Questions and Answers
What is one way infants learn according to the text?
through cuddling with a caregiver, listening to language, experimenting with sounds, moving their bodies, reaching for objects, tasting foods, & exploring their environments
Infants should be pushed to learn too much too soon. (True/False)
False
What is essential for healthy brain development in infants?
According to Jean Piaget, what shapes brain architecture in infants and young children?
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What is the primary stage of cognitive development according to Piaget?
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Assimilation occurs when existing ways of thinking change in response to new stimuli.
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Piaget believed that infants have mental structures called ____. These refer to mental patterns, operations, and systems.
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What are the major steps that infants take in the Secondary Circular Reactions stage?
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Object permanence is the realization that people and objects exist even when they cannot be ____.
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What is the achievement of substage 6 in the Beginning of Thought stage?
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According to Piaget, children in the Sensorimotor Stage learn primarily through verbal communication.
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Study Notes
Infants' Memory and Learning
- Infants remember some information because without memory, they would be unable to speak, recognize others, and show cognitive development.
- Serve and return interactions shape brain architecture, which provides the foundation for all future learning, behavior, and health.
Brain Architecture
- The development of a child's brain architecture provides the foundation for all future learning, behavior, and health.
- Children's emotional development is built into the architecture of their brains.
Jean Piaget's Theory
- Jean Piaget suggests that infants learn by doing, and knowledge is the product of direct motor behavior.
- Piaget's approach to cognitive development occurs in an orderly fashion, with children passing through a series of universal stages in a fixed order.
- The quantity of information acquired in each stage increases, and the quality of knowledge and understanding grows too.
Schemes
- Piaget believed that infants have mental structures called schemes, which refer to mental patterns, operations, and systems.
- Schemes are an organized pattern of sensorimotor functioning that adapt and change with mental development.
- Schemes are displayed by the way an infant reacts when given a new object, such as a cloth book.
Assimilation and Accommodation
- Assimilation is the process in which people understand an experience in terms of their current stage of cognitive development and way of thinking.
- Accommodation is a change in existing ways of thinking that occurs in response to meet with new stimuli or events.
- Assimilation occurs when a stimulus or event is acted on, perceived, and understood in accordance with existing patterns of thought.
- Accommodation takes place when existing ways of behaving, thinking, and understanding become altered to fit or match new experiences.
Sensorimotor Period
- The sensorimotor period is the primary stage of cognitive development, which can be broken down into 6 substages.
- Substage 1: Simple Reflexes (first month of life) - the infant's interactions with the world are centered around reflexes.
- Substage 2: First Habits and Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months) - infants begin to coordinate what were separate actions into single, integrated activities.
- Substage 3: Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months) - infants take major steps in shifting their cognitive horizons beyond themselves and begin to act on the outside world.
- Substage 4: Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8-12 months) - infants begin to use more calculated approaches to producing events, coordinating several schemes to generate a single act.
- Substage 5: Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months) - infants develop what Piaget regards as the on-purpose variation of actions that bring desirable consequences.
- Substage 6: Beginning of Thought (18 months to 2 years) - the major achievement of this stage is the capacity for mental representation or symbolic thought.### Cognitive Development: Substage 5 - Tertiary Circular Reactions
- Infants can mentally represent unseen directions of objects, allowing them to predict where an object will emerge if it rolls under a piece of furniture.
- They can imagine where objects might be, even if they cannot see them.
- Piaget believed that by this stage, infants can create internal representations of objects and events.
Cognitive Development: Substage 6 - Beginning of Thought
- Children can create mental representations of past events or objects, which improves their understanding of causality.
- They can plot in their head the unseen direction of objects.
- Piaget's observation of his son Laurent's efforts to open a garden gate illustrates the beginning of thought in infants.
Promoting Cognitive Development in Infants
- Provide infants with opportunities to explore the world and investigate their environment.
- Be responsive to infants on both a verbal and nonverbal level, speaking with them and listening to their responses.
- Ensure the environment contains a variety of toys, books, and other sources of stimulation.
- Read to infants, even if they don't understand the meaning of words, as it creates a lifelong reading habit and provides intimacy.
- Don't push infants too hard or expect too much too soon, allowing them to reach their potential in a warm and nurturing environment.
- Infants learn through cuddling, listening to language, experimenting with sounds, moving their bodies, and exploring their environment.
- Healthy brain development is achieved through nurturing and responsive care for a child's body and mind.
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Description
Discover how infants remember information and its importance in their cognitive development. Learn about the milestones in infant cognitive development and how memory plays a crucial role.