Instructional Module For Child Development PDF

Prepared by: Leila M. Collantes E-mail Address: [email protected] Central Luzon State University Science City of Muñoz 3120 Nueva Ecija, Philippines Instructional Module for the Course SED 2...

Prepared by: Leila M. Collantes E-mail Address: [email protected] Central Luzon State University Science City of Muñoz 3120 Nueva Ecija, Philippines Instructional Module for the Course SED 2100- The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles Module 3 : Cognitive Development  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles I. Objectives After studying this module, the student should be able to: 1. characterize the nature of Piaget’s theory and identify the major cognitive accomplishments of each stage; 2. come up with a simple Piagetian task interview with children; 3. explain Vygotsky theory and list down the important concepts; 4. discuss the different theories of intelligence; 5. identify the different factors that affect the cognitive development of human beings; 6. discuss the language acquisition and achievements of child and adolescent in every period in the life span; 7. name the different factors affecting the language development of child and adolescent; and 8. analyze how each factor affects the language development of child and adolescent II. Learning Activities Discussion A. Cognitive Development Theories 1. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development Jean Piaget, a child psychologist, laid emphasis on how learners interact with their environment and develop complex reasoning and knowledge. Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory states that children, quite simply, think differently than adults. While this may seem obvious to some, this was a revolutionary theory that went on to provide the foundations for several other theories to come. Essentially, this theory divided the child life into four separate categories, or stages, each of which carries its own important qualities and vulnerabilities. The key terms here used are assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration. Jean Piaget, the theory’s author was a notable psychologist and Page 2 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles scientist of his time. Further, he states four stages of cognitive development depending on the perception and observation of a person. 1. Pre-operational (2-7 yrs) 2. Concrete Operation (7-12 years) 3. Formal operations (12+ years) This final stage encompasses the rest of our lives. Piaget believes that after reaching this stage one is quite capable of thinking logically and solving problems in their heads. During this period, children are more capable of abstract thinking and could deal with more complex issues. Schemas – Piaget (1954) said that as the child seeks to construct an understanding of the world, the developing brain creates schema. These are actions or mental representations that organize knowledge. Assimilation – Piagetian concept of the incorporation of new information into their existing knowledge or schemas. Accommodation – Piagetian concept of adjusting schemas to fit new information and experiences. Consider an 8-year-old girl who is given a hammer and nail to hang a picture on the wall. She has never used a hammer, but from observing others do this she realized that a hammer is an object to be held, that is swung by the handle to hit the nail, and that is usually is swung a number of times. Recognizing each of these things, she fits her behavior into this schema she already has (assimilation). But the hammer is heavy, so she holds it near the top. She swings too hard and the nail bends, so she adjust the pressure of her strikes. These adjustments reflect her ability to slightly alter her conception of the world (accommodation). Just as both assimilation and accommodation are required in this example, so are they required in many of the child’s thinking challenges. Organization – Piagetian concept of grouping isolated behavior into a higher-order more smoothly functioning cognitive system the grouping of items into categories. Page 3 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles Equilibration – A mechanism that Piaget proposed to explain how children shift from one stage of thought to the next. The shift occurs as children experience cognitive conflict or disequilibrium in trying to understand the world. Eventually, they resolve the conflict and reach a balance or equilibrium of thought. Piaget pointed out that there is considerable movement between states of cognitive equilibrium and disequilibrium as assimilation and accommodation work in concert to produce cognitive change. For example, if a child believes that the amount of a liquid changes simply because the liquid is poured into a container with a different shape – for instance, from a container that is short and wide into a container that is tall and narrow – she might be puzzled by issues as where the “extra” liquid came from and whether there is actually more liquid to drink. The child will eventually resolve these puzzles as her thinking becomes more advanced. In the everyday world, the child is constantly faced with such counterexamples and inconsistencies. Assimilation and accommodation always take the child to a higher ground. For Piaget, the motivation for change is an internal search for equilibrium. As old schemas are adjusted and new schemas are developed, the child organizes and reorganizes the old and new schemas. Eventually, the organization is fundamentally different from the old organization; it is a new way of thinking. Thus, the result of these processes, according to Piaget, is that individuals go through four stages of development. A different way of understanding the world makes one stage more advanced than another. Cognition is qualitatively different in one stage compared with another. In other words, the way children reason at one stage is different from the way they reason at another stage. a. Stage 1. Sensori-motor Stage. The first stage corresponds from birth to infancy. This is the stage when a child who is initially reflexive in grasping, sucking, and reaching becomes more organized in his movement and activity. The term sensori-motor focuses on the prominence of the senses and muscle movement through which the infant comes to learn about himself and the world. In working with children in the sensorimotor stage, teachers should aim to provide a rich and stimulating environment with appropriate objects to play with. Object permanence. This is the ability of the child to know that an object still exists even when out of sight. This ability is attained in the sensory motor stage. Page 4 