cognitive development of preschooler

1. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF
PRESCHOOLER

2. “There are children playing in the street who could solve
some of my top problems in physics, because they have
modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago’’
-J. Robert Oppenhelmer

3. PRESCHOOLER’S SYMBOLIC AND
INTUITIVE THINKING
• there are two sub stages of Piaget’s pre-operational
thought:
• SYMBOLIC STAGES
• INTUITIVE STAGES

4. • SYMBOLIC STAGES - preschool children show progress
in their cognitive abilities by being able to draw objects
that are not present, by their dramatic increase in their
language and make-believe play.
• INTUITIVE STAGES - preschool begin to use primitive
reasoning and ask litany questions. The development in
their language ability facilitates their endless asking
questions.

5. PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
STAGE 2. PRE-OPERATIONAL STAGES
the preoperational stages covers from about 2-7 years old,
roughly corresponding to the preschool years. Intelligence
at this stage is intuitive in nature.
DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS
1. SYMBOLIC FUNCTION - This is the ability to represent
objects and events. A symbol is a thing that represent
something else.
2. EGOCENTRISM - This is the tendency of the
preschooler to only see his point of view and to assume
that everyone also has his point of view.

6. 3. CENTRATION - This refers to the tendency of the
preschooler to only focus on one aspects. this is also
refers to as UNIDIMENSIONAL THOUGHT.
4. IRREVERSIBILITY - Preschool children still have the
inability to reverse their thinking. They can understand
that the juice in each glass can be poured back into the
juice box from which it came.
5. ANIMISM - This is the tendency of the preschooler to
attribute human like traits or characteristics to inanimate
objects.
6. TRANSDUCTIVE REASONING - This refers to the
preoperational children type of reasoning that is neither
inductive nor deductive reasoning appears to be from
particular to particular.

7. BRAIN’S CONNECTION IN THE
PRESCHOOL YEARS
• Because of fascinating developments in neuroscience,
brain development of young have been of great interest
to the field of early childhood. brain research findings
point us to more effective ways to care for and teach
preschooler from science lessons you had in high school
or even in elementary. remember that our brain is
composed of numerous cells called NEURONS that
connect to each other function. Cell connections are what
we call SYANPSES, sometimes also referred to as
SYNAPSTIC CONNECTIONS.

8. DID YOU KNOW THAT?
• The human brain contains some 50 billion neurons at
birth?
• by age of 2, children have developed half of the brain cell
connections that will be made during one’s lifetime?
• around 6 years of age the brain develops for more
sophisticated thinking patterns?

9. • all these are facts point to the numerous potential that the
preschooler’s brain has. The child’s billion cells have the
ability to make almost countless connections that prepare
the child for intricate path-ways to learn language,
acquired logical- mathematics skills, interact with people,
grow in his feelings and emotions, and even express
himself in art. As such, a preschool teacher would often
observe how a child now has transformed from a
dependent toddler into proud and independent
preschooler who can now eat more neatly, enjoy, “reading
‘’ a book.

10. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
• Young children’s understanding sometimes gets a head
of their speech. As children go through early childhood,
their grasp of the rules of language increases
(morphology, semantics, pragmatics and phonology)
• Symbolic thinking involves language, literacy, and
dramatic play. Children rapidly conclude that sounds link
together to make words and words represent ideas,
people, and things.

11. 4 MAIN AREAS OF LANGUAGE
1. PHONOLOGY - Study of speech and sounds.
2. SEMANTICS - Study of word meaning and word
combination.
3. SYNTAX - The study of sentence constructions.
4. PRAGMATICS - The study of conversation or social
uses of language.

12. FAST MAPPING
• As they advance in age and as they continuously
interact with people, preschool children expand rapidly in
their vocabulary through FAST MAPPING, a process by
which a children absorb the meaning of a new word after
hearing it once or twice in conversation. Preschool
children combine syllables into words and words into
sentences in an increasingly sophisticated manner.

