Infancy Cognitive Development (Jean Piaget)

Infancy: Cognitive
Development
September 29, 2014

Cognitive development: Jean Piaget
 COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT:
Focuses on the development of
children’s ways of perceiving and
mentally representing the world.
 Schemes – children’s concepts
of the world (mental structure)

 Assimilation: Incorporation of
new events or knowledge into
existing schemes.
 Accommodation: modification
of existing schemes in order to
incorporate new events or
knowledge.

FOUR STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
 THE SENSORY STAGE
 First 2 years of cognitive development
 Trial and error method
1. Simple reflexes (0-1 month)
 This is dominated by the assimilation of
sources of stimulation into inborn
reflexes such as grasping, visual tracking,
crying, sucking, and crudely turning the
head toward a sound.

2. Primary circular reactions (1-4 months of
age)
 This is characterized by the beginnings of
the ability to coordinate various
sensorimotor schemes.
 The infant tends to repeat stimulating
actions that first occurred by chance.
 In terms of assimilation, the child is
attempting to assimilate the motor
scheme (moving the hand) into the
sensory scheme (looking at it).

Primary circular reactions (1-4 months of
age)
 Goal-directed behavior . The child “looks
in order to see”.

3. Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months
of age)
 Patterns of activity are repeated because of
their effect to the environment. Ex. the
child shakes a rattle to hear a sound.
4. Coordination of secondary schemes (8-12
months)
 Infants begin to show intentional goal-directed
behavior. Ex. They may lift a piece of cloth in
order to reach a toy.
Scheme of picking up a cloth (means) is
coordinated with the scheme of reaching for the
toy (the goal/end).

5. Tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months
of age)
 Has the characteristics of a budding
scientist.
 Purposeful adaptations of established
schemes to specific situations.

6. Invention of new means through mental
combinations (18-24 months of age)
 This serves as the transitory period
between the sensorimotor development
and the development of symbolic
thought.

DEVELOPMENT OF OBJECT PERMANENCE
INFORMATION PROCESSING – The imitation
of people and events that were encountered
or experienced hours, days, or weeks in the
past.

MILESTONES IN LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN
INFANCY
Approximate Age
Birth -
 Cries
Approximate Age
12 weeks -
 Cries less
 Smiles when talked to and nodded at.
 Engages in squealing and gurgling sound
 Sustains cooing for 15-20 seconds.

INFANCY
Approximate Age
16 weeks -
 Responds to human sounds more definitely.
 Turns head, searching for the speaker.
 chuckles occasionally.

INFANCY
Approximate Age
20 weeks -
 Cooing becomes interspersed with
consonant like sounds.
 Vocalization differs from the sounds of
mature language.

INFANCY
Approximate Age
6 months -
 Cooing changes to single-syllable babbling.
 Common utterances sound somewhat like
ma, mu, da, or di.

INFANCY
Approximate Age
8 months -
 Patterns of intonation become distinct
 Utterances can signal emphasis and
emotion.

INFANCY
Approximate Age
10 months -
 Makes effort to imitate sounds made by
other people.

INFANCY
Approximate Age
12 months -
 Words emerge
 Many words are understood

INFANCY
Approximate Age
18 months -
 Repertoire of 3-50 words
 Explosive vocabulary growth
 Understands nearly everything spoken.

INFANCY
Approximate Age
24 months -
 Naming everything in the environment
 Spontaneous creation of two-word
sentences.
 Clear efforts to communicate

Infancy Cognitive Development (Jean Piaget)

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