Linguistic Intelligence
 Spatial Intelligence
 Interpersonal Intelligence
 Intrapersonal Intelligence
 Naturalism Intelligence
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Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of Human Development
Directions: Use the steps to label Erikson’s 8 stages in the Psychosocial Theory
of human development. Use the open space on either side to write in your own
words what each stage includes.
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*Erik Erikson – Theory of Personality Development
The first four stages of Erikson’s theory are particularly suited to teaching early
childhood personality development. The Family and Consumer Sciences teacher
can refer to this theory when teaching the How Children Learn chart. One of the
most critical needs of children is to develop a sense of trust, which is the first
stage of Erikson’s theory. This sense of trust enables the child to participate more
fully in the early childhood learning environment.
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 Lev Semenovich Vygotsky
About the Man
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was born in Orscha, Belorussia to a middleclass Jewish family in 1896, and died in 1934 at age 37 of tuberculosis.
He was married, and had two daughters. (Berk & Winsler, 1995)
“He worked during the most exciting intellectual and social milieu of the
20th century, in the Soviet Union between the Revolution of 1917 and
the Stalinist repression in the middle 1930’s. He was a profound
theoretician, and accomplished intellectual. He carried an aura of
almost Mozartian giftedness.” (Kozulin, 1985, 11)
He was a man of practice who founded and directed various research laboratories, including
the first Russian Institute for the study of handicapped children. (Kozulin, 1986, 11, 63) Today
he is widely regarded as the father of Soviet abnormal psychology/special education.
His Studies and Work
From 1913-1917 he attended the law school at Moscow University, and was also enrolled in
the private Shaniavsky University where he majored in history and philosophy. (Berk &
Winsler, 1995). He studied the humanities, theatre arts, literature, and philosophy, and loved
classical and modern poetry. (Kozulin, 1985, 12)
In 1924, he entered the profession of psychology. He challenged the leading behaviorists,
refexologists, psychoanalysts, and gestalt psychologists of the time. (Kozulin, 1985, 18)
Alexander Luria helped him to become a research fellow at the Moscow Institute of Psychology
in 1926. During the Stalinist era independent trends in psychology were suppressed, and
therefore Vygotsky’s ideas and writings were not widely known. Vygotsky’s ideas were
brought back after deStalinization. (Kozulin, 1985, 51) Today his original works have been
discovered, published in English in their entirety, and have been the focus of much discussion.
An attempt to apply his work for educational purposes is ongoing. (Kozulin, 1985, 54-55) (Berk
& Winsler, 1995) (Fry, 1992)
Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural
Theory of Cognitive Development
Note: the quotes that follow have been taken from scholarly discussions of Vygotsky’s work by
psychologists and educators. The intention is to share Vygotsky’s theory through the words of
Vygotsky experts and interpreters.
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“According to Vygotsky, the development of higher order mental functions, such as
conceptualization, begins in social interaction, and then is internalized psychologically. Most
adults can think of situations where they did not really understand something until after they
had discussed it with several people. At other times, people find that they really do not own a
concept until they have articulated it to someone else. This kind of learning through social
interaction is important throughout life, but essential for children who need to test the mental
hypotheses they construct against the thinking of other people.
The vital role of teachers and other adults is to support children’s development, both in their
actual development and their potential. Vygotsky uses the term, zone of proximal
development, to describe the level of development at which the child can function with the
assistance of adults or more capable peers, the level beyond which the child is able to function
independently. The principle of learning is that children can do things first in a supportive
context, and then later independently and in a variety of contexts. The support of adults and
more competent peers provides the necessary assistance, or ‘scaffold’, that enables the child
to move to the next level of independent functioning. The teacher’s role is one of supporting,
guiding, and facilitating development and learning, as opposed to the traditional view of
teaching as transmission of knowledge.
