Friday Fun Facts:
Development
At the moment of conception, you were smaller than the period at the end of this
sentence.
During the last few months of pregnancy, you (as a fetus) could hear sounds outside
your mother’s womb.
At birth, your head was approximately ¼ of your total body size, but as an adult it’s only
1/8.
Within the first few days of life, breast-fed newborns can recognize and show
preference for the odor and taste of their mother’s milk over another mother’s nectar.
Children in many cultures sleep alongside their parents for several years, not in a
separate bed or room.
According to Piaget, teens tend to believe they are alone and unique in their thoughts
and feelings. “No one has ever felt like this before!”
My body doesn’t match my
brain!?!
Girls begin puberty 2 years before boys do. That
being said, girls will hypothetically be ready to
“reproduce” 2 years before boys or even earlier!
So, why is it illegal for an 18 year old boy to
reproduce with an 15 year old girl?
Cognitive Development
Awesome!.... Wait…. What does cognitive mean?
**Scientific study of behaviors and mental
processes.**
???????
Cognitive Development
Progress in child’s
way of thinking,
ability to reason,
remember, and
problem solve
In other words- the
way we perceive
the world.
How do you know what
you know?
Unlike physical development, which happens rather
naturally; mental processes are LEARNED.
Infants and small children are like sponges
Every experience pushes the child in a direction
Children also learn through: associations,
assimilations, rewards and punishments and of
course, mimicking!!
The Importance of Schemas
 Jean Piaget believes that children are natural
experimenters driven to explore and understand their
environment. 1, 2, 4, 8…? What’s next?
 Schemas- act as patterns that organize our
interactions with the environment. HELP US
UNDERSTAND
Like a filing cabinet
Organ
The Importance of Schemas
(example documents)

Schemas, our tools for learning about the world, are enlarged and changed throughout
our lives in two different ways:
1. Assimilation: Make new information fit an existing schema already in our minds
Calling a zebra a “horse”
**Adding new sheets to your existing folder**
aSSimilation = adding to Same folder
2. Accommodation: Change existing schemas or create new ones in our minds
Zebra is a different animal, so a new “zebra” schema is created
Evidence of development
**Make a NEW folder for this different knowledge**
aCCommodate = Change (c) and Create (c)
Example
Example: On September 11th, 2001, a plane flew into the
Twin Towers (on “accident”); shortly after, another plane
flew into the Twin Towers(forcing us to accommodate this
information. – very difficult for some people so they
watched it over and over to make sense of the info
On a blank sheet of paper
try to draw this same figure
Could you do it?
If you could, GOOD JOB; you most likely have had
artistic training.
If you’re like the rest of us and could not draw this it
is because we lack the necessary artistic schema
and cannot ASSIMILATE what we see. With practice
and training, we could ACCOMMODATE the new
information and then easily draw the figure.
In Groups or alone…
1. Read the information provided
2. Predict how a child might
interpret the information if they
were assimilating and/or
accommodating the info.
Happy Monday
How do children change their Poo-Schema from
birth to early childhood?
Assimilate poo-
Accommodate pooReview homework.
How do we study cognitive
development?
 Longitudinal studies: test one group of
participants over a period of time
Measure vocabulary of 50 six-year olds at
ages 6, 8, 10
More accurate and sensitive to
developmental changes
Longer, more difficult, and more
expensive
The marshmallow test…. And future
success
How do we study cognitive
development?
 Cross-sectional studies: test and
compare groups of participants of
different ages at a single point in time
Compare vocabulary of 50 six-year olds,
50 eight year olds, 50 ten year olds
Quicker, easier and cheaper
Less accurate and sensitive to
developmental changes
Jean Piaget
Piaget and his Theory
“My real concern is
the explanation of
what is new in
knowledge from one
stage in
development to the
next.”
Piaget’s Stage Theory of
Cognitive Development
Stage: Developmental period during which a child
demonstrates “new” behaviors and capabilities
Predict how a child in this
stage of cognitive
development understands
the world.
Stage 1: Sensorimotor Period
Children in this stage understand
the world through their senses and
motor activities such as grasping,
sucking, seeing, touching, tasting,
etc.
Stage lasts from birth until
significant language is acquired,
about 2 years old.
Abilities: Uses senses and motor
skills to explore and develop new
schemas
Stage 1: Sensorimotor
Limits: Thinking is limited to the sensible here and now. No schema for
things not right here, right now. “Out of sight, out of mind.”
Children Start to understand object permanence around 8 or 9
months
What if we had no object permanence?
“A-not-B error” committed until 12 months old
What does the A not B error show in terms of cognition?
What is object permanence?
How does creating mental image schemas help children understand object
permanence?
Example:
Stage 1- sensorimotor ages 0-2
Toy: Jack in the Box
Why?
A child in the sensorimotor stage of development does not
understand object permanence yet. Without the concept
of object permanence the child will think, “out of sight,
out of mind.” The toy will help the child begin to develop
the concept of object permanence, which will help move
them into stage 2 of cognitive development.
Thinking like an Elf
Ok little elves, try to design a toy that is
appropriate for a child in stage 1 of Piaget’s
theory of cognitive development?
AgesToyWhy?
Sensorimotor Milestone
Think of a sensorimotor milestone from your life.
(new achievement during this time period that
COULD move you into the next stage or could
just be a new milestone.)