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles b. Pre-operational StageThis stage covers from about two to seven years old, roughly corresponding to the preschool years. Intelligence at this stage is intuitive in nature. At this stage, the child can now make mental representations and is able to pretend, the child is now ever closer to the use of symbols.. Partially logical thinking or thought begins during these years. Preoperational thinking can and usually is illogical. This stage is highlighted by the following Symbolic Function. This is the ability to represent objects and events. A symbol is a thing that represents something else. A drawing, a written word, or a spoken word comes to be understood as representing a real object like a real MRT train. Symbolic function gradually develops in the period between 2 to 7 years. Riel, a two year old may pretend that she is drinking form a glass which is really empty. Though she already pretends the presence of water, the glass remains to be a glass. At around four years of age, Nico, may, after pretending to drink from an empty glass, turn the glass into a rocket ship or a telephone. By the age of 6 or 7 the child can pretend play with objects that exist only in mind. Enzo, who is six can do a whole ninja turtle routine without any costume nor “props”. Tria wo is 7 can pretend to host an elaborate princess ball only in her mind. Egocentrism. This is the tendency of the child to only see is point of view and to assume that everyone also has his same point of view. The child cannot take the perspective of others. You see this in five year-old who buys a toy truck for his mother’s birthday. Or a three year old girl who cannot understand why her cousins call her daddy, uncle and not daddy. Centration. This refers to the tendency of the child to only focus on one aspect of a thing or event and exclude other aspects. For example, when a child is presented with two identical glasses with the same amount of water, the child will say they have the same amount of water. However, once water from one of the glasses is transferred to an obviously taller but narrower glass, the child might say that there is more water in the taller glass. The child only focused or “centered” only one aspect of the new glass, that is a taller glass. The child was not able to perceive that the Page 5 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles new glass is also narrower. The child only centered on the height fo the glass and excluded the width in determining the amount of water in the glass. Reversibility. Pre-operational children has the inability to reverse their thinking. They can understand that 2 +3 is 5, but cannot understand that 5-3 is 2. Animism. This is the tendency of children to attribute human like traits or characteristics to inanimate object. When at night, the child is asked, where the sun is, she will reply, “Mr Sun is asleep”. Transductive reasoning. This refers to the pre-operational child’s type of reasoning that is neither inductive nor deductive. Reasoning appears to be from particular to particular i.e. if A causes B, then B causes A. For example, since her mommy comes home everyday around six o’clock in the evening, when asked why it is already night, the child will say, “because my mon is already home”. c. Stage 3. Concrete-Operational Stage. This stage is characterized by the ability of the child to think logically but only in terms of concrete objects. This covers approximately the ages between 8-11 years or the elementary school years. The concrete operational stage is marked by the following: Decentering. This refers to the ability of the child to perceive the different features of objects and situations. No longer is the child focused or limited to one aspect or dimension. This allows the child to be more logical when dealing with concrete objects and situations. Reversibility. During the stage of concrete operations, the child can now follow the certain operations can be done in reverse. For example, they can already comprehend the commutative property of addition, and that subtraction is the reverse of addition. They can also understand that a ball of clay shaped into a dinosaur can again be rolled back into a ball of clay. Conservation. This is the ability to know that certain properties of objects like number, mass, volume, or area do not change even if there is a change in appearance. Because of the development of the child’s ability of decentering and also Page 6 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles reversibility, the concrete operational child can now judge rightly that the amount of water in a taller but narrower container is still the same as when the water was in the shorter but wider glass. The children progress to attain conservation abilities gradually being a pre-conserver, a transitional thinker and then a conserver. Seriation. This refers to the ability to order or arrange things in a series based on one dimension such as weight, volume or size. d. Stage 4. Formal Operational Stage. In the final stage of formal operations covering ages between 12 and 15 years, thinking becomes more logical. They can now solve abstract problems and can hypothesize. This stage is characterized by the following. Hypothetical Reasoning. This is the ability to come up with different hypothesis about a problem and to gather and weight data in order to make a final decision or judgment. This can be done in the absence of concrete objects. The individuals can now deal with “What if” questions. Analogical Reasoning. This is the ability to perceive the relationship in one instance and then use that relationship to narrow down possible answers in another similar situation or problem. The individual in the formal operations stage can make an analogy. If United Kingdom is to Europe, then the Philippines is to ___. The individual will reason that since UK is found in the continent of Europe then the Philippines is found in what continent? Then Asia is his answer. Through reflective thought and even in the absence of concrete objects, the individual can now understand relationships and do analogical reasoning. Deductive Reasoning. This is the ability to think logically by applying a general rule to a particular instance or situation. For example, all countries near the north pole have cold temperature. Greenland is near the North pole. Therefore, Greenland has cold temperature. 