Essay on The Play Years

In Vygotsky’s sociocultural development theory, social interaction plays an important role in the process of cognitive development, which is different then Piaget’s understanding of child development. Vygotsky believed children are active knowledge

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory focuses on human learning as a social process (cite). He believed that social interaction plays a significant role in the development of cognition in children that follows them into adulthood. After reading through the discussion boards by my classmates this semester, it seems that Vygotsky’s theory sits soundly with most of the class. The theory appeals to me because it leaves room for cultural and societal change. If one is to look back in history, they would notice things that are different between children back then and children now. Perhaps children back then were more respectful towards their elders, or maybe children today are more tech-savvy than ever before. This can all be attributed to

According to Lev Vygotsky, in the article Play: The Work of Lev Vygotsky (2017), when children partake in play they are building their language and cognitive development

My niece, Arianna, plays house and has baby dolls. She pretends like she is a mother to her baby dolls. Even though this is make believe she is playing the role of a mother to her baby doll. This connects to Piaget’s developmental stage of preoperational because her thinking is not completely logical, but she knows that the baby is not actually real. I think that this is how most little

In this domain Piaget stated that the child who is still in the preoperational stage can’t conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations. They can’t mentally manipulate information. The child is able to form stable concepts as well as magical beliefs and their thinking is still egocentric, which means that the child has difficulty seeing the viewpoint of others. Piaget split this stage into the symbolic and intuitive thought substage. In the symbolic function stage children are able to understand, represent, remember, and picture objects in their mind without having the object in front of them. Vygotsky stated that children learn cognitive tasks through their interactions with older peers and adults. Not only do younger children watch and imitate older people or peers as they complete tasks, but these older guides also help younger children accomplish tasks they couldn’t accomplish on their own. He calls this the zone of proximal development which he describes what children can do alone and what they can do with assistance. Another theorist named Bandura coined the term observational learning which means people learn appropriate social behaviors by observing and modeling others. This type of learning is most effective during childhood. Vygotsky believed that the important part of the cognitive development is language. He observed that very young

Vygotsky also introduced his theory of internalisation, one of the main concepts that differentiated from that of Jean Piaget (Duchesne, S., & McMaugh, A. 2016. P.103). The theory of internalisation put forward by Vygotsky is an idea that suggests an individual is able to observe and internalise the ideas and processes of their surroundings as they partake in social interaction defined as, “new ways of thinking” (Duchesne, S., & McMaugh, A.,2016p.103). During social interaction the individuals thinking is successively transformed by interaction with others, similarly to the concept developed by Piaget, Vygotsky also characterised children as “active agents in their development”. (Duchesne, S., & McMaugh, A.,2016p.103). As explained by

Children can learn from play because they are exploring and designing. In my opinion, I believe in the Agentic Child view and that a child is not born a blank sheet. Children are smarter than most people think. They are capable and competent. They are social actors and learners and will often take action themselves to learn. A child and an adult both negotiate and share power. The adult helps by lending their power and resources with the child, rather than imposing power on the child. Adults help support the children rather than govern and make every single decision for the child. Children are not as helpless and clueless as some people may think. Children do need support from adults in terms of necessities such as food, clothing, water, shelter

The next stage in Piaget’s theory is the preoperational stage. It applies to children between the ages of about 2 to 6 years. He said that children begin “Representing things with words and images but lacking logical reasoning.” (Myers, D.G. 2000). As far as associating things with words, this was true for me at much younger age. I

During this stage the child is beginning to use languages, and their imagination is developing. One technique of teaching during this stage would be to use imagery, props, and have short instruction. The teacher would need to use a kinesthetic type of learning environment and get the student involve with learning.

The preoperational stage takes place between the ages of two and seven. During this stage, children start to use speech, and the expansion of the child’s memory and creative ability is put into play. In the preoperational stage, children take part in imaginative play and can grasp and express connections between the past and what's to come. A child’s knowledge in this stage is egocentric and natural, not intelligent

During this stage the child, begin to go beyond the sensorimotor stage. They start you use words and images to represent the things that represented the world. Piaget believe that many preschoolers still lacked the ability to performs “operations”; which are internalized mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they previously could only do physically (). I can recall a few things that I may have done between these ages when I entered this stage. At the age of four I can remember being in pre-kindergarten playing games in which we would take on roles in which we were not.

Essentially, Piaget explains that during the Pre – Operational stage, young children have egocentric perception: they have not understand the world logically. For instance, there are two cups of water which are the same amount, but one is a tall and the other is a short and stat, the child believes that the tall one has more than short one. During the Pre – Operational stage, children’s logical thinking have not developed yet. Therefore, if a cup seems bigger than the other, it must contains more water than the other. Thus, children need to have a life experience that it explains the world such as a manipulative activity because while they play, they learn about logical explanation of size or amount.

An important part of Piaget’s work is the focus on how play impacts cognitive development. “Play is most important between the ages of three and six” (Halpenny & Pettersen, 2013). According to Piaget, there are four stages of cognitive development. They are the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational

The preoperational stage is very important when explaining cognitive development. The preoperational stage is Piaget’s 2nd stage of development. It is a process that occurs from age 2-7. During this stage, children cannot break down messages and visuals so they will tend to only view issues from their point of view. For example, a tree could be taller to a child compared to an adult but because the child is in the preoperational stage they will assume that the adult imagines this the same way. Children will more than likely participate in role-playing games to which they will usually assume the role of the mother and father. The most viable part of this process would be that language development occurs. Children will not be able to use complex

The community’s elderly shook their heads in disbelief at the news. The young children were jittery in their seats. Their eyes were large with anticipation and excitement as the announcement rang out like a church bell through the town square. In each church in the neighboring area, oily haired preachers rapped on their pulpits proclaiming a new holiday with fervor like a revelation testimony. To the Baptist and Brethren and the Methodist alike, a new Sabbath had been announced, a day of rest from life’s burdens. The old park, their pious chorus proclaimed, was now to be the meeting ground. The announcement of this new celebration brought the townsfolk together the way even religion could not. Promised a show with ending to excite, people