Essay Surrounding Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory

If you provide children with books they want to read more and for a longer time. Children observe parents, caregivers and siblings use print for different things. By watching others children will begin to understand and learn why writing and reading is important. When parents write or read it is important for you to

Interactions between an adult and child during the early years are vital for their development and learning, as they are still grasping day-to-day skills and understanding new life concepts. Children learn and develop their language and literacy skills through interactions with others; they begin by absorbing, listening and then imitating and practising (Buckely 2003) Learning environments that promote language and literacy development are environments which expose and encourage children to interact with various forms of print. Behaviourists such as Skinner (1953) argue that language acquisition and development are learned through observation of behaviours in their social environment; these behaviours are then practiced through imitation by the child. Children learn through imitating what they see others do or how they behaviour, play is the most important learning tool for children to construct meaning of these behaviours.

When it comes to Greg’s intellectual development he is in Formal Operational Stage of Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development. At times throughout the book Greg can become the leader and think about situations in a logical manner. This is seen consistently while he is in school. “They don’t come right out and tell you if you’re in the Gifted group or the Easy group, but you can figure it out right away” (Kinney. p 13). Greg is able to identify which students have higher order thinking and which do not base off reading groups.

Parents who read to children can be helpful especially when parents are learning the language too. Repetition and practice are good for those trying to learn a new language. This technique can also strengthen the bond a parent has with a child. Each week students will be sent home with a checklist of books that a child should read in order to improve in class. These books should be subject area and age

Sociocultural theory argues that learning is a social process and the beginning of human intelligence in society and culture. The theme of the theory is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition. Vygotsky believed everything is learned on two levels, first on a social level and later the child (Vygotsky 1978) .Social interaction plays a big role in the development of a child’s cognition functions and the key to understanding it is the “ZPD” zone of proximal development. The ZPD includes all the knowledge and skills that a child cannot yet understand or perform on their own but is capable of learning with help and guidance from an adult.

As a parent, you are your child's first and most important teacher. When you help your child learn to read, you are opening the door to a world of books and learning. Reading aloud to children is the best way to get them interested in reading. Before long they will grow to love stories and books. Eventually they will want to read on their own.

1. From my instruction in Psychology Applied to Teaching, I have learned about Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Piaget separated children into different categories based on their ages. Each stage has a different set of characteristics that a child should exhibit. Piaget’s stages are supported by scientific research; however, since every child develops at a different pace, the age range of each stage are not supported.

Using the information about Piaget’s sub-stages, I observed my 12-month old niece. While I have watched her grow from a newborn to infancy, I have limited my research to a maximum of four hours. Before I start with my observations I would like to share my own theory behind infancy. I believe a child does go through certain stages of exploring and at many stages it may seem as though their exploring is very limited. I believe that children adapt and react to their surroundings regardless of the age.

Children in this stage start developing logical thinking skills. Kids in this age range may have difficulties with abstract thinking which may cause thinking patterns to be “black and white.” Empathy begins to develop as egocentric thinking starts declining. In this stage, children start to realize not everybody thinks the same things, has the same feelings or opinions that they may have. During this stage, it may become easier for children to see things from others perspectives.

Basically making plans. After this stage is another one called Internalisation which is based on children between 7 and 8 and at this age a child tends to think inside their brain to problem solve and to make plans instead of having to say them out loud like they would have done at a younger age. (Bruner 1956) developed the first stage of learning called Enactive which is based a lot on physical movement where we learn through this. The Iconic Stage which is between the ages of 1-6 years. At this stage we learn things through images and remember things through images in the brain.

He also stated that, infants and young children understand the world much differently than adults do, and as they play and explore, their mind learns how to think in ways that better fit with reality. Moreover, Piaget believed that children learn many skills and creating ideas by interacting with the environment. He also believed that children gain knowledge continuously from their teachers and parents as well. In addition, children build on their own knowledge by using their sensory motor skills. Piaget proposed that children go through four stages of cognitive development:

The 4 stages of development are sensory (0-2yrs), preoperational (2-7yrs), concrete (7-11yrs) and formal operational (11yrs+). Sensory development is for infant and toddler stages, they acquire their knowledge through sensory and manipulating at this period. Preoperational is a stages of development through pretend play. At the concrete stages, they start to think logically and make hypothetical concepts. Once the processes have been passed, they will get into formal operational.

The questionable and ambiguous nature surrounding the notion that children play an active role in acquiring language has been debated by many theorists of different perspectives. These three perspectives include the learning view, the nativist view and the interactionist view. In this essay I will discuss each perspective with reference to psychological theories and research that relates to each view. The learning perspective of language acquisition suggests that children acquire language through imitation and reinforcement (Skinner, 1957). The ideology behind this view claims that children develop language by repeating utterances that have been praised by their parent, therefore gaining a larger vocabulary and understanding of phrases over

This is referred to the interactionist theory. “Similar to the behaviorist theory, the interactionist theory believes that nurture is crucial in the process of language development. Though, the interactionist perspective differs from the behaviorist

The guardian or the parents will reinforce the students and give them punishment so the children or the students will develop themselves. Interactionist Theory . Interactionists argue that language development is both biological and social. Interactionists argue that language learning is influenced by the desire of children to communicate with others. The Interactionists argue that "children are born with a powerful brain that matures slowly and predisposes them to acquire new understandings that they are motivated to share with others" ( Bates,1993;Tomasello,1995, as cited in shaffer,et al.,2002,p.362).