Preschool Cognitive Abilities

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

Early childhood. During the 1990s, the nation was inundated with reports on the importance of the early years on children's brain development and later cognitive achievement. While some of the reports may have overstated the issue and understated the importance of a child's later years on development, evidence suggests that the early years may be a critical period of development in which family poverty has particularly strong effects on young children. As seen in Table 1, poverty occurring early in a child's life (age two to four) is associated with large effects on indices of child school readiness and cognitive outcomes.

Childhood poverty comes along with stress and safety. Children who grow up in low-income families have less interaction with their families which leads to less cognitive stimulation. They also don’t have access to healthy foods, which affect healthy brain development. According to Hanson JL, Hair N, Shen DG, Shi F, Gilmore JH, et al., infants, toddlers and preschoolers from low-income families develop lower gray matter compared with those from middle and high-income households (Hanson et al.,2013).

The lack of effort and performance children from low income families demonstrate is an incontrovertible issue. The effects that environment can have on adolescents can be devastating if the environment is inadequate to promote positive child development and success. Children experiencing poverty and neglect are more susceptible to lower performance in school and delayed development, resulting from “...many aspects of a child’s environment that can adversely affect maximum brain functioning. Two significant and negative environmental factors are poverty and neglect. Research substantiates the negative effects poverty can have on a child’s brain including development, learning and academic performance ”(Loughan,Perna). Loughan and Perna

To start, little is actually known about the importance and effect of timing of poverty on children’s psychological development. Economic deprivation during different phases and time frames of childhood can also alter the outcome of the child. Studies that have been done about children's early cognitive and physical development suggest that family income in the first five years of life has the most

The development of children can depend on many factors, one of the important ones being socioeconomic status (SES). SES can be defined as a multidimensional construct, including measures of social factors such as power, prestige and hierarchical social status, and economic resources (Hackman and Farah, 2009). Child development can be studied from multiple dimensions such as physical, mental, social, and emotional development among others. For the purposes of this study, I will be focusing on how socioeconomic status affects child cognitive development.

Childhood poverty is interrelated with brain development and external variables more specifically brain volume and the caregiver and stressful life events. According to “The Effects of Poverty on Childhood Brain Development” a research article by Joan Luby, MD and several affiliates of Washington University, “poverty negatively impacts brain development” (Luby, 2013). A second popular press article in U.S. News & World Report, “Early Childhood Poverty Damages Brain Development, Study Finds” by Allie Bidwell, who is the education reporter at U.S. News, summarizes the research study by Joan Luby and her colleagues and incorporates census data, previous research studies, and the opinion of Charles Nelson of the Boston Children’s Hospital and

Children in families with lower incomes at or below the poverty line have been connected with poor cognitive and social development in early childhood. The studies that I chose to use evaluate the cognitive and social development during early childhood using various surveys, evaluations, and observations completed by or with the children, parents, and teachers. Development of any kind is dependent on the interplay of nature and nurture, or genetics and environment. These studies draw from a child’s environment during the earliest years of development, specifically birth, pre-school, and early elementary school. The studies propose living in an impoverished environment as opposed to an environment above the poverty line imposes certain

The environment that a child is exposed to is very influential, as a high-quality living environment has been positively linked to cognitive development (Guo & Harris, 2000). Therefore those children living in poverty are at a further disadvantage due to their low-quality living environment.

Through the lens of an information-processing theorist, memory is one domain in which children continuously grow in their cognitive development. Kimberly Noble explores the way in which the socioeconomic status (SES) of the family, specifically focusing on educational attainment and income, affects this cognitive development in children ages two and younger (Noble et al., 2015). Several research studies have shown connections between low SES and lower academic achievement; one notable study by Judith Bowey shows academic differences in preschoolers. Bowey looked at 238 preschoolers from varying socioeconomic backgrounds and found that high SES preschoolers scored higher in IQ, vocabulary, grammar, and number problems (Bowey, 1995). Both Noble and Bowey are particularly focused on the early point in development in which these differences can be observed.

A person’s ability to function in higher levels of academics partially depends on their environment as a child because of early brain development. Basic abilities such as cognition and application of knowledge are results of proper brain development as a child. Investments into preschools for children’s development would also provide a well-established, maintained environment for children to socialize. Research on ECD shows that children that participated in better early development programs performed better at higher levels of education than those in high quality programs. Investing in early development, such as preschool children’s development, shows higher probability of those children in the programs succeeding in the future workforce at

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.

Early childhood education programs provide children with essential cognitive development. These programs also foster social development. Children can learn the social rules for interacting with other children; for example, how to share their toys. Erikson’s theory is different from Piaget’s theory. “Erikson’s view is that the social environment combined with biological maturation provides each individual with a set of ‘crises’ that must be resolved” (Huitt W. , 2008). Unlike Piaget’s theory, Erikson’s stages of social development do not have to accomplish something before the other can take place. This essay will critique the UCSD’s Early Childhood Development program and explain how the programs are sequenced with the Stages of Social Development.

Lower-class families tend to live in rougher neighborhoods and, as a result, focus on teaching their children how to stay out of harm’s way above all else. On the safer side of town, affluent parents can raise their children under a regimen of “concerted cultivation” – meaning, they make an effort to develop their child’s cognitive and social skills (Putnam 118). Upper-class parents are financially able to dedicate vast amounts of resources towards their children and their development, but working class parents are in a dramatically different position. Since the transition of the American economy from industry-based to knowledge-based, adults without a college degree have had a significantly harder time making a living wage. These parents cannot dedicate the same amount of money to the development of their children as affluent, educated parents can. Because of this, their children have higher levels of stress, have more concentration issues, and hear 19 million less words than the children of their affluent counterparts by the time they reach kindergarten (Putnam 116). To reduce this gap in early childhood development, state governments should redirect tax dollars toward providing high-quality preschool programs for disadvantaged children. These programs, if they provide wrap-around care and are run by well-trained professionals, can have a lasting impact on the lives of the children enrolled in them

With Very little time spent on developing poor children’s cognitive abilities, and many poor children make their own decision, early in life many poor children enter kindergarten as not knowing how to read, use a computer, play with block, communicate with teachers, sit still for a period of time many poor children find themselves behind in school, effects of which can cause disciplinary issues well into adulthood. In this respect free subsidized preschool can bridge the education gap between poor, middle class and rich