2. Vygotsky In Vygotsky’s theory children’s cognitive development is shaped by the cultural context and that social interaction plays a very important role. Page 7 of 25 SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles The Zone of Proximal Development. Vygotsky’s belief in the importance of social influences, especially instruction, on children’s cognitive development is reflected in his concept of the zone of proximal development. Zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a term for the range of tasks that are too difficult for the child to master alone but that can be learned with guidance and assistance from adults or more-skilled children. Thus, the lower limit of the ZPD is the level of skill reached by the child working independently. The upper limit is the level of additional responsibility the child can accept with the assistance of an able instructor. The ZPD capture the child’s cognitive skills that are in the process of maturing and can be accomplished only with the assistance of a more skilled person. Scaffolding means changing the level of support. Over the course of teaching session, a more skilled person (a teacher or more advanced peer) adjust the amount of guidance to fit the child’s current performance (Wikinson and Gaffney, 2016). When the student is learning a new task, the skilled person may use direct instruction. As the student’s competence increases, less guidance is given. Scaffolding is often used to help students attain the upper limits of their zone of proximal development. Asking probing questions is an excellent way to scaffold students’ learning and help them to develop more sophisticated thinking skills. A greater might ask a student such questions as “What would an example of that be?” ‘Why do you think that is so?” “Now, what’s the next thing to do?” and “How can you connect those?” Overtime, students should begin internalizing these kinds of probes and improve monitoring of their own work (Horowitz & other, 2005). Language and Thought. In Vygotsky’s view, language plays a important role in a child’s development. According to Vygotsky, children use speech not only for social communication, but also to help them solve task. Vygotsky (1962) further argued that young children use language to plan, guide and monitor their behavior. This use of language for self-regulation is called private speech. For example, young children talk aloud to themselves about such things as their toys and the tasks they are trying to complete. Thus, when working on a puzzle, a child might say, “This piece doesn’t fit; maybe I’ll try that one.” A few minutes later she utters, “This is hard.” Page 8 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles B. Intelligence and Individual Difference 1. Concept of Intelligence (Binet) The term “intelligence” has been generally operationalized as a construct reflecting individual differences in cognitive abilities underlying various skills and behaviors such as educational and occupational success. However, the definition of “intelligence” and the abilities, aptitudes, and behaviors this construct includes has been a source of debate over the course of human history. Many definitions of intelligence have emerged over the years. For example, Binet (Binet & Simon, 1905) defined intelligence in terms of judgment, practical sense, initiative, and adaptability; whereas Wechsler (1958) later defined it as “the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his/her environment” (p. 7). Moreover, intelligence was viewed by Wechsler as a composite of different abilities... 2. General Intelligence (Spearman) General intelligence, also known as g factor, refers to the existence of a broad mental capacity that influences performance on cognitive ability measures. Charles Spearman first described the existence of general intelligence in 1904. According to Spearman, this g factor was responsible for overall performance on mental ability tests. Spearman noted that while people certainly could and often did excel in certain areas, people who did well in one area tended also to do well in other areas. For example, a person who does well on a verbal test would probably also do well on other tests. Those who hold this view believe that intelligence can be measured and expressed by a single number, such as an IQ score. The idea is that this underlying general intelligence influences performance on all cognitive tasks. General intelligence can be compared to athleticism. A person might be a very skilled runner, but this does not necessarily mean that Page 9 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles they will also be an excellent figure skater. However, because this person is athletic and fit, they will probably perform much better on other physical tasks than an individual who is less coordinated and more sedentary. Spearman and General Intelligence Charles Spearman was one of the researchers who helped develop a statistical technique known as factor analysis. Factor analysis allows researchers to use a number of different test items to measure common abilities. For example, researchers might find that people who score well on questions that measure vocabulary also perform better on questions related to reading comprehension. Spearman believed that general intelligence represented an intelligence factor underlying specific mental abilities. All tasks on intelligence tests, whether they related to verbal or mathematical abilities, were influenced by this underlying g-factor. Many modern intelligence tests, including the Stanford-Binet, measure some of the cognitive factors that are thought to make up general intelligence. Visual-spatial processing: Abilities such as putting together puzzles and copying complex shapes Quantitative reasoning: The capacity to solve problems that involve numbers Knowledge: A person's understanding of a wide range of topics Fluid reasoning: The ability to think flexibly and solve problems Working memory: The use of short-term memory (such as being able to repeat a list of items) Challenges to the Concept of General Intelligence The notion that intelligence could be measured and summarized by a single number on an IQ test was controversial during Spearman's time and has remained so over the decades since. Some psychologists, including L.L. Thurstone, challenged the concept of a g-factor. Thurstone instead identified a number of what he referred to as "primary mental abilities." More recently, psychologists such as Howard Gardner have argued against the notion that a single general intelligence can accurately capture all of human mental ability. Gardner instead proposed that multiple intelligences exist. Each intelligence represents abilities in a Page 10 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles certain domain, such as visual-spatial intelligence, verbal-linguistic intelligence, and logical-mathematical intelligence. Research today points to an underlying mental ability that contributes to performance on many cognitive tasks. IQ scores, which are designed to measure this general intelligence, are also thought to influence an individual's overall success in life. However, while IQ can play a role in academic and life success, other factors such as childhood experiences, educational experiences, socioeconomic status, motivation, maturity, and personality also play a critical role in determining overall success. 