COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF PRESCHOOLER

“There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago’’

-J. Robert Oppenhelmer

PRESCHOOLER’S SYMBOLIC AND INTUITIVE THINKING

• there are two sub stages of Piaget’s pre-operational thought:• SYMBOLIC STAGES• INTUITIVE STAGES

• SYMBOLIC STAGES - preschool children show progress in their cognitive abilities by being able to draw objects that are not present, by their dramatic increase in their language and make-believe play.

• INTUITIVE STAGES - preschool begin to use primitive reasoning and ask litany questions. The development in their language ability facilitates their endless asking questions.

PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTSTAGE 2. PRE-OPERATIONAL STAGESthe preoperational stages covers from about 2-7 years old, roughly corresponding to the preschool years. Intelligence at this stage is intuitive in nature.DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS1. SYMBOLIC FUNCTION - This is the ability to represent

objects and events. A symbol is a thing that represent something else.

2. EGOCENTRISM - This is the tendency of the preschooler to only see his point of view and to assume that everyone also has his point of view.

3. CENTRATION - This refers to the tendency of the preschooler to only focus on one aspects. this is also refers to as UNIDIMENSIONAL THOUGHT.

4. IRREVERSIBILITY - Preschool children still have the inability to reverse their thinking. They can understand that the juice in each glass can be poured back into the juice box from which it came.

5. ANIMISM - This is the tendency of the preschooler to attribute human like traits or characteristics to inanimate objects.

6. TRANSDUCTIVE REASONING - This refers to the preoperational children type of reasoning that is neither inductive nor deductive reasoning appears to be from particular to particular.

BRAIN’S CONNECTION IN THE PRESCHOOL YEARS

• Because of fascinating developments in neuroscience, brain development of young have been of great interest to the field of early childhood. brain research findings point us to more effective ways to care for and teach preschooler from science lessons you had in high school or even in elementary. remember that our brain is composed of numerous cells called NEURONS that connect to each other function. Cell connections are what we call SYANPSES, sometimes also referred to as SYNAPSTIC CONNECTIONS.

DID YOU KNOW THAT?

• The human brain contains some 50 billion neurons at birth?

• by age of 2, children have developed half of the brain cell connections that will be made during one’s lifetime?

• around 6 years of age the brain develops for more sophisticated thinking patterns?

• all these are facts point to the numerous potential that the preschooler’s brain has. The child’s billion cells have the ability to make almost countless connections that prepare the child for intricate path-ways to learn language, acquired logical- mathematics skills, interact with people, grow in his feelings and emotions, and even express himself in art. As such, a preschool teacher would often observe how a child now has transformed from a dependent toddler into proud and independent preschooler who can now eat more neatly, enjoy, “reading ‘’ a book.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT• Young children’s understanding sometimes gets a head

of their speech. As children go through early childhood, their grasp of the rules of language increases (morphology, semantics, pragmatics and phonology)

• Symbolic thinking involves language, literacy, and dramatic play. Children rapidly conclude that sounds link together to make words and words represent ideas, people, and things.

4 MAIN AREAS OF LANGUAGE

1. PHONOLOGY - Study of speech and sounds.2. SEMANTICS - Study of word meaning and word

combination.3. SYNTAX - The study of sentence constructions.4. PRAGMATICS - The study of conversation or social

uses of language.

FAST MAPPING

• As they advance in age and as they continuously interact with people, preschool children expand rapidly in their vocabulary through FAST MAPPING, a process by which a children absorb the meaning of a new word after hearing it once or twice in conversation. Preschool children combine syllables into words and words into sentences in an increasingly sophisticated manner.

VYGOTSKY’S SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY

LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION• Vygotsky believed that young children use language both

to communicate socially and to plan, guide, and monitor their behavior in a self-regulatory fashion-called INNER SPEECH or PRIVATE SPEECH.

• PRIVATE SPEECH- is a form of self talk that guides the child’s thinking and action.

• For piaget, private speech is egocentrism and immature, but vygotsky it is the important tool of thought during early childhood.

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

Vygotsky introduced the term ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT (ZPD), To refer to tasks too difficult for a child to master alone but can be mastered with the guidance and assistance of adults or more skilled children.• SCAFFOLDING - A term that refers to the “changing

support over a the course of teaching session, with the more skilled person adjusting guidance to fit the child’s current performance level”. The more skilled person is also called MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE OTHER (MKO).

INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY - ATTENTION AND MEMORY• The information processing model is another way of

examining and understanding how children develop cognitively. This model conceptualizes children’s mental processes through the metaphor of a computer processing, encoding, storing, and decoding of data.

• Short-Term memory (STM) - retain information for up to 15-30 seconds, assuming there is no rehearsal, which can help keep information in STM for a much longer period.

• Long-Term memory (LTM) - involves storing information about the sequence of events during familiar situations as “scripts”. Scripts help children to understand interpret, and predict what will happen in future scenarios.

THE YOUNG CHILDREN’S THEORY OF MINDS

• Theory of mind- refers to individuals thought about how mental processes works.

• cognitive terms such as know, remember, and think usually appear after perceptual and emotional terms, but are used by age 3.

• the ability to remember and solve problems improve, children start to reflect on their own thought processes. They begin to construct a theory of mind or a set of ideas about mental activities.

• It includes awareness of ones own thought processes, social cognition, understanding that people can hold false beliefs, ability to deceive , ability to distinguish appearance from reality and from fantasy.