Age?
What happened
How is it sensorimotor?
Sensorimotor Milestones
Milestones in the early part of this stage are hard to
describe
Towards the later parts of this stage (18-24 months) the
child will begin recognizing symbols and also using
symbols to represent the world.
child will not be able to USE the letters to spell quite yet, but
simply recognize the symbols as representing sounds.
Children cannot really SPELL but can recite words around the
18th month. At this time children learn about one word every
TWO HOURS!!!
Operations= mental processes such as
perception, memory, imagination,
retrospective (hindsight). Ability to solve a
problem without physically doing it.
Predict how a child in this stage of
cognitive development understands the
world.
Stage 2: Pre-operational
Period
Children in this stage understand the world through
their increasingly developed language and symbolic
thinking.
Stage lasts from 2 years old until children have the
ability to think in concrete operations (such as
reversibility)- about 7 years old.
Operations= mental processes such as perception, memory, imagination,
retrospective (hindsight)
Stage 2: Pre-operational
Abilities: Uses language but not concrete logic, can draw
pictures that represent things.
Limits: Children do not have logical thoughts and cannot
understand (*watch for abilities and lack of logical
thinking/communicating*)
conservation, (idea that quantity changes with shape)
reversibility (a ability to reverse a sequence to the starting point)
Children at this stage also display
egocentric thinking (only sees from their POV)
animistic thinking, (believes inanimate objects (like poo) are living.)
Pre-operational
Milestones
Child will develop the ability to making meaning of images,
gestures and words to describe events, people and objects.
Child develops language during this period.
Child learns to play using the imagination to create stories
and situations.
Child can group things together by single characteristics
such as red blocks with red blocks regardless of blocks
shape; or all the cubes together and the triangles together,
regardless of color.
Thinking like an Elf
Ok little elves, try to design a toy that is
appropriate for a child in stage 2 of Piaget’s
theory of cognitive development, the preoperational stage?
AgesToyWhy?
Pre-operational Milestone
Think of a preoperational milestone from your
life. (new achievement during this time period
that COULD move you into the next stage or
could just be a new milestone.)
Age?
What happened
How is it preoperational?
Operations= mental processes such as
perception, memory, imagination,
retrospective (hindsight)
Predict how a child in this stage of
cognitive development understands the
world.
Stage 3: Concrete
Operational Period
Children in this stage understand the world through trial and
error and physical objects.
Stage lasts from birth until the child can think ABSTRACTLY.
Abilities: Children CAN perform operations on concrete
objects. (objects that are physically in existence)
Child understands seriation – ability to sequence objects
based on changing dimensions.
Learn through trial and error not abstract strategy
Stage 3 Concrete
Operational
Limits: Children cannot think
abstractly(objects that never EXIST physically)
or hypothetically.
Child cannot answer “what if” questions.
Thinking like an Elf
Ok little elves, try to design a toy that is
appropriate for a child in stage 3 of Piaget’s
theory of cognitive development, the concrete
operational stage?
AgesToyWhy?
Concrete operational
Milestone
Think of a concrete operational milestone from
your life. (new achievement during this time
period that COULD move you into the next stage
or could just be a new milestone.)
Age?
What happened
How is it concrete operational?
Operations= mental processes such as
perception, memory, imagination,
retrospective (hindsight)
Formal Operational Period
Understanding abstract concepts
Child can think hypothetically and about the future
Deductive reasoning
Logical reasoning where the conclusion follows a set of premises.
More systematic, logical, reflective in problemsolving- thinking OUTSIDE the box.
Understand what is meant by unknown quantity X
in algebrUH.
RECAP
Stage 1- 0-2 Sensorimotor (only know what your senses tell you)
When I was 2 I learned with my SENSES
Stage 2- 3-7 Preoperational (symbolic thought, ABCs)
When I was 5 I started PREschool and learned my ABCs
Stage 3- 7-11 Concrete operational ( Trial and error to learn)
When I was 11 I found my favorite CONCRETE mixer flavor through trial and
error
Stage 4- 12+ Formal operational (can think outside the box, abstractly)
When I was 13 I went to my first FORMAL dance and my outfit was OUTSIDE
of the box
Thinking like an Elf
Ok little elves, try to design a toy that is
appropriate for a child in stage 4 of Piaget’s
theory of cognitive development, the Formal
operational stage?
AgesToyWhy?
Formal operational
Milestone
Think of a formal operational milestone from
your life. (new achievement during this time
period that COULD move you into the next stage
or could just be a new milestone.)
Age?
What happened
How is it formal operational?
Criticisms of Piaget’s
Theory
Underestimated young children
Individual differences
Changes are too abrupt
Ignorance of cultural factors
Did Piaget Underestimate
Infants?
Kids understand object permanence at younger
ages than Piaget thought
Habituation: child is used to something (shows little
surprise)
Dishabituation: child shows obvious surprise or
curiosity because he/she is seeing something new
Criticisms of Piaget
Infant shows habituation (lack of
surprise) at this expected outcome
Infant shows dishabituation (surprise,
stare longer) at this impossible
outcome
Reflecting on Piaget’s
Theory
What are the implications of Piaget’s theory for
parents and teachers?
Children build understanding of the world through
interaction and association.
Kids are not PASSIVE “buckets” waiting to be filled
with a teacher’s knowledge!
Young people are incapable of adult logic!