Jean Piaget Jean Piaget was born in Switzerland in 1896 and at the age of 10 years old he published his first scientific description of an albino sparrow in a naturalist magazine. He became a biologist, who then began studying the development of children’s understanding through observing, talking, and listening while they worked on different exercises. Piaget's theory describes how the cognitive development involves changes in the process and abilities of children. Piaget believes that children are active and motivated learners, in which they often experiment with the objects they encounter. Piaget believes that children make sense of the people, objects, and events around them from birth to adulthood. Jean Piaget believed in the four cognitive stages of development which included: As we can see in the Sensori- Motor Stage, an infant progresses while using their senses from birth to the beginning of symbolic thought, which is usually around the age of 2 years old. This is basically the developmental stage where infants are trying to make sense of the world, and using their physical senses to perceive the environment around them. Behaviors are limited in this developmental stage, but children utilize skills and the abilities they were born with such as looking, grasping, suckling, and listening to become more aware of their environment. Within the Sensori- Motor Stage of development, Object Permanence is the most important achievement in this particular stage. Object permanence is when a child understands that an objects continues to exist even when it is not seen or heard. An example of this could be an infant who was playing with a ball or a toy; the ball was taken from them and then placed under a blanket. If the child has achieved object permanence he or she knows that it is there and will actively look for that ball or toy. We can see an example of a child successfully achieving object permanence in the video. Jean Piaget is also one to believe in the Constructivist Theory, in which children are forced to develop through the interactions of their physical environment. We know this by Assimilation, Accommodation, and Equilibrium. Assimilation- is the process of taking new ideas or information and placing them into existing schemes. Piaget states that a scheme describes both the physical and mental actions involved in creating categories that help children to interpret or understand the world. An example for assimilation could be a child seeing a zebra for the first time and calling it a horse. Accommodation- is another part of learning to adapt by changing existing schemes with new information. This simply means to alter existing schemes, but also where new schemes are created, as a result of new experiences or new information. An example of accommodation could be when a child has an existing schema for dogs. One may think that since dogs have four legs, so that child may believe that all animals with four legs are dogs. Equilibrium- Piaget proposed that children can address new situations using existing schemas. He believed that children try to balance between assimilation and accommodation, which is through equilibration. It is important as children progress to maintain balance between applying previous knowledge, and changing behavior to be accountable for the new information. This simply helps one to understand how children are able to move from one stage onto the next. |
Physical Development (0-2 years) Physical development refers to the biological advancement that children experience as they age. This is the stage where children learn to crawl or creep, walk, run, and eventually play sports. Throughout a child’s life they grow taller, heavier, and proportions of their body change as well. We can see this when children are born with an adult size brain and throughout their physical development their bodies become more proportionate. The physical and brain development changes in infancy and toddlers are important aspects that help determine their progress. Brain development in infancy includes synaptogenesis, synaptic pruning, and myelination. Neurons in the brain development during infancy. Physical development includes many aspects such as reflexes, motor skills, health issues, sensations, perceptions, and learning skills. Physical development is especially rapid through the first 2 years of life. In infancy physical growth that we can observe are reflexes. Reflexes are reactions that implement infants to respond to their environment. Some examples of reflexes are breathing, grasping, sucking, and stepping. An example of the sucking reflex that infants are born with, is when an infant automatically sucks when presented with a nipple. These reflexes are important to the survival and health of the infant. We can see examples of reflexes in the video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V4x0iQODTk It is important to note that child development comes with qualitative and quantitative differences. Quantitative change is referred to the changes children encounter as they grow physically stronger and larger and also acquire more knowledge. An example of a quantitative change would be; by the age of 6 months an infant’s birth weight doubles, and triples by their first year of life. Qualitative change focuses on the way children behave, think, and perceive the world as they mature. An example of qualitative differences would be that a child’s perceptions in thinking will change as they evolve and get older into seeing things from others’ point of view. Cognitive Development (0-2 years) Cognitive development is the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Despite an infant’s inability to speak during the first year they do develop early speaking skills along the way. Infants start with simple and sense motor experiences to learn. They then begin to figure things out in their heads. They learn as much from getting things wrong, than from getting them correct. Parents and caregivers can foster cognitive development. They begin to understand object permanence. They begin to understand space. Infants begin to understand the power of imitation. They then begin to learn how to organize thoughts and patterns for learning (schemes). For example, banging and mouthing things are simple ways for an infant to learn. Handling and shaking also teaches properties of objects. They test their schemes on everything. Schemes can be related to people, such as connecting music to dance. Also, the appropriate use of things, like cutlery and tools. Scheme development helps infants learn how to use objects in new and interesting ways. It is the foundation for all other discoveries. When an infant is born, they are born with billions of neurons. These are developing about 250,000/second. |