Principles of Human Services

Early Childhood Development and Services

COGNITIVE DEVELOMENT

JEAN PIAGET
-Conducted research on
Intelligence Testing.

- Scientific Research : focused

on elementary school
children’s mode of reasoning.
 Principles of Human Services

Early Childhood Development and Services

HUMAN COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Piaget’s General Principles of Development:
 Made use of rational stance of thinking in w/c he believed that
intelligence is innate to every individual.
 Claimed that cognitive development undergoes a series of stages
which is under the process of equilibration – where the child finds
balance between the influences/ situations produced by the
environment and what the child brings to it.
 “Disequilibrium” occurs when they are confronted with new and
unfamiliar features in their environment. They adapt to these
changes through assimilation and accommodation.
 Principles of Human Services

Early Childhood Development and Services

Piaget’s General Principles of

Development:

Assimilation- Fits new experience

in his/her existing view of the
world.

Accommodation – Changes the

schema or view of the world to
incorporate these new
experiences.
 FOUR STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
Stage Age Characteristics
Sensorimotor 0 – 2 years
Stage

Explore the world through their senses and

motor activity.
Pre-operational 2 – 7 years
Stage

“Pre-operational” – Child’s lack of logical thought

process.
 FOUR STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
Stage Age Characteristics
Concrete - 7 – 12 years
Operational

Ability to generalize from concrete experiences

Formal - 12 years and
Operational up

Can form hypotheses, organize information,

and reason scientifically.
COGNITIVE DEVELOMENT

Lev Semenovich
Vygotsky

-Cognitive development was

directly related to and based
on social development.

-Children begin learning from

the world around them.
COGNITIVE DEVELOMENT

Lev Semenovich
Vygotsky

Zone of Proximal Development

-It is the difference between two levels of cognitive
functioning– adult/expert and child/novice.

Scaffolding – A building process of teaching where

the adult continually adjust the level of his/her help in
responses to the child’s performance.