3. Primary Mental Abilities (Thurstone) Definition of Intelligence “Intelligence, considered as a mental trait, is the capacity to make impulses focal at their early, unfinished stage of formation. Intelligence is therefore the capacity for abstraction, which is an inhibitory process (Thurstone, 1924/1973 p. 159).” Major Contributions Theory of Primary Mental Abilities Developed the statistical technique of multiple-factor analysis Ideas and Interests Louis Leon Thurstone made significant contributions in many areas of psychology, including psychometrics, statistics, and the study of human intelligence. He developed methods for scaling psychological measures, assessing attitudes, and test theory, among many other influential contributions. He is best known for the development of new factor analytic techniques to determine the number and nature of latent constructs within a set of observed variables. The new statistical techniques developed by Thurstone provided the necessary tools for his most enduring contribution to psychology: The Theory of Primary Mental Abilities, a model of human intelligence that challenged Charles Spearman’s then-dominant paradigm of a unitary conception of intelligence. Spearman, using an earlier approach to factor analysis, found that scores on all mental tests (regardless of the domain or how it was tested) tend to load on one major factor. Spearman suggested that these disparate scores are fueled by a common Page 11 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles metaphorical “pool” of mental energy. He named this pool the general factor, or g (Spearman, 1904). Thurstone argued that g was a statistical artifact resulting from the mathematical procedures used to study it. Using his new approach to factor analysis, Thurstone found that intelligent behavior does not arise from a general factor, but rather emerges from seven independent factors that he called primary abilities: word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial visualization, number facility, associative memory, reasoning, and perceptual speed (Thurstone, 1938). Furthermore, when Thurstone analyzed mental test data from samples comprised of people with similar overall IQ scores, he found that they had different profiles of primary mental abilities, further supporting his model and suggesting that his work had more clinical utility than Spearman’s unitary theory. However, when Thurstone administered his tests to an intellectually heterogeneous group of children, he failed to find that the seven primary abilities were entirely separate; rather he found evidence of g. Thurstone managed an elegant mathematical solution that resolved these apparently contradictory results, and the final version of his theory was a compromise that accounted for the presence of both a general factor and the seven specific abilities. This compromise helped lay the groundwork for future researchers who proposed hierarchical theories and theories of multiple intelligences (Ruzgis, 1994). Please open this link for additional reading materials: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Leon_Thurstone#:~:text=The%2 0seven%20primary%20mental%20abilities,%2C%20perceptual%20s peed%2C%20and%20reasoning. 4. Multiple Intelligence (Gardner) a. Linguistic/Verbal Intelligence (Word Smart) – learning visually and organizing ideas spatially. Seeing concepts in action in order to understand them. The ability to “see” things in one’s mind in planning to create a product or solve a problem or the ability to use and understand words and nuances of meaning. b. Logical-mathematical (Number Smart/Logic Smart) – learning through reasoning and problem writing. Also highly valued in the traditional classroom, where students were asked to adapt to logically sequenced delivery of instruction. Simply, the ability to manipulate numbers and solve logical problems. Page 12 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles c. Spatial/Visual Intelligence (Picture Smart) – learning visually and organizing ideas spatially. Seeing concepts in action in order to understand them. The ability to see things in one’s mind in planning to create a product or solve a problem. Also the ability to find one’s way around in an environment and judge relationships between objects in space. d. Musical Intelligence (Music Smart) – learning through patterns, rhtyhms and music. This includes not only auditory learning, but the identification of patterns through all the senses. Ability to perceive and create patterns of pitch and rhythm. e. Bodily-kinesthetic (Body Smart) – learning through interaction with ones’s environment. This intelligence is not the domain of “overly active” learners. It promotes understanding through concrete experience. It is also the ability to move with precision. f. Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart) – learning through interaction with others. Not the domain of children who are simply “talkative” or “overly social”. This intelligence promotes collaboration and working cooperatively with others. It involves the ability to understand and communicate with others. g. Intrapersonal Intelligence ((Self Smart) – learning through feelings, values and attitudes. This is a decidedly affective component of learning through which students place value on what they learn and take ownership for their learning or the ability to understand the self. h. Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart) – learning through classification, categories and hierarchies. The naturalist intelligence picks up on subtle differences in meaning. It is not simply the study of nature it can be used in all areas of study but the ability to distinguish specimens and their characteristics. 