• Various speculations and research findings suggest that a social experience is very important. Social experience includes; • early forms of communication• imitation• make-believe play• language• social interaction

PRESCHOOLERS CAN DO

• Below are the list of preschoolers cognitive skills lifted from the Philippine Early Learning and Development Standards (PELDS)

• Receptive language• Domain: Cognitive Development• Memory: episodic memory

RECEPTIVE LANGUAGESTANDARD 1. the child is able to understand both verbal and non-verbal forms of communication.31-36 months: 3-4years old.• speaks in a simple sentences.• talks about an event and is understood.37-48 months• uses some prepositions• uses plurals• uses past tense• uses newly learned words appropriately on sentences• uses newly learned words appropriately when in group

conversations.

49-60 months-4-5 years old• draws and tells a story about his drawing.PRE-READING AND PRE MATH (MATCHING)STANDARDS 1.1 The child is able to match identical objects, colors, shapes, symbols.31-36 months: 2-1/2 to 3 years old• matches identical objects with 2 attributes( e.g color &

shape)• matches identical upper case letters• matches identical lower case letters.37-48 months: 3-4 years old• copies simple patterns with 2 or more attributes(e.g. color,

shape, sequence) and continues this without guidance.

• recognizes familiar logos (e.g. McDonald’s, Coke, etc.)• recognizes signs (e.g. male & female restrooms: stop and

go; danger/poison, etc.)• matches identical 2-to-4 letter words• matches identical single-digit numbers• matches identical 2-digit numbersPRE-READING AND PRE-MATH ( Copying letters and numbers)STANDARDS 1.2: The child is able to recite the alphabet and numbers in sequence.37-48 months: 3-4 years old• prints upper-case letters with some reversals

46-60 months: 4-5 years old• prints complete name without modelModel with no reversal.• prints upper case letters a model with no reversal.• prints lower case letters a model with some reversals.• prints number 1-5 with a model with some reversals61-67 months: 5-6 years old• prints upper case letters without a model and with no

reversals.• prints lower case letters without a model and with no

reversal• prints numbers 1-5 without a model and with no reversals.

DOMAIN: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTS

ATTENTION AND ACTIVITY STANDARDS 1. The child is able to sustain attention and modulate his activity at age-expected levels.31-36 months:2-1/2 to 3 years old• completes simple task without prodding.37-48 months: 3-4 years old• may be distracted but re-focuses on her/his own.• remains settled while leafing through a picture book for 5

minutes.

• remains settled while listening to a story using picture books for 5 minutes.

• sustains attention and concentration on a tabletop activity for 10 minutes.

• can work on a school assignment with a minimal supervision.

49-60 months: 4-5 years old • sustains attention and concentration on a tabletop activity

for 15-20 minutes.• can work on a school assignment with minimal

supervision.61-70 months: 5-6 years old• can work on a school assignment independently.

HIGHER ORDERED MENTAL ABILITIES (CONCEPT FORMATION)

STANDARDS 1.T he child develops basic concepts pertaining to object constancy, space, time, quantity, seration, etc. and uses these as the basis for understanding how materials are categorized in his/her environment.31-36 months: 2-1/2 to 3 years old• knows the difference between a recent event and one that

happened a long time ago.• counts with one-to- one correspondence.• understands the concept of number-quantity relations

from 1 through 5 (e.g. hands over 5 objects when asked)

• groups objects by shapes.• arranges objects by length.• arranges objects according to size• can tell in what way 2 things are the same.• can tell in what way 2 things are different.37-48 months: 4-5 years old• can tell which is prettier/nicer of 2 items based on his/her

criteria.• groups pictured objects according to category• can tell which is left and right on him/herself.• understands “more” and “ less”• understands the concept of conversation of matter at a

rudimentary level.

49-60 months: 4-5 years old• can tell which is the left and right of people facing

him/her.• knows the difference between yesterday, today, and

tomorrow.• understands the concept of number-quantity relations for

1-10.• demonstrates concept of addition using fingers and

objects.• demonstrates concept of subtraction using fingers or

objects.

HIGHER ORDERED MENTAL ABILITIES (CAUSE-AND-EFFECT RELATIONSHIP)

STANDARDS 1.The child is be able to understand the cause-effect relationships.31-36 months: 2-1/2 to 3 years old• can complete a simple pattern(e.g. beads, pictures,

shapes) with occasional guidance.37-48 months : 3-4 years old• understands reasons behind rules and practices in the

community, like those pertaining to sanitation, environment preservation, etc.

MEMORY: EPISODIC MEMORYSTANDARDS 1. The child is able to recall people he has met, events, and places he has been to. 31-36 months: 2-1/2to 3 years old• talks about things that happened during a particular

event that occurred some time back.MEMORY:(MEMORY FOR CONCEPT-BASED KNOWLEDGE-SEMANTIC MEMORY)STANDARDS 1.The child is able to store verbal information in short and long term memory.

37-48 months: 3-4 years old• repeats 5-to-7 word sentences correctly• memorize the lyrics of a short song• memorizes a short rhymes• remember the gist and many details of short stories told

or read.49-60 months: 4-5 years old• can recite the days of the week with some errors • remember lesson learned in school after several days

have passed.61-71 months: 5-6 years old• can recite the days of the week with no errors• can recite the months of the year with some errors.