Cognitive Development PDF

Cognitive Development Ass. Pro. Elsayed Mehrem Early Sensory Processing Innate sensory capabilities serve as the building blocks of cognitive development. Even at birth, the healthy neonate responds to visual and auditory stimuli. These responses, take the form of integrated patterns of activity....

Cognitive Development Ass. Pro. Elsayed Mehrem Early Sensory Processing Innate sensory capabilities serve as the building blocks of cognitive development. Even at birth, the healthy neonate responds to visual and auditory stimuli. These responses, take the form of integrated patterns of activity. It is possible to get the full-term newborn to fix on faces 9 to 12 inches from the face and to track objects horizontally at least 30 o. Early Sensory Processing Some neonates, if assessed when calm and fully alert, can track objects 180 o across the visual field. Newborns also respond to sound, typically quieting in response to a human voice, rattles, or music. In the first days of life, many infants turn to the source of sound and search for it with their eyes. Early Sensory Processing Examination must take place at optimal times when the infant is alert. If the infant is drowsy or agitated, the ability to track visually or to search for sounds is compromised. If, when assessed under optimal circumstances:- - fully alert, - do not demonstrate horizontal tracking of objects, - do not look at the toys or people - hold their heads in unusual positions. - the physician should recommend prompt evaluation for abnormal visual perception or central nervous system development. Development of Sensorimotor Intelligence During the first 2 years of life, the young child’s cognitive abilities can be surmised only through - Use of the senses - the physical manipulation of objects. -The nature of an infant’s thinking is assessed through concrete interaction with the environment. During this period, the child develops - an understanding of the concept of object permanence, - the ability to recognize that an object exists even when it cannot be seen, heard, or felt. Development of Sensorimotor Intelligence - Simultaneously, the child develops an understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. - Progress in the child’s development of these concepts is an important prerequisite to the development of pure mental activity, reflected in the ability to use symbols and language. Development of Sensorimotor Intelligence - Early progress in the development of object permanence is indicated by the infant’s continued though brief gaze at the site where a familiar toy or face has disappeared. - At this point, children also repeat actions that they have discovered will produce interesting results. - Between 4 and 8 months of age, infants become interested in changes in the position and appearance of toys. Development of Sensorimotor Intelligence They can track an object visually through a vertical fall and search for a partially hidden toy. They also begin to vary the means of creating interesting effects. In these early months, the baby’s play consists of exploring toys to gain information about their physical characteristics. Activities such as mouthing, shaking, and banging can provide sensory input about an object beyond its visual features. Development of Sensorimotor Intelligence However, when mouthing of toys persists as the predominant mode of exploration after 12 to 18 months of age, assessment of cognitive function is warranted. At approximately 9 to 12 months of age, infants can locate objects that have been completely hidden. Later, the infant can crawl away from the mother and recall where to return to find her. As children near one year’s’ old, interest in toys extends beyond physical properties (e.g., color, texture). These children may begin to demonstrate their awareness that different objects have different purposes. Development of Sensorimotor Intelligence For example, a child might touch a comb to the hair in a meaningful non-pretend action, which is typical of the 9- to 12-month age range. Beyond 1 year old, children begin to vary their behavior to create novel effects. They no longer need to be shown how to work dials or knobs, nor hit something by accident to discover the interesting effect that will result. By 18 months old, children can deduce the location of an object even if they have not seen it hidden from view. Development of Sensorimotor Intelligence They can maintain mental images of desired objects and develop plans for obtaining them. The child’s understanding of causality also advances; because and-effect relationships no longer need to be direct to be appreciated. These developments herald the beginning of a new stage in cognitive development, that of symbolic thinking. They also indicate that distraction may not succeed in drawing a child away from a desired object; a direct request is required. Development of Symbolic Capabilities 2nd year of life, the child demonstrates mental activity independent of sensory processing or motor manipulation. For example, the child observes a television superhero performing a rescue mission and hours later reenacts the scene with careful precision. Clearly, the child has a mental image of the event and uses it to generate the delayed imitation. As children develop the capacity for pure mental activity, they use objects to represent other objects or ideas. Genuine pretending begins; the child engages in playful representation of common place activities, using objects for their actual purpose but accompanied by exaggerated sounds or gestures. Development of Symbolic Capabilities Pretend actions are combined into a series of events. For example, the child may hold a phone to the ear and then to a doll’s ear or may feed a teddy bear and then put the bear to bed. The next stage in development allows the child to plan pretend activities in anticipation of the play theme to come, combining many steps into the play. Preparing for play indicates an advance in pretending beyond that of improvising with the objects at hand. For example, the child might be seen preparing the play area or searching for needed objects and announcing what the objects are meant to represent. Development of Logical Thinking The preschool child has well-developed capabilities for mental representation and symbolic thinking. However, the dominance of sensory input, limited life experience, and a lack of formal education lead to a unique and charming logic during this period. Preschoolers often assume that all objects are alive like themselves. E.g. A car and a tricycle may be seen as alive, perhaps because they are capable of movement. Similarly, children claim that the moon follows them on an evening walk. Development of Logical Thinking The logic of the preschooler is in large part influenced by the appearance of objects. Because an airplane appears to become smaller as it takes off, the preschooler may assume that all the people on the plane become smaller as well. Piaget demonstrated that preschoolers seem to think that number and quantity vary with appearance. Under certain circumstances, a 4-year-old child may show understanding that a quantity remains invariant unless something is added or subtracted. That same child, however, may insist that two rows of pennies are different in number simply because of a compelling visual difference between them. Development of Logical Thinking The immature logic of the preschooler is gradually replaced by conventional logic and wisdom. School-age children follow logic akin to adult reasoning, at least when the stimuli are concrete. Faced with the same question about the pennies, they readily acknowledge that the two rows have the same number regardless of their visual appearance. They also know that the airplane just looks smaller because it has moved farther from the viewer, and they giggle at the suggestion that the people on the plane have shrunk. Development of Logical Thinking Their logical limitations become obvious when they must reason about the hypothetical or the abstract. Adolescents, particularly those with the benefits of formal education, tend to extend logical principles to increasingly diverse problems. They can generate multiple logical possibilities systematically when faced with scientific experiments, and they can also consider hypothetical problems. These principles of reasoning are applied not only to schoolwork but also to social situations.