Your Assignment Type: Standard Question
Currently Working in Childcare? No
Your knowledge: Beginner
Your Question?
The question is as follows:
Explain how the stages of cognitive development apply to children you have observed (at home or at work).
Ensure you explain each stage and how it was observed in your experience.
What is your answer so far or What have you done so far as an attempt to solve this question?
My answer is as follows:
There are various characteristics that apply to each developmental stage, the following are just a few of the ones that I have observed personally and in the work environment.
STAGE 1 SENSORY MOTOR STAGE. 0-2 years
Babies use their senses to discover and learn about the world. They cant view
Their situation from any other point of view, or consider complex meanings
- Reflex movements such as grasping and sucking.
Apart from feeding etc. New born babies use these reflexes to to actively seek stimulation and discover their world. For example for example when your touch a babies cheek it will turn in response and look for sensory stimulation.
- Coordination of circular reactions.
Babies learn to communicate vocally by crying (and later on making sounds) to get attention, when they need something or to communicate their needs eg. hunger, needs a nappy change, boredom, too hot/cold etc. They realize that what they are doing is getting a reaction so later on they do it on purpose.
- Object Permanence.
Babies start life believing that when they cant see something, disappeared for example, when a baby cant see his/her favourite carer, they believe the carer is gone forever. ( I have experienced many children becoming quite emotional when this happens). When they develop the understanding of object permanence, they understand that the person is still there, even though they cannot see them and may call out for attention
- Tertiary circular reactions.
I have experienced babies approximately between 10 and 20 months becoming extremely curious, and being “into everything”, wanting to discover and explore everything, and enjoy packing and unpacking things like the pots an pans drawer in the kitchen. At this time, I have also noticed language development.
STAGE 2 PREOPERATIONAL STAGE 2-7 years
- In children this age I have seen and experienced care and compassion for other people start to develop (and continue to develop the whole way through). For example. While babysitting my cousin who was about 2 and a half at the time, and watching a touching movie that made me teary, she came up to me and said “ Don’t cry, me here, me here” and patted my back.
- I have also experienced rapid language development with this age group. Working as a float in a center over a few months, I spent time in all different rooms. And every time I was in the kindy and preschool rooms, it seemed as though their communication skills had advanced in leaps and bounds.
- During this age, I also have found that their memories tend to become very accurate, for example, when I worked with a preschool room for a few days, we had dancing time every morning where they would always request particular Michael Jackson and One Direction songs. Then I didn’t see them for a few months and when I came back they all asked for dancing with Michael Jackson and One Direction. They also remembered what we had worked on the last time I had seen them and were keen to show me what they could do now.
- With my own son, who is currently in this stage, I see rapid development in his memory, Imagination, role playing and symbolism, as well as his grasping of the concept of time (past and future/today, tomorrow, yesterday etc.). Watching him play pretend and make believe at home with his blocks, animals and cars, each one has a character, and if he doesn’t have a specific toy, he will incorporate another object and pretend that it is what he needs (for example, he needed a screw driver for something so he pretended that a spoon was a screw driver) and with his friends, watching them play “Mummy and Daddy” and “Daddy and Kitty” etc.
STAGE 3 CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE 7 – 11 years.
- In children of this age, in particular with my my step daughter, I have noticed things such as:
Seriation for example:
We went to Bunnings to get paint, and she collected some paint colours from the dulux stand (the colours on the papers). Later when we went home she cut up all the colours (they were various shades of blue) and arranged them from dark to light and stuck them on a page as “the sky” for part of her collage. When I asked her how she had come up with that idea, she said that the sky looks like that when she lies on the grass and looks at it.
Reversability for example: She was telling me about her dog, Jackson. She told me that Jack was a Staffy, and that a Staffy is a “very intelligent breed of dog”. And that dogs are her favourite kind of animal.
Logical thinking and grasping mathematical concepts:
Since I have known her, she has been grasping of concepts like numbers and being able to use them in simple maths problems Also learning to tell the time and she is currently learning to tell the time using the 12 hour and 24 hour clocks.
STAGE 4 FORMAL OPERATIONAL 12 years +
My experience with this age group, most recently has been observing my 14 year old cousin. I have seen that she understands abstract thought by listening to her talk about concepts such as life after death. I have seen her demonstrate logical thought and problem solving by the way that she tackles problem solving, for example when playing the 20 Questions game with me she is able to start with broad questions and then link the answers and subcategories to figure out what I was thinking of. Eg:"is it an animal?" and then "can it fly?" and then "is it a bird?" and then lastly "is it a dove?"
Description and Message:
I have answeres this question to the best of my ability, but Im worried that its horribly wrong. Its taken me ages because Im sick
Id be really greatful if someone would let me know if its ok or not and what needs changing and how to change it...
Thanks