5. Triarchic Theory of Intelligence(Sternberg) a. The componential element or the analytical intelligence; it determines how efficiently people process information. It tells people how to solve problems, how to monitor solutions, and how to evaluate the results. Page 13 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles It includes what we normally measure on IQ and achievement tests. Planning, organizing and remembering facts and applying them to new situations are all part of analytic intelligence b. The experiential element is insightful or creative intelligence; it determines how people approach novel or familiar tasks. It allows people to compare new information with what they already know and to come up with new ways of putting facts together – in other words to think originality. A person with well-developed creative intelligence can see new connections between things, can relate to experience in insightful ways. A graduate student who can come up with good ideas for experiments, who can see how a theory could be applied to a new totally different situation, or who can synthesize a great many facts into a new organization is high in creative intelligence. c. The contextual element or practical intelligence; it determines how people deal with their environment. It is the ability to size up situation and decide what to do, adapt to it, change it, or get out of it. Sometimes also called “street smarts”. People who are skilled in this are good at seeing how some bit of information may be applied to the real world or finding some practical solution to a real-life problem such as finding shortcuts for repetitive tasks or figuring out which of several different-sized boxes of cereal or laudry soap in the grocery store is the best buy. Practical intelligence may also involve being skilled at reading social cues or social situations, such as knowing not to give your boss bad news when she is clearly in a bad mood over something else, or knowing how to persuade your superiors to invest a large amount of money on your favorite sales plan. 6. Cognitive Information Processing Theory (Atkinson and Shiffrin) Information processing is a cognitive theoretical framework that focuses on how knowledge enters and is stored and retrieved from our memory. It was one of the most significant cognitive theories in the last century and it has strong implications on the teaching-learning process. Page 14 of 25 SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles Relating how the mind and the computer work is a powerful analogy. The terms used in the information processing theory (IPT) extends his analogy. In fact, those who program and design computers aim to make computers solve problems through processes similar to that of the human mind. Read on to know more about IPT. IPT describes how the learner receives information (stimuli) from the environment through the senses and what takes place in between determines whether the information will continue to pass through the sensory register, then the short term memory and the long term memory. Certain factors would also determine whether the information will be retrieved or “remembered” when the learner needs it. Stages in the Information Processing Theory The stages of IPT involves the functioning of the senses, sensory register, short term memory and the long term memory. Basically, IPT asserts three primary stages in the progression of external information becoming incorporated in to the internal cognitive structure of choice (schema, concept, script, frame, mental model, etc.). These three primary stages in IPT are: Encoding – Information is sensed, perceived, and attended to. Storage – the information is stored for either a brief or extended period of time, depending upon the processes following encoding. Retrieval – The information is brought back at the appropriate time, and reactivated for use on a current task, the true measure of effective memory. What made IPT plausible was the notion that cognitive processes could be described in a stage-like model. The stages to processing follow a trail along which information is taken into the memory system, and brought back (recalled) when needed. Most theories of information processing revolve around three mains stages in the memory process. Sensory Register Page 15 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles The first step in the IP model, holds all sensory information for a very brief time. Capacity: Our mind receives a great amount of information but it is more than what our minds can hold or perceive. Duration: The sensory register only holds the information for an extremely brief – in the order of 1 to 3 seconds. There is a difference in duration based on modality: auditory memory is more persistent than visual. The Role of Attention - The bring information into consciousness, it is necessary that we give attention to it. Such that, we can only perceive and remember later those things that pass through our attention “gate”. - Getting through this attentional filter is done when the learner is interested in the material; when there is conscious control over attention, or when information involves novelty, surprise, salience and distinctiveness. - Before information is perceived, it is known as ‘precategorical” information. This means that until that point, the learner has not established a determination of the categorical membership of the information. To this point, the information is coming in as uninterpreted patterns of stimuli. Once it is perceived, we can categorize, judge, interpret, and place meaning to the stimuli. If we fail to perceive, we have no means by which to recognize that the stimulus was ever encountered. Short Term Memory (STM or Working Memory) - Capacity : The STM can only hold 5 to 9 “chunks” of information sometimes described as 7 + / - 2. It is called working memory because it is where new information is temporarily placed while it is mentally processed. STM maintain information for a limited time until the learner has adequate resources to process the information or until the information is forgotten. - Duration: Around 18 seconds or less. - To reduce the loss of information in 18 seconds, you need to do maintenance rehearsal. It is using repetition to keep the information active in STM, like when you repeat a phone number just given over and over. Long Term Memory (LTM) Page 16 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles The LTM is the final or permanent storing house for memory information. It holds the stored information until needed again. - Capacity: LTM has unlimited capacity. - Duration : Duration in the LTM is indefinite. Executive Control Processes The executive control processes involve the executive processor or what is referred to as metacognitive skills. These processes guide the flow or information through the system, helps the learner C. Factors Affecting Cognitive Development Please open the link below as your online reference for this topic. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4800975/ D. Language Development Language is a form of communication-whether spoken, written, or signed- that is based on a system of symbols. Language consists of the words used by a community (vocabulary) and the rules for varying and combining them (grammar and syntax). All human languages have some common characteristics (Clark, 2017; Hoff. 2015). These include infinite generativity and organizational rules. Infinite generativity is the ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules. When we say “rules,” we mean that language is orderly and that rules describe the way language works (Berko Gleason & Ratner, 2009). Languages involves five systems of rules: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Phonology. Every language is made up of basic sounds. Phonology is the sound system of a language, including the sounds used and how they may be combined (Del Campo & other, 2015). For example, English has the sounds, sp, ba, and ar, but the sound sequences zx and qp do not occur. A phoneme is the basic unit of sound in a language; it the smallest unit of sound that affects meaning. A good example of a phonme in English is /k/, the sound represented by the letter k in the work ski and the etter c in the word cat. The /k/ sound is slightly different in these two words, and in some languages such as Arabic these two sounds are separate phonemes. Morphology refers to the units of meaning involved in word formation. A morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning; it s a word or a part Page 17 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles of a word that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful parts. Every word in the English language is made up of one or more morphemes. Some words consist of a single morpheme (for example, help). Whereas others are made up of more than one morpheme (for example, helper, which has two morphemes, help + er, with the morpheme –er meaning “one who”, in this case “one who helps”). Thus, not all morphemes are words by themselves – for example, pre-,-tion, and –ing are morphemes. Just as the rules that govern phonology describe the sound sequences that can occur in a language, the rules of morphology describe the way meaningful units (morphemes) can be combined in words (Clark, 2017). Morphemes have many jobs in grammar, such as marking tense (for example, she walks versus she walked) and number (she walks versus they walk). Syntax involves the ways words are combined to form acceptable phrases and sentences (Los, 2015). If someone says to you, “Bob slugged Tom” or “Bob was slugged by Tom,” you know who did the slugging and who was slugged in each case because you have a syntactic understanding of these sentences structures. You also understand that the sentence “You didn’t stay, did you?” is a grammatical sentence but that “You didn’t stay, didn’t you?” is unacceptable and ambiguous. Semantics refers to the meaning of words and sentences. Every word has a set of semantic features, or required attributes related to meaning. Girl and woman, for example, share many semantic features on how they can be used in sentences (Clark, 2017; Duff, Tomblin & Cats, 2015). The sentence, The bicycle talked the boy into buying a candy bar, is syntactically correct but semantically incorrect. The sentence violates our semantic knowledge that bicycles don’t talk. Pragmatics a final set of language rules involve pragmatics, the appropriate use of language in different context (Clark, 2014). Pragmatics covers a lot of territory. When you take turns speaking in a discussion, you are demonstrating knowledge of pragmatics. You also apply the pragmatics of English when you use polite language in appropriate situations (for example, when talking to a teacher) or tell stories that are interesting. Pragmatic rules can be complex, and they differ from one culture to another. If you were to study the Japanese language, you come face-to-face with countless pragmatic rules about conversing with individuals of various social levels and with various relationships to you. E. Factors Affecting Cognitive and Language Development Biological and Environmental Influences Page 18 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles Famous linguist Noam Chomsky (1957) argued that humans are prewired to learn language at a certain time and in a certain way. Some language scholars view the remarkable similarities in how children acquire language all over the world, despite the vast variation in language in-out they receive, as strong evidence that language has a biological basis (Hickok & Small, 2016). Despite the influence of biology, children clearly do not learn language in a social vacuum (Pace, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2016). Children are neither exclusively biological linguists nor exclusively social architects of language. No matter how long you converse with a dog, it won’t learn to talk, because it doesn’t have the human child’s biological capacity for language. Unfortunately, though, some children fail to develop good language skills even in the presence of very good role models and interaction. An interactionist view emphasizes the contributions of both biology and experience in language development. That is, children are biologically prepared to learn language as they and their caregivers interact (Harley, 2017). In or out of school, encouragement of language development is not simply a matter of being rewarded for saying things correctly and imitating a speaker. Children benefit when their parents and teachers actively engage them in conversation, ask them questions and emphasize interactive rather than directive language (Hirsh-Pasek & others, 2015; Pace & others, 2016). How Language Develops? Infancy Language acquisition advances past number of milestones in infancy (Cartmill & Goldin-Meadow, 2016). Because the main focus of this text is on children and adolescents rather than infants, we will only describe several of the many language milestones in infancy. Babbling occurs in the middle of the first year and infants usually utter their first word at about 10 to 13 months. By 18 to 24 months, infants usually have begun to string two words together. In this two-world stage, they quickly grasp the importance of language in communication, creating phrases such as “Book ther”,” “My cangy,” “Mama walk,” and “Give Papa.” Early Childhood As children leave the two-words stage, they move rather quickly into three-four-, four-, and five-word combinations. The transition from simple sentences expressing a single proposition to complex sentences begins between 2 and 3 years of age and continues into the elementary school years (Bloom, 1998). Rule Systems of Language Page 19 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles Let’s explore the changes in the five rules systems described