Social interaction is necessary for intellectual development, but it is also necessary for
children to develop social competence and self-esteem. Social interaction calls for reciprocity,
mutual respect, ideas, perspectives, and intentions to create mutually acceptable rules and
conventions. All of these capabilities related to school success are required of full participants
in a democracy.” (Bredecamp & Rosegrant, 1992, 15)
Vygotsky’s Socio-Instructional Approach to
Child Learning and Development
This approach looks at the child’s mental functions not only in terms of individual development
and independent functioning, but more predominately in terms of the child’s potential for
growth when functioning in collaboration with other expert adults and peers. “The instruction
rouses to life, awakens, and sets in motion a variety of internal processes of development in
the child, but these processes are possible for the child only in a sphere of collaboration with
peers.” (Fry, 1992, 53)
Socio-instructional approach is a term used to identify the process of first learning
through interaction, and then internalizing information/learning. The socio-instructional
approach “is not concerned merely with individual cognitive development of the child in
isolation, but rather with the learning potential of the child that is developed by means of
collective and collaborative functioning and interaction.” (Fry, 1992, 54)
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Types of Learning

Spontaneous concepts: discovery through direct experience, i.e. adding ice cubes to
water makes it colder and the child constructs mentally without need of instruction for
adults. (This is similar to Piaget’s construction of knowledge.) (Berk & Winsler, 1995, 100)
(Bredekamp, 1992, 13)

Scientific or school learned concepts: school related or scientific concepts originate in
the culture, and represent the body of knowledge from past generations, i.e. F= – 32
degrees for freezing, C= 0 Celsius. (Berk & Winsler, 1995, 100) (Bredekamp, 1992, 13)
(This is similar to Piaget’s concept of social transmission of knowledge.)
Scaffold as a Metaphor
The scaffold as a metaphor is very effective in describing the ideal role of the teacher. This
metaphor is the basis for a theoretical model of the teacher in informal education. According to
Greenfield (1984), the scaffold, as it is known in building construction, has five characteristics:
 it provides a support;
 it functions as a tool;
 it extends the range of the worker;
 it allows the worker to accomplish a task otherwise not possible;
 it is used selectively to aid the worker where needed.” (Fry, 1992, 71)
These characteristics also define the interactional scaffold provided by the teacher or an adult
in an informal learning situation. In other words, "the teacher’s selective intervention provides
a solid tool for the learner, which extends his or her skills, thereby allowing the learner to go
somewhat beyond the present range of competencies and skills, and to realize certain
potentials that were otherwise unattainable. That is, the adult of teacher structures an
interaction by building on what he or she knows the learner can do only if some supportive
scaffolding is provided.” (Fry, 1992, 71)
In further considering scaffolding, “scaffolding connotes a warm pleasant collaboration
between a teacher and learner while the two are engaged in joint problem-solving activity.”
(Berk & Winsler, 1994, 30)
Berk and Winsler ask us to consider that “research on scaffolding is limited to Western
children….scaffolding may vary widely from culture to culture. Its characteristics can only be
understood in terms of the values and requirements of the child’s society as a whole.” (Berk &
Winsler, 1994, 34)
Main Points of Vygotsky’s Theory
 cross-cultural variation: “Because cultures differ in the activities they emphasize, and in
the tools they use, higher mental functions in humans vary across cultures.” (Berk &
Winsler, 1994, 5)
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 the developmental (genetic) method: “We can understand human behavior only by
examining the development or history of behavior. To really know the essence of
something, we must see how it was formed developmentally.” (Berk & Winsler, 1994, 5)
 two lines of development: “There are two distinct planes on which child development
takes place: the natural line and the cultural line. The natural line refers to biological
growth and maturation of physical and mental structures. The cultural line refers to
learning to use cultural tools and to human consciousness, which emerges from engaging
in cultural activity.”(Berk & Winsler, 1994, 5)
 lower versus higher mental functions: “Human activity can be divided into lower and
higher mental functions. Lower mental functions are shared with other mammalian
species. Higher mental functions are unique to human beings. They involve the use of
language or other cultural tools to build or mediate cognitive activity. Higher mental
functions during development systematically reorganize lower mental functions.” (Berk &
Winsler, 1994, 5)
 general genetic law of cultural development: “Any function in the child’s cultural
development appears twice, on two planes. First it appears on the social, or interpersonal
plane and then on the individual, or psychological, plane. All higher mental functions have
social origins that are eventually internalized. “(Berk & Winsler, 1994, 5)
 language as central: “Language, the primary cultural tool used by humans to mediate
their activities, is instrumental in restructuring the mind, and in forming higher-order, selfregulated thought processes.” (Berk & Winsler, 1994, 5)
 education leads development: “Formal education and other cultural forms of
socialization are key in leading the child along the developmental pathway to adulthood.”
