Brian Lam
Cognitive Development
Professor Striano
Assignment 1: "Picture it!"
Communication in infants starts as early as two months old. Infants will coo and use
gurgling sounds. At four to ten months, infants start using repetition of familiar consonant-vowel
combinations known as babbling. This is a milestone in infant language development (Arnett).
Children as early as four months will start to develop skills to help them learn and comprehend
words and simple sentences. Regular reading with children at an early age will support their
language development. Children benefit the most from daily reading routines that sensitive and
responsive, language rich interactional routines (Dickinson, 2012). Dickinson outlines six
principles of early reading that foster children's language development.
The time from birth to age three is critical for children’s long-term language, cognitive,
emotional, and interpersonal development (Dickinson). Children need to be exposed to words and
language on a daily basis and slowly process the meanings. Parents play one of the most important
parts in assuring the development of their child's language development. Interacting, reading and
talking to a child affirms the relationship between parent and child. Prior research has shown that
parents or caregivers that grow a healthy relation with their child leads to language and cognitive
benefits. Being exposed to active reading from an early age encourages the child to stay interested
and build vocabulary and grammar. This will lead to active conversation and allow the child to
generate more complex sentences and make communication more meaningful. During the third year,
children become more adept and show basic understanding of the rules of language.
I visited a public library near my house, Queens Library and surveyed the children's section. I
haven't been in this part of the library in over ten years but I couldn't help smiling as I look around
and the colorful covers of the children's books I used to read. The two books that I chose to review
were "In the tall, tall grass" by Denise FlemingBright and "Peek-a-boo!" by Roberta Grobel Intrater.
"In the tall, tall grass" shows colorful illustrations of animals and insects found in the
backyard in a caterpillar's point of view. The text is simple and rhyming which has elements from
principle one. There is repetition and rhyme on each page and principle one states that when children
hear many words often, their rate of acquisition and processing is rapidly reinforced. Children will
enjoy looking for the yellow and orange caterpillar on each page as he squirms around the garden
eating and zipping through the day. Parents can interact with their children throughout the book,
asking the child to find the caterpillar and count the insects as they read along. Principle three states
young children benefit from reading with adults who offer feedback and encourage maintaining the
conversation. As the parent works with the child to count the insects and read the text, they are
training the child's vocabulary and mathematics.
"Peek-a-boo" is quite different from the first book. It shows close up photographs of babies'
faces and captures various moods from laughing to yawning to crying. The book is very interactive
because the child can recognize the other baby's face and keep interested. The practice of joint
attention that is mentioned in Principle two states that a child learns more efficiently when they are
interested and adults are responsive to them. The parent can actively ask the child to copy the
emotions that they see on each page. Keeping eye contact, giving positive verbal responses and using
playful gestures help maintain the child's interest. Since the child can form a connection to the faces
of the other babies on the page, they are more likely to remain interested. Parents who try to redirect
the child's attention to learning vocabulary and grammar they are not interested in results in learning
fewer words.
Principles four and five are also heavily reflected in this book. As the babies are
understanding and copying the faces of the babies on each page, the parent can effectively teach them
what each emotion is. Children learn faster when they have a clear meaning of the words that they
read. Not only is the child seeing an image that represents the word, they are learning to replicate the
emotion themselves and connecting that word to the corresponding emotion. Principle five states that
vocabulary and grammar are learned together such as connecting that an emotion describes a certain
facial expression. Vocabulary and grammar develop and the same time so the different examples and
visual examples for the children to associate with makes learning engaging and fun.
Most children's books support at least one principle of language development. The most
important factor is the parent's participation in guiding their child. Even if a children's book has
almost every principle of language development, it is not useful unless there is someone to teach and
reinforce the information. Parents should read with their children regularly to maximize their
opportunities to improve vocabulary, grammar, cognitive skills and conversation skills. Principle six
states that children are more likely to develop efficiently when exposed to positive reinforcement.
Rewarding the child with positive feedback is important in keeping the child interested and
encourages them to read, learn and talk more. The child should feel comfortable when reading
because the parent can make it fun by interacting, constructively questioning and fueling their
enthusiasm to read. By keeping the reading experience positive from an early age, children will
associate reading and learning as an enjoyable action.