“Kiddy Thinks” In “Kiddy Thinks”, Alison Gopnik discusses the stages of thinking abilities of babies and young children. Using examples from her personal experiences as a parent and her experiments as a developmental psychologist, she defines these stages and explains the learning processes that take place during them. Through process analysis, Gopnik develops her thesis that babies and young children use the same learning strategies as scientists. Gopnik explains the stages of cognitive development for children from birth to the age of 4 years old. At birth, babies already know they are similar to other people.
Scientific Perspective of Child Development In the informative essay "Kiddy Thinks", Alison Gopnik enlightens readers on the role of childcare in the early stages of child development. The main objective of her writing is to compare babies and toddlers to scientists, stating they use knowledge they are born with to create thoughts, "I argue that very young children use the same strategies as scientists. They think, observe, formulate theories, make predictions then do experiments." (Gopnik, 237) She uses different examples throughout her essay to test this perspective. Gopnik first uses a personal experience to captivate her audience then proceeds to provide scientific evidence on the psychological abilities of children, beginning with newborn babies to toddlers about the age of four.
His interest in children’s cognitive processes developed when he started to notice that children of similar ages made the same kinds of mistakes on test questions. After in depth research, Piaget developed the stages of cognitive development theory. This revolved around the idea that unlike adults, thinking and mental development of children changes qualitatively with age (Passer & Smith, 2013). In order to understand Piaget’s theory, it is important to understand its fundamental principles. The first, Piaget referred to using the term ‘schema’.
To identify the transitions which children may face can help us to support and manage them. Children may first experience signs of separation anxiety when starting a nursery or a new setting. This may be the first time they have been left by their parents in the setting and the first time they have had to interact with other children of same age. At this time children have limited socialising skills. This is where observations are essential.
The major areas of development include biological, cognitive and social and emotional development. Both of these psychologists were concerned with the study of understanding the area of cognitive development specifically in children and were considered to be constructivists. Constructivism is the theory in which “learners actively construct their own knowledge based upon the things they know now and have known in the past” (TFL resources, 2006). This essay will seek to compare and contrast the theories of psychologists Piaget and Vygotsky and will critically look at their theories to judge which aspects are appropriate for the long term. Jean Piaget focused his research on studying children and observing their thought processes.
The author not only discussed the shortcomings of the research article, but she made valid points as to how the research was meaningful and significant. The impact of the article leaves readers with the sense that there needs to be a change in what our children are watching. The research study proved that even in as little as nine minutes children’s overall cognitive functioning decreases when watching fast paced shows. By watching these fast paced shows (compared to drawing or educational programs) children are being primed to be A.D.H.D like impulsive and are not being able to control their attention spans, solve problems, or handle delay of gratification and working memory dilemmas. From the results and the article, parents should be aware of the consequences that these fast paced programs may have on their
Theories of development are important as they can influence practice and also help us to understand children’s behaviour, reactions and ways of learning. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a zoologist who became interested in children’s cognitive development as a result of working on intelligence tests. He noticed that children consistently gave similar wrong answers to some questions and began to consider why this was. Piaget used his own children to make detailed observations and gradually developed a theory that has been very influential. Piaget’s theory of learning is sometimes referred to as a constructivist approach because he suggested that children constructed or built their thoughts according to their experiences of the world around them.
However, with the help of tutoring and therapy, a person with Down Syndrome can succeed in school and join the working world. There is little people can do to prevent Trisomy 21 in their children. Genetic counseling, which is recommended for people who have a family history of genetic disorders, is one of the few ways. Also, the older in age a mother is, the greater the risk for her children to be born with Trisomy 21. The amount of people with Trisomy 21 differs in each country.
Nature vs. Nurture Sociology 201 April 6, 2013 When the rearing of children is observed by outside people, they look to see how the child was raised. Whether they were coddled by the parents over every little thing they do, or if they were left to grow up with just the world influences around them, to form them into the child they are. The nature vs. nurture debate has been one of the biggest debates out there. People feel very strongly on one side or the other. I will in this paper describe a little bit of both sides of the debate, and then give my opinion on it.
In an attempt to explore a fairly under researched subject, researchers Bigelow and La Gaipa looked at the differences in children’s understanding of friendship at various stages of development. They created a unique means of investigating the gradual changes in the understanding of friendship as children grow older. In doing so they helped to shed new light on the important role that friends play in children’s lives. In addition another researcher was also interested in this subject: William Corsaro. However, Corsaro was interested in how children talk to each other and believed that research on children’s friendships should focus on children’s individual understanding of the word ‘friend’.