earlier- phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics-during early childhood. In terms of phonology, most preschool children gradually become sensitive to the sounds of spoken words. They notice rhymes, enjoy poems, make up silly names for things by substituting one sound for another (such as bubblegum, bubblebum, bubbleyum), and clap along with each syllable in a phrase. As children move beyond two-word utterances, there is clear evidence that they know morphological rules. Children begin using the plural and possessive forms of nouns (dogs and dog’s); putting appropriate endings on verbs (-s when the subject is third-person singular, -ed for the past tense, and –ing for the present progressive tense); and using prepositions (in and on), articles (a and the), and various froms of the verb to be (“I was going to the store”). In fact, they overgeneralize these rules, applying tehm to words that do not follow the rules. For example, a preschool child might say “foots” instead of “feet” or “goed” instead of “went”. Children understanding of morphological rules was the subject of a classic experiment by children’s language researcher Jean Berko (1958). Berko presented preschool and first-grade children while the cards. Children were asked to look at the card while the experimenter read the words on it aloud. Then the children were asked to supply the missing word. This might sound easy, but Berko was interested not just in the children’s ability to recall the right word but also in their ability to say it “correctly” with the ending that was dictated by morphological rules. Wugs is the correct response for the car. Although the children’s responses were not perfectly accurate, they were much better than chance would dictate. Moreover, they demonstrated their knowledge of morphological rules not only with the plural forms of nouns ( “There are two wug”) but also with the possessive forms of nouns an with the third-person singular and past-tense forms of verbs. Berko’s study demonstrated not only that the children relied on rules, but also that they had abstracted the rules from what they had heard and could apply them to novel situations. Preschool children also learn and apply rules of syntax(Clark, 2017). After advancing beyond two-word utterances, the child shows a growing mstery of complex rules for how words should be ordered. Consider wh-questions, such as “Where is Daddy going?” or “What is that boy doing?” To ask these questions properly, the child must know two important differences between wh-questions and affirmative statements (for instance, “Daddy is going to work” and “That boy is waiting on the school bu”). First, a wh-word must be inverted-that is, exchanged with the subject of the sentence. Yound children learn quiete early where to put the wh- word, but they take much longer to learn the auxiliary-inversion Page 20 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles rule. Thus, preschool children might ask, “Where Daddy is going?” and “What that boy is doing?” The speaking vocabulary of a 6-year-old child ranges from 8,000 to 14,000 words. Assuming that word learning began when the child was 12 months old, this translates into a rate of five to eight new word meanings a day between the ages of 1 and 6. What are some important aspects of how word learning optimally occurs? Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff (Harris, Golinkoff, & Hirsh-Pasek, 2011; Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2016) emphasize six key principles in young children’s vocabulary development. 1. Children learn the words they hear most often. They learn the words they encounter when interacting with parents, teachers, sibling, peers, and also form books, They especially benefit from encountering words that they do not know. 2. Children learn words for things and events that interest them. Parents and teachers can direct young children to experience words in contexts that interest the children, playful peer interactions are especially helpful in this regard. 3. Children learn words better in responsive and interactive context that in passive contexts. Children who experience turn-taking opportunities, joint focusing experiences, and positive, sensitive socializing contexts with adults encounter the scaffolding necessary for optimal word learning. They learn worlds less effectively when they are passive learners. 4. Children learn words best in contexts that are meaningful. Young children learn new words more effectively when new words are encouraged in integrated contexts rather than as isolated facts. 5. Children learn words best when they access clear information about word meaning. Children whose parents and teachers are sensitive to words the children might not understand and provide support and elaboration with hints about word meaning learn words betten than children whose parents and teachers quickly state a new word and don’t monitior whether the child understands its meaning. 6. Children learn words best when grammar and vocabulary are considered. Children who experience a large number of words and diversity in verbal stimulation develop a richer vocabulary and better understanding of grammar. In many cases, vocabulary and grammar development are connected. Page 21 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles Early Literacy. Parents and teachers need with a supportive environment for the development of literacy skills (Vukelich & others, 2016). Children should be active participants in a wide range of interesting listening,talking, writing, and reading experiences (Tompkins 2015). Elln Galinsky (2010) emphasized strategies for using books effectively with preschool children. a. Use books to initiate conversation with young children. Ask them to put themselves in the book character’s places and imagine what they might be thinking or feeling. b. Use what and why questions. Asl young children to describe what they think is going to happen next in a story and then to see if it occurs. c. Encourage children to ask questions about stories. d. Choose some books that play with language. Creative books on the alphabet, including those with rhymes, often interest young children. Middle and Late Childhood. Children gain new skills as they enter school that make it possible to learn to read and write. These include increased use of language to talk about things that are not physically present, learning what a word is, and learning how to recognize and talk about sounds. They also learn the alphabetic principle, which means that the letters of the alphabet represent sounds of the language. Vocabulary development continues at a breathtaking pace for most children during the elementary school