Core Knowledge Perspective On Cognitive Development

This essay will demonstrate my understanding of developments which occur at each stage of an individual's life cycle. I will relate these developments to two relevant psychological theories and discuss how an individual's needs must be met to enable them to develop.

All children and young people develop at different rates, but the order which they advance in differs very little. Children’s development tends to progress from head to toe, inner to outer, from simple to complex and from general to specific.

Four well known theorists each created their own ideas on how children develop mentally and physically, how they learn from others and the conceptual of what they are like when they are first brought into the world. Through research and their own experience, these scientists challenged the current beliefs of their time on two topics: active and reactive development and constant or ever changing development. The philosopher John Locke supported reactive development where children developed completely based on what was happening in their life and growth was constant. In his eyes, society determined how a baby boy or girl would mature and has stages that can provide an advance declaration of their physical and mental growth in the following years.However, the philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau supported active development and ever changing development. To Rousseau, kids progress in how they think and look is set in stages where each stage is not the same as the last. Each theory is based on an angle different from the others that affect the researches questions, processes and interpretation: psychoanalytic, learning, cognitive, contextual and evolutionary.

“Known as the “Child Study” movement, the scientific study of child development carried profound consequences for the experience of childhood. It identified a series of sharply differentiated developmental stages, each with its own distinctive characteristics and psychology” (p 188).

How do humans develop over a lifetime? The approach in which attempts to explain how children and adults change over a period of time is developmental psychology. Developmental psychology is the study of how humans develop relating to the mind, body, and spirit. It not only is an approach based on a micro sense, but on a macro sense as well. Micro meaning the development from baby to adult and macro meaning how a culture itself develops over a time span. Because developmental psychology is an umbrella term, it is used to describe a number of different disciples that are all focused on one common goal (Developmental Psychology). Being that developmental psychology is not the only theory accepted in explaining human development, this theory is best understood by looking at various other theories that are all related because of the ultimate goal question. Some of the related theories along with developmental psychology also consider the theoretical areas that include social, emotional, cognitive, and biological processes. When using the theory of psychological development there are three goals: describe, explain, and optimize development. To describe development, one must focus on the typical patterns of change, and on individual variations in patterns of change (McLeod). For instance, normative change is when change is cumulated and continual; however, one can change certain life aspects change as well. This capacity one has to change is known as plasticity. So, this is shown

“There is in every child at every stage a new miracle of vigorous unfolding.” And no matter who you are and what you do, I believe that everyone will go through stages in their life. Erik Erikson was a famous psychologist in the twentieth – century, where he developed “Psychosocial stages”. Erikson’s theories centered on issues that were met on specific ages in someone’s life. Love, care, and tender is critical and many parents do not realize how much nurturing and caring for a child is very important. Erik Erikson’s developmental theory is the development of a person’s identity. Erikson states, “The conscience sense of self that is developed through social interaction.”

The Early Childhood Themes and Life Cycle Issues course was focused of human development through the lifespan. The course work included observations of different stages of development, small group presentation, research paper, movies reflection, and discussions. From this class, I gain knowledge and understanding Erikson’s theories of the stages of life. Throughout our lives, we go through different stages of development. I gain deeper understanding when I reflected back on the life I have lived and crisis that I have struggled with in my life and how these have impacted to my personal development. At each developmental stage posing many challenges and opportunities, and that will lead us to our purpose in life.

There are many theories on how we develop and become the people we are today. From Freud’s’ theory that mainly focuses on sexual development revolving around the idea that how children socialize affects their sense of self. To Piaget's theory that children move through different stages of mental development. Piaget’s theory focuses on the understanding of how children receive knowledge, and also on understanding the nature of intelligence. Erikson’s theory was based on the idea that humans develop throughout their lives, and you cannot move onto the next stage of life before you finish the one before it. Erikson view on how we develop throughout our lives is the theory I can easily connect with my life, mainly the developmental stage Trust

The human species is ever changing. At no period is this change more prevalent than in childhood. From the moment of conception, children will progress through the five stages of development, prenatal, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence until they reach full maturation know as adulthood. (Lightfoot, Cole and Cole, 2013)

The study of cognitive development has played an influential role in the field of education by providing teachers with methods of pedagogy that maximise their student’s potential. This essay will address both Piagetian and Vygotskian theories on cognitive development in relation to the given scenario of year eight science students. We will look at how the teacher, Anne, has used relevant aspects of both theories within her classroom as well as any shortcomings of the theories in the class. Upon reading the scenario, it is evident that both Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky have significantly influenced the pedagogy of the teacher. She has taken advantage of the outdoor classroom accompanied by the use of group work in order to positively influence the cognitive development and learning experience of her year eight class.

Cognitive development is the way a child sees, thinks and gains understanding of the world through interaction, influence, learned and genetic factors. There are four areas of intelligence and child brain development. They are: biological approaches to intelligence, cognitive succession of stages, knowledge, and intellectual ability.

In this paper I will cover the interview that I had with a child to evaluate their overall stage of cognitive development. To figure this out, there were questions and games that based on the child's answer I could see what stage they were in. For every game the child would either conserve or not. Whether they did or did not would fit into a chart per game or question. For example: process thinking (focus on transformations), reliance on perception over logic, mechanism, and irreversibility. I hope to learn how a child thinks and compare that to what I thought before the interview, and I hope to illustrate how the child that I interviewed help me figure this out.

Jean Piaget, a swiss psychologist from the 1950’s, researched and created a theory for cognitive development during the lifespan. As a theorist, he impacted nursing through his analogies of how the mind develops.The 1950’s theorist developed a theory consisting of three stages: preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Each of Piaget’s stages consisted of different parts of the human lifespan. To add to his research, Piaget also wrote a book to rationalize deferred imitation in a child’s mind. The book was titled Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood. Evidence supports Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development with a study done by Elizabeth R. Hinde and Nancy Perry that was performed in Arizona. The study consisted of 50 elementary school history teachers who rationalized Piaget’s theory for school curriculum. The study was conducted to test the child’s understanding of historical time and concepts related to the cognitive development of different aged children.

Developmental psychology is an intriguing topic, a fundamental revolution on the view of children. What is developmental psychology? It is a scientific approach that explains how humans change over time, from childhood to adulthood. Childhood is the time of life during which vast changes occur, a vulnerable newborn seems different to an active 2-year-old. Before the early 1960s, the study of human development was determined by either accounts of the behavioural or psychological facts. Scientists studying development engrossed mainly on human beings (Emmerich, 1968) and they focused on the primitive years of life or, they would focus on the years surrounding adolescence. These periods were considered to be the sections of ontogeny where the

Developmental psychology is the point of view that occurs in learners over the course of a period of time. The developmental perspective includes theories that are continuous and discontinuous. Discontinuous theories are stage-like. The processes of learning and development involve distinct stages, which are characterized by qualitative differences in behavior. Theorists who use discontinuous theories use a specific beginning and end period for each stage. Continuous theories explain that learning and development generally happen in incremental processes. Learning involves changes throughout the lifespan. “Contemporary views on the nature of cognitive development have been vastly influenced by the work of one man. This was Jean Piaget (1896-1980), once a biologist, who turned his