13. VYGOTSKY’S SOCIO-CULTURAL
THEORY
LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION
• Vygotsky believed that young children use language both
to communicate socially and to plan, guide, and monitor
their behavior in a self-regulatory fashion-called INNER
SPEECH or PRIVATE SPEECH.
• PRIVATE SPEECH- is a form of self talk that guides the
child’s thinking and action.
• For piaget, private speech is egocentrism and immature,
but vygotsky it is the important tool of thought during early
childhood.

14. ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
Vygotsky introduced the term ZONE OF PROXIMAL
DEVELOPMENT (ZPD), To refer to tasks too difficult for a
child to master alone but can be mastered with the
guidance and assistance of adults or more skilled children.
• SCAFFOLDING - A term that refers to the “changing
support over a the course of teaching session, with
the more skilled person adjusting guidance to fit the
child’s current performance level”. The more skilled
person is also called MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE
OTHER (MKO).

15. INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY
- ATTENTION AND MEMORY
• The information processing model is another way of
examining and understanding how children develop
cognitively. This model conceptualizes children’s mental
processes through the metaphor of a computer
processing, encoding, storing, and decoding of data.
• Short-Term memory (STM) - retain information for up to
15-30 seconds, assuming there is no rehearsal, which
can help keep information in STM for a much longer
period.
• Long-Term memory (LTM) - involves storing information
about the sequence of events during familiar situations as
“scripts”. Scripts help children to understand interpret,
and predict what will happen in future scenarios.

16. THE YOUNG CHILDREN’S THEORY OF
MINDS
• Theory of mind- refers to individuals thought about how
mental processes works.
• cognitive terms such as know, remember, and think
usually appear after perceptual and emotional terms, but
are used by age 3.
• the ability to remember and solve problems improve,
children start to reflect on their own thought processes.
They begin to construct a theory of mind or a set of ideas
about mental activities.
• It includes awareness of ones own thought processes,
social cognition, understanding that people can hold false
beliefs, ability to deceive , ability to distinguish
appearance from reality and from fantasy.

17. • Various speculations and research findings
suggest that a social experience is very
important. Social experience includes;
• early forms of communication
• imitation
• make-believe play
• language
• social interaction

18. PRESCHOOLERS CAN DO
• Below are the list of preschoolers cognitive
skills lifted from the Philippine Early
Learning and Development Standards
(PELDS)
• Receptive language
• Domain: Cognitive Development
• Memory: episodic memory

19. RECEPTIVE LANGUAGE
STANDARD 1. the child is able to understand both verbal
and non-verbal forms of communication.
31-36 months: 3-4years old.
• speaks in a simple sentences.
• talks about an event and is understood.
37-48 months
• uses some prepositions
• uses plurals
• uses past tense
• uses newly learned words appropriately on sentences
• uses newly learned words appropriately when in group
conversations.

20. 49-60 months-4-5 years old
• draws and tells a story about his drawing.
PRE-READING AND PRE MATH (MATCHING)
STANDARDS 1.1 The child is able to match identical
objects, colors, shapes, symbols.
31-36 months: 2-1/2 to 3 years old
• matches identical objects with 2 attributes( e.g color &
shape)
• matches identical upper case letters
• matches identical lower case letters.
37-48 months: 3-4 years old
• copies simple patterns with 2 or more attributes(e.g. color,
shape, sequence) and continues this without guidance.