years. After five years of word learning, the 6-year-old child does not slow down. During middle and late childhood, changes occur in the way mental vocabulary is organized. When asked to say the first word that come to mind when they hear a word, preschool children typically provide a word that often follows the word in a sentence. For example, when asked to respond to dog the young child may say “barks”, or to the word eat respond with “lunch”. At about 7 years of age, children begin to respond with a word hat is the same part of speech as the stimulus word. For example, a child may now respond to the word dog with “cat” or “horse”. To eat, they now might say “drink”. This is evidence that children now have begun to categorize their vocabulary by parts of speech. The process of categorizing becomes easier as children increase their vocabulary. Children’s vocabulary increases from an average of about 14,000 words at age 6 to an average of about 40, 0000 word by age 11. Children make similar advance in grammar. During the elementary school years, children’s improvement in logical reasoning and analytical skills helps them understand such constructions as the appropriate use of Page 22 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles comparatives (shorter, deeper) and subjectives (“If you were president…..” ). During the elementary school years, children become increasingly able to understand and use complex grammar, such as the following sentence. The boy who kissed his mother wore a hat. They also learn to use language in a more connected way, producing connected discourse. They become able to relate sentences to one another to produce descriptions, defiinitions, and narratives that make sense. Children must be able to do these things orally before they can be expected to deal with them in written assignments. These advances in vocabulary and grammar during the elementary school years are accompanied by the development of metalinguistic awareness, which is knowledgeable about language, such as knowing what a preposition is or being able to discuss the sounds of a language. Metalinguistic awareness allows children “to think about their language, understand what words are, and even define them” (Berko Gleason, 2009, p.4). It improves considerably during the elementary school years. In elementary school, defining words also becomes a regular part of classroom discourse and children increase their syntax as they study and talk about the components of sentences, such as subjects and verbs. Children also make progression in understanding how to use language in culturally appropriate ways – pragmatics. By the time they enter adolescence, most children know the rules for the use of language in everyday context – that is, what is appropriate and inappropriate to say. Adolescence Language development during adolescen includes increasingly sophisticated use of word (Berko Gleason, 2009). As they develop abstract thinking, adolescents become much better than children at analyzing the function a word performs in a sentence. Adolescents also develop more subtle abilities with words. They make strides in understanding the metaphor, which is implied comparison between unlike things. For example, individuals “draw a line in the sand” to indicate a nonnegotiable position; a political campaign is said to be a marathon, not a sprint. And adolescents become better able to understand and to use satire, which is the use of irony, derision, or wit to expose folly or wickedness. Caricutures are example of satire. More advanced logical thinking also allows adolescents, from about 15 to 20 years of age, to understand complex literary works. Most adolescents are also much better writers than children are. They are better at organizing ideas before they write, at distinguishing between general and specific points as they write, at stringing together sentences that make sense, and at organizing their writing into an introduction, body, and concluding remarks. Page 23 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles F. Current Research and Pedagogical Applications References Acero, VO et.al. Human Growth and Development and Learning: Rex Bookstore Bee, Helen. The Developing Child. Ninth Edition. A Pearson Education Company. Copyright 2000 by Allyn and Bacon. Printed in the United State of America Berk, Laura E. Child Development, Ninth Edition. Pearson Education, Inc., 2013 Bustos, AS, Malolos, NI, Ramirez, AE, Ramos, EC, & Bustos-Orosa, MA. Introduction to Psycholoy, Katha Publishing, 1999 Bustos, AS and Espiritu, SC. Psychological, Anthropological and Sociological Foundations of Education. Katha Publishing Co., Inc 1996 Coleman, JS. The Adolescent Society, The Free Press Corporation Corpuz, BB, Lucas MD, Borabo, HG & Lucida, PI. The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles. Lorimar Publishing Inc. Quezon City, Philippines, 2018 Corpuz,BB, Lucas MD, Borabo, HG & Lucida, PI. Child and Adolescent Development. Lorimar Publishing Inc. Quezon City, Philippines, 2015 Hurlock. Elizabeth B. Developmental Psychology: A life Span Approach.,Fifth Edition Mc Graw Hill Book Company, 1980 Jersild, AT. The Psychology of Adolescence, 2nd Edition Teachers College Columbia University Lerner, RM and Hultsch DF.Human Development: A Life-Span Perspective, McGraw Hiil Book Company Lucas, MD. & Corpuz BB. Facilitating Learning: A Metacognitive process. Lorimar Publishing Inc. Quezon City, Philippines, 2014 Owens, Karen B. Child and Adolescent Development an Integrated Approach. Thomson Asian Edition Copyright 2006 Papalia, ED and et.al. Human Development 9th and 10th Edition,Mc Graw Hill 2004 Santrock, John W. Educational Psychology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance. 6th Edition. Published by McGraw-Hill Education. 2018 Schunck, Dale H. Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective. Sixth Edition. Pearson Education. Inc., publishing as Ally and Bacon, Copyright 2012 Online References Page 24 of 25  SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=l9GlX4yeBtC9hwO4jIL4CA&q=co ncept+of+intelliegence+by+Binet&btnK=Google+Search https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-general-intelligence-2795210#:~:text=G eneral%20intelligence%2C%20also%20known%20as,performance%20on%20co gnitive%20ability%20measures.&text=According%20to%20Spearman%2C%20t his%20g,performance%20on%20mental%20ability%20tests. https://www.intelltheory.com/lthurstone.shtml https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Leon_Thurstone#:~:text=The%20seven%20 primary%20mental%20abilities,%2C%20perceptual%20speed%2C%20and%20r easoning. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4800975/ Page 25 of 25