(Berk & Winsler, 1994, 5)
 zone of proximal development: “The zone of proximal development is the hypothetical,
dynamic region in which learning and development take place. It is defined by the distance
between what a child can accomplish during independent problem solving and what he or
she can accomplish with the help of an adult or more competent member of the
culture.”(Berk & Winsler, 1994, 5)
“Vygotsky’s theory of development assumes that social interaction and children’s participation
in authentic cultural activities are necessary for development to occur.” The theory “grants a
special place to social interaction as the means of developing all complex, higher mental
functions.” (Berk & Winsler, 1994, 4-5)
Main Points of Lev Vygotsky’s Theory
The Bottom Line*
His theory of cognitive development is called socio-cultural. (Remember that socio comes
from social and means interacting with others.) He explains learning as a two-step activity. In
order for people to learn something it has to happen two ways or on two planes.
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First the learning experience has to take place between two people. He calls this the social
plane. We can say that this interpsychological (building knowledge between two people.)
Remember that INTER means between.
Second, after the child works with another person to learn a concept or how to solve a
problem, the learning settles within the child, and then he/she owns the knowledge. This is
referred to as intrapsychological. Remember that INTRA means within.
This process is called the general genetic law of cultural development.
When educators talk about Vygotsky’s theory they refer to it as a socio- instructional approach
to teaching or learning. This means that two people work together to help learning take place.
The method a teacher uses to help a child build knowledge is called scaffolding.
An important part of Vygotsky’s theory involves the way he explains persons potential for
learning. He states that we all have a zone of proximal development. As defined by Vygotsky,
the Zone of Proximal Development is: “the distance between the actual developmental level
as determined by independent problem-solving (what a person is capable of doing alone) and
the level of potential development, as determined through problem-solving under adult
guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.” (what a person is capable of doing with
guidance)
“The ease with which a child masters various tasks may depend in part on the kind of
assistance he/she receives, so that how a particular task is presented, demonstrated,
explained….how expectations are communicated, how successes as well as errors and
misunderstandings are responded to, may be crucial in determining whether the child is able to
progress toward independent task mastery.” Therefore, mastery depends on the quality of the
assistance given. The best teaching method to help this occur is called scaffolding.
References
For
Theories of Human Development
Bee, H. (1981). The developing child. New York, NY: Harper and Row,
Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-06-040579-1.
Berk, L. (1995). Scaffolding children’s learning: Vygotsky and early childhood
education. Publication # 146. Washington, DC: National Association for the
Education of Young Children. (800.424.2460).
Bredekamp, S. & Rosegrant, T. (Eds.). (1992). Reaching potentials: appropriate
curriculum and assessment for young children. Publication #225. (Vol. 1). Washington, DC:
National Association for the Education of Young Children.
(800.424.2460).
Brisbane, H. (1997). The developing child. (textbook & extensions activities book)
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New York, NY: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-02-647730-0.
Charles, C. (1974). Teacher’s petit piaget. Belmont CA: David S. Lake
Publishers. ISBN 0-8224-6780-1.
Fry, P. (1992). Fostering children’s cognitive competence through mediated learning
experiences: frontiers and futures. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Publisher.
Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. (10th
anniversary edition). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple intelligences the theory in practice. New York, NY:
Basic Books.
Hickman, M. (Ed.) (1987). Social and functional approaches to language and
thought. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace, and Jovanovich Publishers.
Sasse, C. (1997). Families today. New York, NY: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
Singer D., & Revenson, T. (1978). A piaget primer: how a child thinks. New
York, NY: New American Library.
Vygotsky, L. (1986). Thought and language. (Introduction “Vygotsky in context” by Alex
Kozulin). Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Special thanks to Cynthia Rossi Sovich, M.Ed., NBCT, for the fine work in compiling this
section, “Theories of Human Development.”
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Language Development Terms
Complied by Cynthia Rossi Sovich
Articulation - The ability to speak in clearly pronounced
sounds. (Herr, 521)
Bilingual - The ability to speak and understand two
languages. (Stephens, 572)
Dialect - A language variation; a culturally-based speech
pattern that varies from the standard form used in written works. (Neuman, 123)
Expanding - Restating what the child has said in a linguistically sophisticated form. (Santrock,
324) For example, if a child says, “Me go,” the adult would say, “Yes, we are going to visit
Grandma now.”
