Intellectual Development across the Life Stages

The brain grows quickly during the first few years of life. 

At birth, a baby's brain is about 30% the size of an adults brain.

By the age of 2, the brain has increased approx 30% the size of an adults brain. 

Language development begins before birth and develops rapidly.

Children learn all sorts of skills and abilities during this time.

Speech and language skills are essential to communicate with others.

• Abstract logical thinking- the ability to solve problems using imagination without having to be practically involved. This is an advanced form of thinking that does not always need a practical context in order to take place.
• Egocentric thinking- Not being able to see a situation from another person's point of view. Piaget thought a young child assumed that other people see, hear and feel exactly the same as the child. 
• Concrete logical thinking- The ability to solve problems, providing an individual can see or physically handle the issues involved. 
• Equilibrium- A state of cognitive balance when a child's experience is in line with what they understand.
• Disequilibrium- A state of cognitive imbalance between experience and what is understood.
• Accomodation- Modifying schemas in relation to new information and experience. 

He focussed on how children aquire the ability to think. 

He concluded that children think differentky to adults.

He said that a 4 year old cannot use abstract logical thinking because they aren't mature enough.

Infants use egocentric thinking meaning that they only understand the world from their own perspective.

The ability to think logically does not happen until around the age of 7, when children use simple logic (concrete logical thinking) to solve problems.

Sensorimotor (birth- 2 years)- infants think by interacting with the world using their eyes, ears, hands and mouth. The infant invents ways of soliving problems, such as, pulling the lever to hear the sound of a music box, finding hidden toys and putting objects into and taking them out of containers. Piaget believed that a baby would not have a way of thinking about the world until they were about 18 months old. 

Preoperational (2- 7 years)- Children use symbols to represent their earlier sensorimotor discoveries. Development of language and make-believe play takes place. Piaget believed that children at this stage cannot properly understand how ideas like number, mass and volume really work. A child might be able to count to 100 but might not understand what a set of 10 really means. If 10 buttons are stretched out in a line and 10 buttons are placed in a pile, a child might say that there are more buttons in the line because it's longer. 

Concrete operational (7- 11 years)- Children's reasoning becomes logical providing the issues are concrete. In the concrete operational stage, children may be able to understand simple logical principles. For example, if the teacher asks 'Jessica is taller than Joanne, but Jessica is smaller than Sally, who is the tallest?' A 7-8 year old might find it difficult to imagine the information needed to answer the question. However, if the teacher shows a picture of Jessica, Joanne and Sally, the child might quickly point out who is the tallest. 

Formal operational (11-18 years)- This is when the capacity for abstract thinking allows adolescents to reason through symbols that do not refer to objects in the real world, as is required in advanced mathematics. Young people can also think of possible outcomes of a scientific problem, not just the obvious answer. Abstract thinking enables individuals to think through complicated ideas in their heads without having to see the concrete image. 

A schema is a trail of thinking.

A schema is a catergory of knowledge as well as a process of acquiring knowledge. 

A child develops concepts about the world around them ( a state of equilibrium).

As they experience situations where new information is presented, their schemas are upset and they reach a state of disequilibrium. 

As the new information is accomodated, the original schemas are modified or changged so they again reach a state of equilibrium. 

This is the idea that children understand that something's appearance may change but it's quantity will stay the same. 

By the age of 7, they have the ability to understand that when you move  liquid from a wide container to a small container to a tall thin container it does not affect its volume. 

The theory was based on a small number of children.

The ages/stages may be more fluid than he thought. 

Under/over estimates children's cognitive abilities. 

Bruner disagrees with Piaget and believes that with adult support, children can be developed to progress to higher level thinking skills. 

Cognitive development may not depend on maturation but a child's environment and quality of their formal and infromal education. 

The theory was based on a small number of children.

The ages/stages may be more fluid than he thought. 

Under/over estimates children's cognitive abilities. 

Bruner disagrees with Piaget and believes that with adult support, children can be developed to progress to higher level thinking skills. 

Cognitive development may not depend on maturation but a child's environment and quality of their formal and infromal education.