HEHD 8010

1. CHAPTER 5: COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT IN
INFANCY
HEHD 8010
Chris Raymond and Stojanna Hollis

2. ACTIVE CONSTRUCTION
 Jean Piaget's influential theory on infant development
 Constructs understanding of the world on the basis of their own
actions
 Compared to other developmental scientists who believe that
infants learned by being 'passive'

3. ACTIVE CONSTRUCTION
 Shapes how parents and YDL's can influence youth learning
 Exposing youth to activities in which they are the 'driver'
 Ex: Games in which children control the outcomes
 Ex: Focusing less on standardized tests

4. COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
 Adaptation: “The process whereby knowledge is altered by
experience.”
 Assimilation: when new information is processed according to
what the child already knows
 Accommodation: when the child 'changes' their knowledge to
better understand reality

5. COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
 Adults and YDL's can facilitate child learning in multiple ways
 Ex: Taking the child to a petting zoo to further develop their
understanding of 'animals'
 Ex: Expose the child to people of different races in an effort to
show expand their knowledge of 'people'
 Ex: Exposing the child to many different objects so they can gain a
greater understanding of their surroundings

6. Sensorimotor Period
 Birth-1 month
 Minimal
mental
development
 1-4 months
 Coordinate
various
aspects of
understanding
 4-7 months
 Relation of
their actions
and the
environment
 18-24
months
 Mental
representation
 10-18
months
 Discover
unexpected
relations of
outside world
 7-10 months
 Construct
relations
among
environmental
stimuli

7. SENSORIMOTOR PERIOD
 While these stages are not set in stone, they provide a framework for
cognitive development
 Parents and YDL's should be aware of these stages
 Ex: When interacting with a child in a particular stage, attempt to 'play'
within each stage
 Do not try to force a child into the next stage they are not ready for
 Play within their cognitive abilities

8. CHALLENGES TO PIAGET
 Too much focus on active exploration
 Not enough focus on sensory and organizational capacities
 Object permanence and mental representation appear much earlier
than Piaget stated
 Infants have been seen to be able to imitate an action after a delay
 As long as a week

9. CHALLENGES TO PIAGET
 It has been shown that not all of Piaget's conclusions are true for all
developing children
 Ex: Expose children to more 'advanced' behavior than Piaget
recommends
 Parents and YDL's should use what they can from Piaget's writing, but
focus on developing each child in a unique way
 Ex: If you notice a child showing a sign of cognitive development,
continue to foster that particular action

10. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
FACTORS
 Distal forces influence development through proximal forces
 Socioeconomic status, parent's education, parent's age, single
mother, air quality, schools, etc..
 Scaffolding
 Joint attention, responsiveness, material environment
 Ethnotheories

11. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
FACTORS
 High quality education programs
 Can improve IQ
 Constant interplay between child's abilities and environment
 Ex: Begin by assisting the infant in putting puzzle together, than let
them take the lead
 Ex: Read to the infant
 Ex: Respond appropriately when the infant initiates interaction

12. CATEGORIZATION
 Grouping separate items into a set according to some rule.

13. CATEGORIZATION
SIMPLIFIED IN 3 WAYS:
 Infant experience the world in biological states that are frequently
changing.
• For example, when a teddy bear is in the light and when it’s in the dark(it’s
the same).
 Facilitates storage of information
• Doesn’t have to remember everything a person does to remember who
they are.
• Example, facial expressions
 Knowledge of an attribute of one member of a category provides
information about other members of the same category.

14. CATEGORIZATION
 Youth Development Leaders can become very
impactful when incorporating categorization into
activities or games.
• For example, we can group our youth in different
categories based off of age, gender, race, sports they
like to play, etc.
• This method can help leaders organize their youth
better, especially when dealing with larger crowds.

15. PHONOLOGY, SEMANTICS,
SYNTAX
 Phonology
• Sounds must be produced and perceived
 Semantics
• Meaning of words and sentences, or the content of speech
 Syntax
• Ways in which words and phrases are arranged to ensure correct and
meaningful communication.

16. PHONOLOGY, SEMANTICS,
SYNTAX CONT..
 Grammar, understanding sentences, and pronouncing words are all
important throughout the process of communication and
understanding language.
• YDL’s can use these tools to help develop our youth vocabulary.
• Engage in activities that allow our youth to explain the meaning of words
and understanding of sentences.

17. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
IN INFANTS
 To study the language development in infants one must simply
observe, record, and analyze what children seem to understand or say
as they grow up.

18. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
IN INFANTS
 Being a YDL recording, observing and analyzing will inevitably
help us impact our youth and keep their parents informed about their
child development.
• Keeping notes about the youth can be beneficial that way as staff
members we know if our youth are progressing or digressing.

19. INFANT-DIRECTED SPEECH, TURN-
TAKING, AND GESTURES
 Infant- Directed Speech
• Rhythm and tone, simplification, redundancy
 Turn-Taking
• Teaches that it’s impolite to interrupt. Wait our turn to speak
 Gestures
• Form of non-verbal communication
 These strategies elicit the baby’s attention, change the baby’s state of
arousal, communicate emotion, and facilitate language comprehension.

20. INFANT-DIRECTED SPEECH, TURN-
TAKING, AND GESTURES
 As YDL’s we must understand that our youth won’t always
comprehend everything that we say. There will be times where we
have to simplify things so they will understand so they can be better
and more productive in life.
• For example, teaching our youth to raise their hand and wait to be
called on.
• Saying excuse me before interrupting conversations.
• While these are things that parents should teach their children we
must understand that a lot of youth lack parenting at home.

21. SOUND PRODUCTION
 Prelinguistic
• Crying and babbling
 One-Word
• Holophrase
• One word stands in for a phrase and has different meaning depending on
context.
 Multiword Stage
• Vocabulary increases and the child begins to learn multiple words.

22. SOUND PRODUCTION
 Helping our youth increase their vocabulary is very
important and beneficial to mentors. While society is changing
it’s still important that our youth understands the importance in
proper grammar and speaking grammatically correct.
• YDL’s can play board games such as scrabble, hang-man, etc.
these are all ways that our youth can engage in learning new
words and using them.