Neurological, Physical/Motor Development, and Cognitive Development

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On the day you were born, you had most of the brain cells you would ever have (100 billion)
Rapid growth neural connections occurs from ages 3-6
◦ Most is in your frontal lobes
Myelination also increases in the first few years of life
Pathway supporting language and agility proliferate into puberty
◦ Then a pruning process shuts down excess connections and strengthens others

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Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience
◦ Unfolding of genetic blueprint
Sets the basic course of development; experience adjusts it

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As an infant’s nervous system and muscles mature, more complicated skills emerge
◦ Often takes place in “fits and starts”
Cephalocaudal Development: Develop from the head to the foot
Proximodistal Development: Develop from the center outward
Motor development is almost universal
◦ Not imitation – blind babies also progress in the same manner
◦ Differences in individual timing do exist but average ages are called developmental norms
Genes play a role in motor development (twins begin sitting up and walking on nearly the same day)
Maturation creates a readiness to walk by age 1
◦ Experience before that time has a limited effect (also true for bowel and bladder control!)

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Cognitive development in children has been greatly influenced by the work of
Jean Piaget
Began studying development after he had worked developing questions for intelligence tests
◦ Was interested in the wrong answers children got – they were all very similar!
Studied his own children
Said that children’s minds develop through a series of stages

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Core principle: Driving force behind our intellectual progression is an unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences
Schema: A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Assimilation: Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas (no changes to the existing schema)
◦ Schema for cow = four legs. We see a dog and call it a cow – we interpret it in terms of our EXISTING schema of cow
Accommodation: Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information
◦ ADJUSTING our schemas to fit new information
◦ We change our schema for cow when we learn that dogs are not cows

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Sensorimotor Stage (Sensory – Motor)
Preoperational
Concrete Operational
Formal Operational

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From birth to age 2
Babies take in their world through their senses and actions
◦ Looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, grasping
Sensations evoke motor responses
Live in the present
Lack object permanence until about 8 months: the awareness that objects continue to exist when not perceived
◦ Out of sight, out of mind
◦ Cannot form memories for objects once they are removed from the immediate present
Language abilities are rapidly developing
End of stage: Developed a capacity for self-recognition

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2-6/7
Thoughts are still bound to their physical and perceptual experiences
During this stage they learn how to use mental representations (but still very limited!)
◦ But can understand language
Lots of fantasy play
Very egocentric
◦ Child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view
◦ Example: When asked to show her picture to mommy, 2year-old Gabriella holds the picture facing her own eyes, believing that her mother can see it through her eyes
Believe that appearances are real

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Age 7-11
Beginning to understand logic
◦ More flexible in their thinking
Learn how to classify things
Master conservation
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An understanding that certain properties remain constant despite changes in their form
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The properties can include mass, volume, and numbers
Can transform mathematical functions
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4+8=12, 12-4=8 is easily understood!
Often take things literally
Children reasoned best when allowed to engage in “handson” learning
Can take on another’s point of view (no longer egocentric)

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12 and up
Can think logically and think about abstract principles
◦ Can go beyond the “here and now” and examine causes and effect, possible realities, etc.
Can use symbols and imagined realities
◦ Can solve hypothetical problems

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Does a child always have to pass from one stage to the next?
◦ Development is much more gradual
Wasn’t very concerned with individual differences
◦ Cognitive development can vary greatly between individuals
 Some adults never learn how to reason abstractly
Confused the physical ability and the ability to understand
Didn’t identify any mechanisms responsible for moving from one stage to the next
Underestimated the abilities of children and overestimated the abilities of adolescents
Viewed the developing child in relative isolation from family, community, and culture

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Lev Vygotsky: Stressed the role of culture and cultural differences in cognitive development
◦ Piaget said we develop by exploring our world
 Vygotsky said we develop though our social interactions with parents, teachers, and community
Theory of Mind: elaboration of egocentricism
◦ Occurs when a person understands that others have beliefs, desires, and intentions that are different form his or her own
 Emerges around age 3 or 4 (earlier than in Piaget)
 Failure to develop this has been linked to autism