Holophrase - A single word used to express a larger idea; common during the second year of
life. Sometimes babies use one word (such as ball) to express an entire sentence or idea
(such as “That’s a ball” or “I want the ball”). We call such words holophrases, meaning single
word sentences. (Vasta, G-4, 423)
Labeling - Giving the names of objects. Young children are forever being asked to give the
names of objects. Much of early vocabulary acquired by children is motivated by this adult
pressure to identify the words associated with objects. (Santrock, 324)
Language chart - A large paper where children’s responses are recorded. (Stevens, 369)
Language charts are effective when hung at child’s eye level. A child may wish to hear an
adult read what he/she said that is written on the chart, or see his/her name on the chart and
remember what he/she said that is written.
Literal interpretation - Young children interpret statements made to them literally. Use care
in choosing words/expressions to use with children. For example, if a person makes a
figurative statement to a child such as, “Oh no, you are really in a pickle,” or “You’re cute as a
button,” a child will try to understand the phrase word by word, literally. Since young children
are not familiar with figurative expressions, these expressions are likely to cause confusion.
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Modifier use - Between two and three years of age, children begin to add modifiers to their
language. Some, a lot, all, and one are used as quantifiers. Mine, his, and hers are used as
possessives. Pretty, new, and blue are some adjectives that might be used as modifiers.
(Herr, 70)
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Motherese/Caregiver language - Talk to babies using a higher-than-normal pitch, more
extreme intonation contours, simpler, more repetitive vocabulary, shorter utterances, and
concentration on “here and now” communication. It is hard to talk in motherese when not in
the presence of a baby, but as soon as a person starts talking to a baby, he/she immediately
shifts into motherese. Much of this is automatic and something most parents are not aware
that they are doing. Motherese has the important functions of capturing the infant’s attention,
and maintaining communication. When parents are asked why they use motherese, they point
out that it is designed to teach their baby to talk. (Santrock, 615, 325) Older peers also talk
motherese to infants. Motherese is not to be confused with nonsense “baby-talk”. Motherese
is also called caregiver language).
Overregularization - An early structural language error in which children apply inflectional
rules to irregular forms (e.g. adding ed to say). The English language uses inflectional rules to
change a verb to the past tense (ed added, as in talked and played) and a noun from singular
to plural (s or es added, as in cups and dishes). But unfortunately for English-speaking
children, this language also contains a large number of irregular forms that are exceptions to
these rules – the verb forms go-went, eat-ate, and see-saw, for example, and the noun forms
mouse-mice, foot-feet, and sheep-sheep. (Vasta, G-7, 423)
Phonics - An approach to reading instruction that stresses letter-sound correspondences and
the build-up of words from individual units. (Vasta, G-7)
Print-rich environment (environmental print) - Print that is encountered outside of books,
and that is a pervasive part of everyday living. (Neuman, 123)
Story-stretcher - An activity that follows the reading or telling of a story that relates to the
story. A story-stretcher activity can be in any curricular area: math, language, science, art,
music, cooking, etc. The activity extents the learning possibilities of the content of the story by
involving the children in participatory activities beyond just listening to the story.
Telegraphic speech - Two-word phrases used by toddlers when they first learn to combine
words. (Herr, 531)
Whole-word approach – An approach to reading instruction that stresses learning and visual
retrieval of entire words. (Vasta, G-10)
Whole-language approach – The view that reading instruction should parallel children’s
natural learning, and that reading materials should be whole and meaningful. That is, in early
reading instruction, children should be presented with materials in their complete form, such as
stories and poems.(Santrock, 620, 334)
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REFERENCES
For
Language Development Terms
Herr, Judy. (1998). Working with young children. Tinley Park, IL:
Goodheart-Willcox Company, Inc.
Neuman, S.B., Copple, C., & Bredekamp,S. (2000). Learning to read and write,
developmentally appropriate practices for young children. Publication #161.
Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
(800.424.2460).
Santrock, John. (1998). Child development. (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGrawHill Companies, Inc.
Stephens, Karen. (1996). The child care professional. Peoria, IL:
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
Vasta, R., Haith, M., & Miller, S. (1995). Child psychology. (2nd ed.) New York,
NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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