EC Dev Chapter 9 Review Questions PDF

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EC Dev Chapter 9 Review Questions...

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CHAPTER 9 – COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD Review Questions 1) Select two of the following features of preoperational thought: egocentrism, a focus on perceptual appearances, difficulty reasoning about transformations, and lack of hierarchical classification. Present evidence indicating that preschoolers are more capable thinkers than Piaget assumed. Focus on perceptual appearances: Piaget believed that preoperational children are easily distracted by the perceptual appearance of objects. For example, when water is poured from a tall, narrow container into a short, wide one, they believe that the amount of water has changed—that there is less water in the short container—because its appearance has changed. But later research has shown that when 3- to 5-year-olds are asked carefully worded questions about what happens to substances (such as sugar) after they are dissolved in water, the children are able to explain, accurately, that the sugar is conserved—that it continues to exist, even though it is invisible. Difficulty reasoning about transformations,: In the same conservation-of-liquid task, in which water is poured from a tall, narrow container into a short, wide one, preoperational children treat the initial and final states of water as unrelated events, ignoring the dynamic transformation (pouring of water) between them. In addition, Piaget believed that preoperational children are unable to mentally go through a series of steps in a problem and then reverse direction, returning to the starting point—a limitation called irreversibility. In fact, preschoolers can engage in impressive reasoning by analogy about physical transformations, indicating that in familiar contexts, they are able to overcome appearances and think logically about cause and effect 2) Make-believe play promotes both cognitive and social development (see page 313). Explain why this is so. Make-believe supports the development of thinking and imagination as it helps to develop the ability to think ahead and plan, following rules, and regulating behavior. Helps to promote maturity as children pretend to be older. 3) Three-year-old Will understands that his tricycle isn’t alive and can’t feel or move on its own. But at the beach, while watching the sun dip below the horizon, Will exclaimed, “The sun is tired. It’s going to sleep!” What explains this apparent contradiction in Will’s reasoning? The reasoning that the 3 year old is a product of illogical thought. Preschoolers tend to grapple with contradicting facts they have trouble reconciling. 4) Did you have an imaginary companion as a young child? If so, what was your companion like, and why did you create it? Were your parents aware of your companion? What was their attitude toward it? I did not have an imaginary companion when I was a child. I had a lot of family members around my age growing up so I didn’t have the need for one.

5) Describe features of social interaction that support children’s cognitive development. How does such interaction create a zone of proximal development? The features of social interaction that support children’s cognitive development are effective scaffolding, attempting difficult tasks on their own, working with peers or an expert peer to help with planning and problem solving skills. This creates a zone of proximal development, because the child feels like they are in control and that they are able to figure out this solution. 6) Explain how Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories complement each other. How would classroom practices inspired by these theories be similar? How would they differ? The two theories of Vygotsky and Piaget would compliment each other by emphasizing both learning in isolation as well as learning with several social factors. They would likely be similar in practice in that both would use groups in some manner. They would also seek to push a child slightly further then they believe they can go with Piaget's Equilibration as well as Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. They would differ in that the groups they use would have different makeups Piaget would put similar students into groups and Vygotsky would mix different skill levels. Another way they would likely differ is in their beliefs that development drives learning Piaget and that learning drives development Vygotsky. 7) Tanisha sees her 5-year-old son Toby talking aloud to himself as he plays. She wonders whether she should discourage this behavior. Use Vygotsky’s theory to explain why Toby talks to himself. How would you advise Tanisha? I would advise Tanisha to not discourage the self talk.From  Vygotsky's perspective, such self talk also known as private speech plays an important role in cognitive development. By talking to themselves, children learn to guide and direct their own behaviors through difficult tasks and complex maneuvers in much the same way that adults have previously guided them. 8) When do you use private speech? Does it serve a self-guiding function for you, as it does for children? Explain. I use private speech to clear the noise in my head. It does serve a self-guiding function for me as it does for] children. 9) Describe a typical 4-year-old’s understanding of mental activities, noting both strengths and Limitations. 4-year olds are in the preoperational period, they are egocentric and assume everyone sees what they see and knows what they know. They focus on appearances rather than reality and exhibit centration when they focus on one salient aspect or dimension. Preschoolers do not have a solid understanding of the principle of conservation and can perform reversible mental operations. An understanding of the principle of conservation comes by age 7 or 8, which is later than the preoperational period.

