Vygotsky's Cognitive Development Of Children

Vygotsky proposed that children’s development is affected by their culture and social interaction. He also suggested that children are not born with knowledge but they gain it through their social interactions with peers and adults; he does not rule out the importance of biological processes but proposes an interdependent relationship between biological development alongside social activity and cultural interaction.

Lev Vygotsky developed a theory of cognitive development in children and young adults. His theory of cognitive development states that people’s mental structures are based on their interactions with OTHERS. Basically he says that other people create our thinking processes and cognitive structures as we interact with them, which begins particularly at a young age. Vygotsky supported sociocultural theory, “which states that the role of development in children happens through their community and interactions” (Woolfolk 59). This is referring to peoples ways of thinking and behaving in other words. Vygotsky notes three themes that explain how these social interactions dictate people thoughts. The three themes are co-constructed, cultural tools, and private speech. “Every function in a child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level and later on the individual level; first between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relations between human individuals” (Woolfolk 59). Higher mental processes and thinking through problems are first co-constructed during activities between children and another person. The child internalizes the process and it becomes part of their activities with other people. It means that together they figure something out, then later on the child can use that interaction to regulate their own behavior. This can be applied in a classroom for a lot of problem solving situations. For intense if I gave a math word problem, and asked the class a serious of questions as to help them figure out the problem, they would be able to answer the question. This would help them to answer this kind of math problem in the future, without my help. Vygotsky believed that children’s cognitive development happens through interactions with people who have a higher, more advanced thinking, people such as PARENTS or TEACHERS. This could be applied in the classroom, because children learn from their teachers, who have a more advanced thinking and they help their students solve problems, and questions, and

Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky alleged that adults play a fundamental role in the development of children as they nurtured their learning in a premeditated way (McDevitt et al, 2013), rather than entrusting it to natural processes. Vygotsky also believed that language played a primary responsibility in a child’s development, while Piaget excluded this from his theory (McDevitt et al, 2013). The social experiences a child encounter along with conversations they have with others and themselves (self-talk), greatly influences their capacity to grow and learn. One of the benefits of Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development is the Zone of Proximal development. Where children are frequently being pressed to the limit of their comfort zones within learning in order of forward progression (McDevitt et al, 2013).

The Piaget's stage theory of cognitive development is also known as the stage theory. It introduces that, in the expansion of our thinking, we act through an organized and certain sequence of steps. However, the theory focuses not only on compassionate how the children obtain knowledge, but likewise on the discernment of the substance of intelligence. According to the Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, there are two stages in the thinking pattern of a 3-year old preschooler and 9-year-old student. They are the preoperational stage for the 2 to 7 year old and the concrete operations stage for the 9 year old. The preoperational stage (three years old preschooler), this is where a new child can intellectually perform and signify to the objects and issues with the quarrel or the images, and they can act. The concrete operations (nine year old student), where a child is at the stage and deliver the ability to maintain, reserve their thinking, and analyze the objects in conditions of their many parts. However, they can also assume logically and understand comparison, but only about the concrete events.

“According to Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, it states that all children go through specific stages as their brain matures. It also stated that these stages are completed in a fixed order within all children, according to their range of age (Atherton).” In other words, one cannot expect a two month old baby to solve simple math problems as that of a five year old. There are four stages in which Piaget grouped the development of a child according to their age groups, in which children interact with people and their environment. The sensorimotor stage (birth until age 2) children use their senses to explore their environment. During this stage, children learn how to control objects, although they fail to understand that these objects if not within their view continue to exist. The preoperational stage (2 until age 7) children are not able to see other's viewpoints other than their own. In other words, if the same amount of water is poured into a short wide glass and then a tall thin glass the child will perceive that the taller glass has more water because of the height. The concrete operational stage (7 until 12) children begin to think logically, but only with a practical aid. The last stage of Piaget’s cognitive theory is the formal operation stage (12 through adulthood) in which children develop abstract thinking and begin to think logically in their minds (Piaget).

Theorists such as Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner give light on the complex world of children and empower practitioners to interpret and analyze their observations more effectively (Nutbrown, 2006). Piaget promoted the importance of child’s development, theory which is initially developed from observations made on his own three children. His theory focuses in how children adapt to their environments as they actively seeks out ways to understand it (Piaget, 1954). In contrast to Piaget, who concentrated on the individual child’s learning and development, both Vygotsky and Bruner emphasized the child’s social interactions with significantly more knowledge than others such as adults and peers.