21. • recognizes familiar logos (e.g. McDonald’s, Coke, etc.)
• recognizes signs (e.g. male & female restrooms: stop and
go; danger/poison, etc.)
• matches identical 2-to-4 letter words
• matches identical single-digit numbers
• matches identical 2-digit numbers
PRE-READING AND PRE-MATH ( Copying letters and
numbers)
STANDARDS 1.2: The child is able to recite the alphabet
and numbers in sequence.
37-48 months: 3-4 years old
• prints upper-case letters with some reversals

22. 46-60 months: 4-5 years old
• prints complete name without model
Model with no reversal.
• prints upper case letters a model with no reversal.
• prints lower case letters a model with some reversals.
• prints number 1-5 with a model with some reversals
61-67 months: 5-6 years old
• prints upper case letters without a model and with no
reversals.
• prints lower case letters without a model and with no
reversal
• prints numbers 1-5 without a model and with no reversals.

23. DOMAIN: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTS
ATTENTION AND ACTIVITY
STANDARDS 1. The child is able to
sustain attention and modulate his activity at age-
expected levels.
31-36 months:2-1/2 to 3 years old
• completes simple task without prodding.
37-48 months: 3-4 years old
• may be distracted but re-focuses on her/his own.
• remains settled while leafing through a picture book for 5
minutes.

24. • remains settled while listening to a story using picture
books for 5 minutes.
• sustains attention and concentration on a tabletop activity
for 10 minutes.
• can work on a school assignment with a minimal
supervision.
49-60 months: 4-5 years old
• sustains attention and concentration on a tabletop activity
for 15-20 minutes.
• can work on a school assignment with minimal
supervision.
61-70 months: 5-6 years old
• can work on a school assignment independently.

25. HIGHER ORDERED MENTALABILITIES
(CONCEPT FORMATION)
STANDARDS 1.T he child develops basic concepts
pertaining to object constancy, space, time, quantity,
seration, etc. and uses these as the basis for
understanding how materials are categorized in his/her
environment.
31-36 months: 2-1/2 to 3 years old
• knows the difference between a recent event and one that
happened a long time ago.
• counts with one-to- one correspondence.
• understands the concept of number-quantity relations
from 1 through 5 (e.g. hands over 5 objects when asked)

26. • groups objects by shapes.
• arranges objects by length.
• arranges objects according to size
• can tell in what way 2 things are the same.
• can tell in what way 2 things are different.
37-48 months: 4-5 years old
• can tell which is prettier/nicer of 2 items based on his/her
criteria.
• groups pictured objects according to category
• can tell which is left and right on him/herself.
• understands “more” and “ less”
• understands the concept of conversation of matter at a
rudimentary level.

27. 49-60 months: 4-5 years old
• can tell which is the left and right of people facing
him/her.
• knows the difference between yesterday, today, and
tomorrow.
• understands the concept of number-quantity relations for
1-10.
• demonstrates concept of addition using fingers and
objects.
• demonstrates concept of subtraction using fingers or
objects.

28. HIGHER ORDERED MENTALABILITIES
(CAUSE-AND-EFFECT RELATIONSHIP)
STANDARDS 1.The child is be able to understand the
cause-effect relationships.
31-36 months: 2-1/2 to 3 years old
• can complete a simple pattern(e.g. beads, pictures,
shapes) with occasional guidance.
37-48 months : 3-4 years old
• understands reasons behind rules and practices in the
community, like those pertaining to sanitation,
environment preservation, etc.

29. MEMORY: EPISODIC MEMORY
STANDARDS 1. The child is able to recall people he has
met, events, and places he has been to.
31-36 months: 2-1/2to 3 years old
• talks about things that happened during a particular
event that occurred some time back.
MEMORY:(MEMORY FOR CONCEPT-BASED
KNOWLEDGE-SEMANTIC MEMORY)
STANDARDS 1.The child is able to store verbal
information in short and long term memory.

30. 37-48 months: 3-4 years old
• repeats 5-to-7 word sentences correctly
• memorize the lyrics of a short song
• memorizes a short rhymes
• remember the gist and many details of short stories told
or read.
49-60 months: 4-5 years old
• can recite the days of the week with some errors
• remember lesson learned in school after several days
have passed.
61-71 months: 5-6 years old
• can recite the days of the week with no errors
• can recite the months of the year with some errors.