©2001 Allyn & Bacon
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Chapter 6: Cognitive Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood
According to Piaget, from earliest infancy children actively build psychological structures, or schemes, as they manipulate and explore their world. The vast changes that take place in Piaget's sensorimotor stage are divided into six substages. By acting on the world, infants make strides in intentional behavior, mastery of object permanence, and physical reasoning. In the final substage, they transfer their action-based schemes to a mental level, and representation appears. Research indicates that a variety of sensorimotor milestones emerge earlier than Piaget believed and that cognitive development in infancy and toddlerhood does not follow distinct, even stages. Debate continues concerning the degree to which cognitive development depends on motor, perceptual, or innate capacities.
Information processing, an alternative to Piaget's theory, focuses on the development of mental strategies for storing and interpreting information. With age, infants' attention becomes more effective and flexible, and memory improves and is supported by mental representation. Findings on infant categorization support the view that young babies structure experience in adultlike ways. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory stresses that cognitive development is socially mediated as adults help infants and toddlers master challenging tasks.
A variety of infant intelligence tests have been devised to measure individual differences in early mental development. Although most predict later performance poorly, those that emphasize speed of habituation and dishabituation to visual stimuli and object permanence show better predictability. Home, child care, and early intervention for at-risk infants and toddlers are powerful influences on intellectual progress.
Behaviorist and nativist theories provide contrasting accounts of language development. The interactionist view emphasizes that innate abilities and environmental influences combine to produce children's extraordinary language achievements. During the first year, infants prepare for language in many ways. First words appear around 12 months, 2-word utterances between 18 months and 2 years. At the same time, substantial individual differences exist in rate and style of early language progress. Conversational give-and-take and child-directed speech (a simplified form of parental language) support infants' and toddlers' efforts to become competent speakers.
©2001 Allyn & Bacon |