Early Socio-Cognitive Ability

I would like to place Lilo from the movie Lilo and Stitch, into the following theorists, Piaget and Kohlberg’s theory.

Stranger wariness: Infant no longer smiles at any friendly face but cries or looks frightened when an unfamiliar person moves too close.

In order to function in a social world, acquiring a theory of mind is a fundamental component in a child’s early cognitive development (Premack & Woodruff, 1978; Wellman, 1990). Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to understand the mental state of one’s self and others (Greene, Sandoval, & Bråten, 2016) and to comprehend and forecast others’ actions (Tager-Flusberg, Baron-Cohen & Cohen, 1993; Wellman & Lagattuta, 2000). When children begin to develop a theory of mind (ToM) they develop awareness that human behaviour is governed by belief, knowledge, memory and imagination that conflict with overt reality. However, while the notion of theory

Antonio was born a healthy, full term baby with normal developmental milestones. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2014), within the first two months, most children are able to smile at others, briefly calm themselves down by bringing their hands to mouth and sucking on their hand, look at parents, coo, turn their heads toward sound, and pay attention to faces. Antonio easily met all of these qualifications. He was able to suck on his fingers, pacifier, or anything else near his mouth, would smile at his mother, Hilda, and turn his head when he heard her voice. He was also capable of laughing and cooing. Within 18 months, most children are able to walk alone and drink from a cup (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). In this case study, Antonio was able to walk on his own and drink from a cup by 14 months. Antonio was capable of doing what most children could do by a certain age, meeting requirements socially, emotionally, cognitively, in language, communication, movement, and physical development by age 4.

The cognitive development work currently focuses on how cognition operates in infants and children and how the cognitive abilities arise. Usually these studies occur in controlled lab environments, where the formation of mental representations can be observed when the children confront specific objects and events. Typically research focuses on the analyses of mental processes and looks closely at mental representations (Olson and Dweck, 2008). While cognitive developmentalists have shown some interest in social phenomenon, they often do not look at the social representations. Usually research does not focus on child differences, different mental representation, and the implications for children’s well-being. This perspective could benefit from a social cognitive perspective.

This paper is going to carry out a literature review on cognitive development in infants. The paper will review cognitive development in infants at different stages. Effects of early experience on mental development in infants will also be discussed. The research question and the hypothesis of the research will also be given.

A sample of children from age 2 to 4 were collected and were asked for their age, language ability, family size and false belief. Researchers reached children’s parents and teacher and asked them to fill out a survey to collect data on child’s family information and language ability. Each child was seen in nursery school, their age was recorded followed by giving them a theory of mind related tasks. Both Jenkins & Astington (1996) and Cutting & Dunn (1999) found an identical conclusions; the more understandings and emotions there are created through larger family interaction, the more there is to child’s ability to predict false belief understanding. Wright & Mahfoud (2012) has furthermore stated that personal relatedness with people causes children to realize that it derives them with social benefits from using the mechanism of theory of mind. Despite the conclusion Jenkins & Astington (1996), Cutting & Dunn (1999) and Wright & Mahfoud (2012) have made, Jean-Louis, (1998) disputed that although children with high language ability brings positive cognitive effects, children with greater linguistic awareness could also show recognition in theory of mind; concluding with a notion that impact on bilingualism related to theory of mind development still lies as a question. A sheer number of studies have found similar

Social interaction plays an important role in people’s life starting from the early childhood as infants interact with their caregivers and build the emotional attachment that is the base for future relationships. By social interaction with others children learn how to communicate, play and behave in particular situation. Berk (2009) proposed the overview of the literature that concentrates upon the early attachment and its importance. Knowing the influence of social interaction on child development in the first few years, the essay is going to elaborate upon the implication of social interaction on the development of cognition. Cognitive development as Lee & Gupta (eds.) claimed is the term that refers to acquisition and development of

Mayer and Trauble (2013) conducted a false belief study in Samoa with three hypotheses in mind, first, development of theory of mind is universal, second, theory of mind in Samoan children will be delayed due to the lifestyle of no opacity of mind, third, theory of mind development will occur earlier due to the sibling-effect. There were two false belief tasks which included a change of location task using explicit response; the second study was a replication of the first with a modification of one word. The results of both studies did not support the majority of false belief studies; rather there were no significant improvement in the task for ages 3 to 5 in comparison to the younger children; there was also no majority before the age of

The development of theory of mind in young children is a significant accomplishment that is imperative to their success in the social world. Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to understand that one’s mental states – thoughts, beliefs, desires, and intentions – differ from the mental states of others. This understanding is crucial in order to understand human behavior and the motivation behind it. A well-developed ToM enables children to engage in healthy social interaction, share thoughts and ideas, and empathize with others. These pragmatic skills are considered to be foundation on which successful social relationships are built. ToM is recognizable around four years of age when children become concerned with understanding

It is believed that some social factors can influence the normal development of theory of mind in children and they are considered to be aware of mental states much earlier in life if their guardian or mother talks about emotions, wants or thoughts (Ruffman, Perner & Parkin, 1999) and also provide reasons when correcting their behaviour (Ruffman, Slade & Crowe, 2002). As an ending to Astington and Edward’s (2010) research project, they came to the conclusion that social influence and nurture are highly important for a child’s empathy to develop according to a

There are many different things that shape the cognitive development of children. To begin with cognitive development is when a child develops how to process, solve problems, and start making decisions. Once they have learned this they take everything they have learned into their adolescence. An example, of what can shape the cognitive development of a child can be an educational game. Educational games can be very useful in shaping a child’s development because they are having fun while learning at the same time and what kid doesn’t like to play games, the fact that it is even educational makes it even better for them. Not only are they having fun but there are many different games that help in different categories of development in

Furthermore, there has been said that with the start of preschool communication skills begin to emerge (Jenkins). Being able to have conversational skills and understanding your peers is an important aspect in children’s lives. Jones said that “one key milestone in the developmental process is the growth of theory of mind, the ability to understand that peers differ from self” (Jenkins).The theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states such as: beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, and knowledge. It has been said that the theory of mind emerges as early as three years old (Jenkins). The ability to initiate interaction with and respond to peers develop when more complex language skills emerge (Jenkins). If children fail to gain these skills, they are more than likely going to be alienated by their peers and reveal problem behaviors.

Early cognitive abilities in infants are critical because they are building blocks of later cognition, and executive functioning (Rose, Feldman, & Jankowski, 2016). To further development and have health mental health, caregivers and parents need to provide a secure environment where infants can engage in a number of activities. Research show that social interactions between infants and caregivers are critical for a wide range of human activities, including language learning Grossmann (2015). Additionally, socially integration with others is essential for healthy infant development and functioning throughout their lives Grossmann (2015). Numerous evidence shows that early experiences in language, reading, and emotional regulations in

During the years of 2009 and 2012 a study was conducted looking at the effects on social cognition in Preschoolers. The aim of this study was to add to the debate about the effects of type of early childcare, mother-based education, parents’ country of birth, and child’s language-based proficiency on children’s social thinking as observed at preschool age by carefully studying Italian data. “Social cognition is the way in which individual’s process, remember, and use information in social contexts to explain and predict how people behave” (Fiske and Taylor, 2013). Social cognition was examined by two aspects: Theory of Mind (ToM) and Emotional Understanding (EU).