Module 2 Part 2: Cognitive Development
Early Childhood (2-6 years)
Preoperational Stage: Symbolic thinking, egocentrism, and animism dominate. Children engage in pretend play but struggle with logical operations.
Middle Childhood (6-11 years)
Concrete Operational Stage: Development of logical thinking about concrete events, mastery of conservation, and the ability to classify objects. Children understand concepts of time, space, and quantity but struggle with abstract thought.
Late Childhood (11-14 years)
Transition to Formal Operational Stage: Beginning of abstract thinking, problem-solving, and hypothesis testing. Improved ability to think about future possibilities and use deductive reasoning.
Preoperational Stage and Related Concepts
Animism: The belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action. This is common in the preoperational stage of development.
Centration: Focusing on one aspect of a situation and neglecting others, characteristic of the preoperational stage.
Conservation: Understanding that altering an object's appearance does not change its basic properties. This concept typically develops during the concrete operational stage.
Egocentrism: The inability to differentiate between one’s own perspective and someone else’s perspective, prevalent in the preoperational stage.
Intuitive Thought Substage: Occurs between ages 4 and 7, when children begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to all sorts of questions.
Operations: Mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they previously could only do physically, central to Piaget's theory of cognitive development.
Preoperational Stage: The second stage in Piaget's theory (ages 2-7), characterized by symbolic thinking and egocentrism.
Intellectual and Cognitive Development
Intelligence Quotient (IQ): Measure of a person’s intelligence based on an intelligence test.
Learning Disability: Difficulty in learning that involves understanding or using spoken or written language.
Gifted: Above-average intelligence (IQ of 130 or higher) and/or superior talent.
Metacognition: Thinking about thinking; evaluating and monitoring one's own cognitive processes.