The essay is going to introduce short overviews of Piaget (1926) and Vygotsky’s (1978) theories to indicate their different approaches when considering cognitive development. Piaget (1926) developed a constructivist theory which is the basis for the other cognitive development theories that followed. He proposed the definition of schema which refers to children’s construction of shaping their thought and actions through the set of cognitive processes as assimilation, disequilibriums and accommodation. When encountering new experiences, children try to interpret them in terms of known cognitive schemas. In case of failing, they need to adjust their interpretation to the reality (Schaffter & Kipp,8th ed). Based on his assumptions, Piaget (1926) proposed that child as a lone individual progress through four main stages of cognitive development. On the other hand, Vygotsky (1978) presented sociocultural theory. Vygotsky (1978) concentrated on the social interaction between child and adult considering

At the preoperational stage of development children have problems with conservation. Cooks and Cooks (2014) assert that conservation is the understanding that some basic properties of objects remain the same even when a transformation change the physical appearance (p. 241). However by allowing the children to play with playdoh, build with sand and pour the same amount of water into different size glass I am helping the children recognize the manipulation of physical object that can change shape while keeping constant mass this is giving the children a chance to move toward the understanding of conservation and two way logic, which they will need and use in the concrete operational stage which is the next stage of their

According to Piaget on conservational skills, Children have a highly developed sensitivity to fairness and justice. Not so much to the idea that certain physical properties remain the same no matter the dimensions of the spaces they occupy. That, in a nutshell, is the definition of conservation. Altogether there are seven Piagetian conservation tasks: length. Liquid, mass, area, weight, and volume. The tasks are listed in this specific order because this is the order in which children come to understand these topics. Experiments, such as conversational tasks, on children, are important because they can offer rare insights into a child’s mind and the pace at which it develops.

My thoughts are more in sync with Vygotsky. I believe that language plays a big role in a child learning. I believe if a child is unable to read he or she will fall behind on learning experiencing challenges and reading problems. If children was to interact with other childern I believe that it would cause children to have a much stronger cognitive development, that is one reason why I strongly believe in headstart. If a child have strong cognitive skills they would have a more stronger academic performance. Without cognitive development it is impossible for a child with learning or reading problems to perform to their potential. If a child does not talk very well, how can the child tell someone what is going on with them or how can they ask

Lev Vygotsky was a theorist in child development who believed environment and culture have a major impact on a child’s learning and social development. His insight on how something as a bedroom or house can influence how a child will think and what they will think made Vygotsky be crucial to Child Development. Lev Vygotsky was born in Russia and came from a Jewish family, which meant as a child his life was limited when it came to housing, school, and work. Vygotsky’s background relates to child development seeing as at a young age he was exposed to a life where he was segregated simply for religion, which takes a tole on a young child.

One of the most important cognitive skills is the ability to solve problems. It is manifested through the capability to find solutions to complex issues. By comparing two theories of child development, namely, the Piaget 's approach to cognitive development and Vygotsky 's social constructivist perspective, it will become clear that the nature of epistemological beliefs held by teachers might influence the development of children. This in turn suggests that problem-solving abilities in children can be influenced and improved by contextual factors. The similar pattern of influence has been observed in research on creativity in adults which have demonstrated that the context in which the individual is placed in improves one 's creative processes. If we assume that the problem-solving ability depends, at least partially, on finding novel solutions to complex issues, creativity would play a key role in finding such solutions and thus, can be improved by the contextual factors. On another hand, there are certain factors such as individual differences and cultural background which play an important role in creative processes. Personality type is usually quite stable throughout the lifetime and thus, difficult to change by changing the context. Traits such as openness or schizotypy has been found to correlate with creativity thus acting against the idea that creativity can be improved by mere contextual changes. By describing the evidence for and against the notion that

On Piaget's task for conservation of length, Piaget shows the subject two pencils equal in length and subject knows the pencils are the same length. But once one of the pencils is moved longer than the other one, the subject fails to recognize that they were the same. Piaget's task for conservation for liquid, he shows the young child two identical glasses, then he pours the same amount of water both glasses. The subject knows that the two glasses of water are equal. But if water from one glass is poured into a longer thinner glass, the subject couldn’t comprehend this glass contains the same amount of water as the original two identical glasses. Piaget's explains that children's thinking is "perception bound" in preoperational stage, so they can’t focus their attention on two aspects of the new glass, they were attentive only to one aspect which is that one glass is taller than the other two; failing to realize the taller glass had the same amount of liquid.

In order to support children’s growth educators try to provide a stimulating classroom environment. They implement different strategies, tools and practices to help achieve this goal. Since educators play an important role in children’s development they should be familiar with developmental psychology and know of its educational implications in the classroom. There are two major approaches of developmental psychology: (1) Cognitive development as it relates to Piaget and (2) social development as it relates to Vygotsky. An educator may find it useful to study Piaget’s theory of cognitive development to help children build on their own knowledge.

Lev Vygotsky was a very intelligent man who invented the Social Cognitive Theory that mainly focuses on the development of higher mental functions such as speech and reasoning in children. The theory emphasizes the importance of society and cultural for promoting cognitive development. "Vygotsky believed that adults in society foster children's cognitive development in an intentional and systematic matter by engaging them in meaningful and challenging activities."