10) Cite evidence on the development of preschoolers’ memory, theory of mind, and literacy and mathematical understanding that is consistent with Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. Theory of mind: Coherent set of ideas about mental activities, also called metacognition thinking about thought. Understanding what's in our minds is not necessarily shared by other or privy to what we are thinking. Young children do not show theory of mind, but begin to understand it at about age 4 Memory: In the preschool years children improve in memory for relations among stimuli. As 3-6 year olds cognitive and conversational skills improve, their descriptions of special events become better organized in time, more detailed, enriched with a personal perspective and related to the larger context of their lives Older preschoolers include specific Literacy: Emergent  literacy - children's active efforts to construct literacy knowledge through informal experiences. Children revise ideas as their perceptual and cognitive capacities improve and as they encounter writing in many contexts and as adults help them with written communication. Literacy development builds on a broad foundation of spoken language and knowledge about the world. The more informal literacy experiences kids have the better their language and emergent literacy development and later reading skills (interactive reading, adult supported writing activities) Mathematical problem solving: Emerges universally around the world, but when adults provide many occasions for counting, comparing quantities and talking about number concepts children acquire these understandings sooner. Low SES kids begin kindergarten with less math knowledge than higher SES kids, due to differences in environmental supports

11) Lena wonders why her 4-year-old son Gregor’s teacher provides extensive playtime in learning centers during each preschool day. Explain to Lena how adult-supported play can promote literacy and math skills essential for academic success. Preschoolers understand a lot about written language long before they learn to read or write. Seeing the symbols or parts of words while playing games, such as grocery store, helped preschoolers search for units of written language. The more informal literacy experiences a child has, the better their language development will be later in life. Math reasoning also depends on knowledge previously known. In early preschool years, children attach verbal labels (a lot, a little) to amounts and sizes. When learning centers involve numbers or counting, it helps the children understand numbers sooner and better. 12) Describe informal experiences important for literacy and math development that you experienced while growing up. The informal experiences definitely occurred through play and interactions with my parents. Doing pretend play with friends and my parents reading to me definitely would have expanded my literacy and math skills.

13) What findings indicate that child-centered rather than academic preschools and kindergartens are better suited to fostering academic development? Child centered preschools are nurturing and emphasizes the education of the child as a whole and concerns for their development all around. These schools emphasize the process of learning vs what is learned.as compared to academic preschools and is therefore better suited to fostering the child’s development. 14) Compare outcomes resulting from preschool intervention programs with those from interventions beginning in infancy (see pages 229–230 in Chapter 6). Which are more likely to lead to lasting cognitive gains? Explain. Interventions beginning in infancy are more likely to lead to lasting cognitive gains. The earlier intervention begins,the longer it lasts, and the greater its scope and intensity (for example, yearround high- quality child care plus generous support services for parents), the better participants’ cognitive and academic performance throughout childhood and adolescence ( Brooks- Gunn, 2004; Ramey, Ramey, & Lanzi, 2006; Sweet & Appelbaum, 2004). 15) Your senator has heard that IQ gains resulting from Head Start do not last, so he plans to vote against additional funding. Write a letter explaining why he should support Head Start. Head Start is an effective intervention and educational programs that targets young children very early in life. It treats the whole child, encourages parent involvement and provides intervention beyond the preschool years. You should support Head Start because of the many benefits it offers parents and children. Children are less likely to be held back a grade,less likely to be assigned to special education classes and more likely to graduate from high school. 16) How much and what kinds of TV viewing and computer use did you engage in as a child? How do you think your home media environment influenced your development? I actually was not allowed to watch a lot of TV as a child and my computer use was also very restricted. I think it prevented me from being exposed to things that were inappropriate for my age which allowed for age appropriate thought and development. 17) Provide a list of recommendations for promoting language development in early childhood, noting research that supports each. Adults can support language development through 2 Strategies: 1. Recasts: restructuring inaccurate speech into correct form. 2. Expansions: elaborating on children's speech, increasing its complexity. 18) Explain how children’s strategies for word learning support the interactionist perspective on language development, described on page 234 in Chapter 6. According to the interactionist perspective, language development results from exchanges between inner capacities and environmental influences. The most influential information processing accounts are connectionist, or artificial neural network, models, which shows that powerful, general cognitive capacities are sufficient to detect certain linguistic patterns. Other

evidence confirms that babies identify basic language patterns with the same strategies they use to understand nonlinguistic experiences. 19) Sammy’s mother explained to him that the family would take a vacation in Miami. The next morning, Sammy announced, “I gotted my bags packed. When are we going to Your-ami?” What explains Sammy’s errors? Sammy thinking Miami was My-ami shows emergent literacy which is an active effort to construct literacy knowledge through informal experiences....