12 Intellectual Development of
the Toddler
Chapter 12 Page 305
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• Toddlers are eager to learn
• They are curious
• Stay on task until they are satisfied
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How & What Toddlers Learn
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Piaget’s theory
1st Stage = sensorimotor stage
Includes children from birth to 2 years
Learn through their senses and motor actions
• Learn by discovering new ways to solve
problems
• Beginning of thought occurs from 18 – 24
months
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Discovering New Ways to Solve
Problems
• Busy exploring
• Lots of interest in new actions
• Piaget called them “little scientists”
• Enjoy repeating actions
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Working Toward a Goal
• Actions involve reaching a goal
• May be obvious to adults
• They want to know what happens to an
object when thrown, shaken, or moved
• Being to solve common problems by
themselves
• Learn how to feed and dress themselves
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Beginning of Thought
• 18 – 24 months
• “figure things out” mentally instead of
actually testing it
• Not mature thinking yet
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Thinking & Imitation
• Deferred imitation – ability to recall an
observed behavior and later imitate it
• Used in both pretend play and language
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Thinking & Goals
• Thinking also shows in a child’s way of
reaching goals
• For ex. Using a stepstool to reach
something in the bathroom
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Thinking & Hiding Games
• Search for object they have not seen
someone hide
• Knows the object exists (object
permanence)
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Thinking & Shape, Size, Color &
Texture
• Attributes– shape, size, color and texture
• Begin to perceive differences in shape,
size, color and texture
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Thinking & Object Exploration
• Learn by throwing, rolling, shaking or
moving objects
• Learn that hard objects make a loud noise
and soft vice versa
• Valuable thinking skill is when they have
prior knowledge and use it on new objects
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Thinking & Language
• Language is a symbol system in which words
are used as labels for people, objects and ideas
• Must use 2 thinking skills:
• 1. Associate the word with the person, object
• 2. Must recall the word and meaning
when they hear it
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Language Abilities
• Learning language is important for children’s
mental and social development
• Parentese –high-pitched style in which parents
speak to their children
• Parents first language teachers
• Speak close to children’s faces
• Use shorter sentences and singsong fashion
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Learning Spoken Language
• Develops at a faster rate between 1 and 3
years
• Articulation – making the sounds of a
language
• Takes time and effort
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Learning to Articulate
• Learn to control the tongue, lip muscles,
and vocal cords
• Children who can’t make one sound will
substitute for another
• D for th
• Dat for that
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• May drop a sound if they can’t pronounce
it
• Adult should pronounce properly
• No need to force child to speak right, go
by example
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Learning Meanings; a Major Brain
Development Activity
• Wiring for language is very active in the
toddler years
• Window of opportunity for language
learning
• Most important thing for word growth is the
number of times a child hears given words
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• At 20 months toddler of chatty mother or
caregivers knew more than children of less
talkative ones
• 24 months the gap doubled in favor of
talkative caregivers
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• May confuse words: wrong name for object
• (cow for moo)
• Communication –skill needed to understand
others and be understood by them
• Meanings to words give toddlers new tools,
communication and a new way to think
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• Language part of thinking process
• Learn words go with actions
• Say goodbye and wave
• May talk to themselves out loud, then
whisper and then just think the words
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Vocabulary
• Grow slowly until 18 months to 2 years
• Fastest growth occurs around 30 months
of age
• Very in number of words
• May use some words for awhile and then
drop them and pick them up again
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Grammar
• Grammar – is the study of preferred word
usage and order in a given language
• Children begin to learn grammar rules
• Single-word sentences and then simple
sentences
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• Within 6 months toddlers begin to put
words together
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Combing words is an advanced skill
Important skills from:
Listening to adults
Having books read to them
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Single Words
• 12 – 18 months of age
• Toddlers use sentences of only one word
• Single word may mean different ideas at
different times
– Bye-bye for leaving and for car driving
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• First words are usually nouns
• Simple action verbs
• Next learn descriptive words (adjectives,
adverbs)
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2 or More Words
• 19 months
• Combine 2 or more words
• 24 – 30 months begin 3 or more words in
their sentences
• All gone milk
• Milk is gone
• Fly bird
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Different Rates of Learning to Talk
• Can vary by several months
• Hearing sounds and learning meaning all
along
• Begin to talk, they progress quickly
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Learning to talk depends on the following:
• Hearing – child must hear human speech
clearly
• Interest – some are more interested in
speaking
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• Mental abilities – closely related to
thinking, a child with mental disabilities are
often slower and vice versa for bright or
average children
• Gender – girls tend to excel in verbal skills
– Not known if genetic or environmental
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• Need for speech– get what they need
without saying anything
• Interesting environment – just as adults
have more to way when they have new
experiences so do toddlers
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Summary
• As toddlers explore and learn about their
world they discover new ways to solve
problems
• Language is one of the most difficult skills
children must learn
• Peak age of language development occurs
between 1 and 3 years of age
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• Toddlers need many experiences in
hearing words and sentences
• Using single words for familiar people,
objects, actions before joining words to
form sentences
• Number of conditions can affect language
development
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• Girls tend to talk sooner than boys
• Having a need for speech important
• Interesting environment important
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Activity
• Do the question on page 316
• 1 – 10
• Have a speech professional come in for a
talk??
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