Head Start
Arizona Head Start TTA Office
Infant Toddler Summer Webinar Series:
Cognitive Development
Mary Kramer Reinwasser, M.Ed.
Arizona State-Based TTA Manager
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
Agenda
• Define cognition
• Discuss theories as applied to infant and toddler
development
– Constructivism/Piaget
– Social Cultural/Vygotsky
– Information Processing
• Role of the caregiver in cognitive development
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
2
Learning Outcomes
• Participants will be able to define cognitive
development
• Participants will be able to explain three theories
that address cognitive development
• Participants will be able to identify roles of
caregivers in supporting cognitive development
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
3
What is cognition?
• The act of knowing
• Gathering, categorizing, comparing, and organizing
information
• Involves mental processes of perception, memory, and
learning
• Involves non-mental processes of personality, emotions, and
social conscience
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
4
Piaget and Cognition
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Schema
Adaptation
Assimilation
Accommodation
Equilibrium
Disequilibrium
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
5
Sensorimotor Substages
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
6
Vygotsky and Cognition
• Basic Assumptions
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The role of society
Thought and language
The role of adults
Practices and applications
• Principles
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Children construct their own knowledge
Development can not be separated from its social context
Learning can lead from development
Language plays a central role in mental development
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
7
Information Processing Theory
• Memory
• Attention
• Categorization
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
8
Key Developmental Milestones
Understanding Living Things
• Infants and toddlers use
motion to identify animate
objects
• By preschool years, naïve
theories of biology include
understanding of
movement, growth, internal
parts, and inheritance
• Ideas of illness and healing
also present
Understanding People
• Children use naïve
psychology to predict how
people will act
• Even 1-year-olds have
understanding of
intentionality
• Between ages 2 and 5,
children develop a theory of
mind
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
9
Key Developmental Milestones (cont’d)
Understanding Objects
• Infants rapidly create
reasonably accurate
theories of some basic
properties of objects
• Infant’s theories are far
from complete and
physical properties can
be understood at many
different levels
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
10
Principles for Caregivers
1. Children will provide different explanations of reality at
different stages of cognitive development.
2. Cognitive development is facilitated by providing activities or
situations that engage children and require adaptation (i.e.,
assimilation and accommodation).
3. Learning materials and activities should involve the
appropriate level of motor or mental operations for a child of
given age; avoid asking children to perform tasks that are
beyond their current cognitive capabilities.
4. Use approaches that actively involve children and present
challenges.
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
11
Influences on Cognitive Development
The quality of the care babies receive from their primary
caregivers influences the babies ability to successfully or
unsuccessfully:
– attach to other human beings,
– regulate their impulses,
– learn how to communicate with others, and search for an
intellectual understanding of the world into which they are
born.
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
12
Influences on Cognitive Development
What is created during the first two years of life is a brain
structure which influences children’s approach to learning
including such critical factors as:
– a child’s use of relationships in learning,
– the confidence of a child to engage in the challenge of
learning,
– the ability of a child to persist while learning,
– the eagerness to use adult models for learning.
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
13
Summary
• Children actively construct their knowledge
• Social interaction is essential for cognitive
development
• Cognitive development involves relating new
information to prior knowledge
• Children often think in different ways at different
ages
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
14
Questions
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
15
The Arizona Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Office
and STG International thank you for joining our webinar today!
Please continue to join the 2010 Summer Webinar Series
occurring every Tuesday and Thursday during the months of
June and July at 3:00 Pacific Daylight Time.
Please contact Mary Kramer Reinwasser at
mary.reinwasser@stginternational.com for more information.
Head Start State-based T/TA Office for Arizona
A member of the National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Network
16