Every day is a new day to learn, incorporate, examine, and decode information. The cognitive development skills acquired from birth to adolescence help individual’s connect new information, to challenges, and setbacks. Two child development theorists, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, have developed theories based on learning and development together with speech and thought, they examined the basic changes that influence the process of learning through thinking and reasoning between situations that occur on a daily basis (Mooney, 2000). Piaget’s theory stressed cognitive growth, suggesting that all children go through the same universal four stages of development and that through interacting within a unique environmental context, children can develop
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According to Miller (2011) children organize their thoughts in sets of familiar patterns and behaviors in order to make sense of the world. For instance, infants are born with the innate ability to suck; this is not something that they need to learn. This indicates that they have acquired a pre-existing "suck schema." Therefore, if you place an object in front of their mouths or in their hands, they will most likely suck on it, but through that action they will also learn to classify objects, create connections between objects, and foster new ideas about the world around them (Birney & Sternberg, 2005). Another key point observed by Piaget is that children learn through play, and that it is essential to provide children opportunities for knowledge. If children engage in symbolic play such as making a pizza out of moldable physical objects around them or using a jump rope to play act as a fireman, they are learning to build connections and make sense of the world around them through everyday objects. Children naturally observe, taking in what they see in their immediate surroundings and environment. Therefore, with time and children will be able to comprehend what objects are used for and how things work through trial and …show more content…
The preoperational stage (2--7 years) is second. This is where children maintain an egocentric mentality were they see the world through their own perspective. Around this age they believe that what they see is reality. The mindset is unable to distinguish between an object's weight and height. During this time children learn to process new information. As a result, children’s thinking and consciousness of the external world becomes internalized through the process of association, assimilation and accommodation (Mooney, 2000). To emphasize, Judy sees a cow for the first time and associates the cow with a dog because it has four legs and a tail. Judy then assimilates this information into her schema for cow, but since it’s her first exposure to a cow her memory bank does don’t register with this new animal. So, she tries to reflect her attention towards the characteristics of a cow vs. a dog, perhaps hearing the cow moo and seeing it eat grass is very different from a dog barking and eating pebbles. Afterwards, when Judy is able to distinguish the difference between the two animals and learned how to say the word cow, she’s then accommodated new information into her schema. Furthermore, as children age they strengthen their
According to Miller (2011) children organize their thoughts in sets of familiar patterns and behaviors in order to make sense of the world. For instance, infants are born with the innate ability to suck; this is not something that they need to learn. This indicates that they have acquired a pre-existing "suck schema." Therefore, if you place an object in front of their mouths or in their hands, they will most likely suck on it, but through that action they will also learn to classify objects, create connections between objects, and foster new ideas about the world around them (Birney & Sternberg, 2005). Another key point observed by Piaget is that children learn through play, and that it is essential to provide children opportunities for knowledge. If children engage in symbolic play such as making a pizza out of moldable physical objects around them or using a jump rope to play act as a fireman, they are learning to build connections and make sense of the world around them through everyday objects. Children naturally observe, taking in what they see in their immediate surroundings and environment. Therefore, with time and children will be able to comprehend what objects are used for and how things work through trial and …show more content…
The preoperational stage (2--7 years) is second. This is where children maintain an egocentric mentality were they see the world through their own perspective. Around this age they believe that what they see is reality. The mindset is unable to distinguish between an object's weight and height. During this time children learn to process new information. As a result, children’s thinking and consciousness of the external world becomes internalized through the process of association, assimilation and accommodation (Mooney, 2000). To emphasize, Judy sees a cow for the first time and associates the cow with a dog because it has four legs and a tail. Judy then assimilates this information into her schema for cow, but since it’s her first exposure to a cow her memory bank does don’t register with this new animal. So, she tries to reflect her attention towards the characteristics of a cow vs. a dog, perhaps hearing the cow moo and seeing it eat grass is very different from a dog barking and eating pebbles. Afterwards, when Judy is able to distinguish the difference between the two animals and learned how to say the word cow, she’s then accommodated new information into her schema. Furthermore, as children age they strengthen their