Essays on Cognitive Development

Introduction

Proper presentation of data collected during a study is imperative to the credibility of a research. In fact, lack thereof compromises the interpretation embraced by the people relying on such information due to the possibilities of miscommunication in the presentation process. As such, researchers ought to follow a compelling approach whilst communicating the results of their study regardless of the research design followed. With this in mind, it is worth acknowledging the fact that there are multiple research approaches followed in the delivery of psychological research information. According to the Emergency Medicine Journal, the popular research designs include observational ...

Running Notes

The observation was that of child #111. #111 is a five year female. She has been enrolled in the kindergarten class for five months. I observed child #111 for two forty five minutes sessions. Over the course of the two sessions, a range of physical, social, emotional, cognitive and language development aspects were evaluated. Child #111 has an approximate height of 40 inches. She is white in skin color and her overall physical appearance appears to be generally in line with children her age. In essence, from her physical appearance, she is generally healthy. After being introduced to the ...

Introduction

In practice, Early Childhood Education is considered as one of the best environments for preschool age children based on a multitude of learning opportunities that it provides (Clark & Moss, 2005). This kind of early childhood education helps the children to foster in their language development, physical development and social ability in every dimension (Fasold, 1990). It is important that childhood teachers examine the trends in the today's society that influence the way the children play. Children's play behaviours will always be different depending on various contextual facts. For example, changes in the way technology get driven including children playing ...

Introduction

Development is a word that describes the process of growth, adaptation, and changes that people undergo during their lifetime characterized by personality, physical, cognitive, socioemotional, and language developments. The work of developmental psychologists helps the society to understand different developmental theories and how they influence life in various stages of life through various development theories. Development theories describe various factors that influence the development pattern of an individual that include hereditary and environmental factors. On the other hand, other psychological experts argue that development is controlled by nature and nurture that combine to influence biological factors. However, psychological developments ...

Cognitive processes are complex and entangled, involving a multiplicity of elements and factors, which still makes it a remaining mystery for many researchers and scholars. The greatest questions concern how the system of cognitive processes function and how it is developed. The latter one will be further analyzed in the essay, with a special attention paid to the differences in the children's and adults' cognitive processes, and the aim to trace certain stages or tendencies in their development, as well as trying to define the ways of their performance improvement. The essay will primarily focus on the cognitive process ...

Psychology: Nature vs. Nurture Essay

Language constitutes an essential characteristic of human beings and is regarded as a primary form of communication between individuals. The role of nature and nurture in language acquisition among young children has been a continuous debate in developmental sciences, education, and social sciences like sociology and psychology. This issue is not only conflicting but also complementary. It has laid a foundation for better understanding of how biological and environmental factors interact to influence language development in children (Yusa et al. 2011). Available research shows that there is no clear pattern of the causes and effects associated with human cognition ...

Introduction

The journey by which an individual develops is both very personal and also very predictable. It is predictable by way of accomplishing certain milestones at particular times. Development is marked by these milestones and through them, an individual's development is able to be termed “normal’ or “abnormal.” However, it is personal in that each person achieves these milestones at different times in their development. The similarities between the development of each person allow for the timeline of development to be documented and analyzed.

Social Development of Infants

In infants, social development primarily occurs as the child begins to become aware of and respond ...

A. Summarize the physical changes that occur in children during this age and the factors that influence these changes. Include a comparison of male and female. The growth of children during early to middle childhood has slowed a bit compared to the growth rate during infancy. However, this is still a period of tremendous growth and development, as remarkable changes occur in the body proportions. As children lose their baby fats, their arms and legs start to stretch and come in proportion to the head and other parts of the body. Studies showed that on average, children add 2 ...

They have been a myriad of theorists that have developed theories on cognitive learning stages and human development. Among those theorists have been Erik Erikson, Abraham Maslow, and Jean Piaget. Each of these theorists have had an imperative impact on the way we view cognitive development and physical growth. Some of them focused more on how we interact with others and develop through relationships with individuals as we progress through life. While others, focused on cognitive development that is innately inherited through birth giving us a foundation of which to build upon. Erik Erikson, for example, based his theories ...

Erik Erikson’s theory of identity crisis emphasizes on cultural and social roles in the identity of the ego (Engler, 23). According to him, it is possible for people to continue developing in their adulthood. The stages that develop in adulthood are Intimacy and Isolation, Generativity and Stagnation, and Ego Integrity and Despair. In the Intimacy and Isolation stage, young adults are likely to try and build their self-esteem. However, both Erikson and Piaget admit that in adulthood behavior is determined by the person nurture and nature. Therefore, in adulthood, people build on to what they already have from ...

Introduction

People have always been fascinated about how language affects their thoughts or even the process of thinking. Considering this thought, is it then right to say that people from different language groups speak differently? This paper’s thesis statement argues that language simply serves as a medium of communication and is therefore only a means that can be used to interpret how unique and different people and groups of people are from each other. The argument that suggests that language affects people’s thoughts is based on the idea that language is what determines how moral or crooked one ...

Genetic and Environmental Research

Genetic research involves a critical analysis of medical and scientific causes, amelioration, enhancement, transmission, and elimination of inherited traits and disorders (McGuire et al., 2014). The role of genetic research is paramount particularly in a dynamic fields of diagnosis and treatment of genetic related disorders. The core areas of genetic research include genetic testing, reproductive genomics, gene therapy, genetic databanks, and pharmacogenomics. In social sciences, genetic research entails the study of the manner in which the genetic traits contributes to human behavior. Research on genetics has significant impacts not only on the health care sector but also to the ...

Egocentrism is simply a heightened degree of self-consciousness and self-awareness. David Elkind’s work was mostly focused on adolescent psychology. Therefore, his version of egocentrism was mainly in adolescents. According to Elkind, adolescents have the inability to perceive the difference between what they think of themselves and what people think of them. His theory traces its roots from Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, which presents an argument that due to the changes adolescents undergo, they can conceptualize their thoughts and conceive those of other people. This is a buildup of what Elkind provides in that he brings in ...

This paper puts focus on baby Kim who, after a premature birth, tested positive for meth and a subsequent intracranial bleeding. Other manifest characteristics of baby Kim detailed poor development in feeding and learning. Following the difficulties, Kim was taken to a Child protective Services unit where it was put under the care of one McCallister.

Biophysical Considerations of the Case Study

The baby’s problems are associated with prenatal drug exposure. As evident in the case study, Kim’s mother is an ardent abuser of crystal meth, a drug whose impacts are both short term and long term. In the long term, abuse of ...

Step 1

1.) Piaget: Cognitive development 1.) Reggio Emilia 2.) Gardner: Theory of multiple intelligence 2.) High Scope 3.) Vygotsky: Social cultural theory of development 3.) Montessori 4.) Skinner: Operant conditioning 4.) Waldorf 5.) Bandura: Social learning theory 5.) Bank street 6.) Freud: Psychosexual theory of development 6.) Cooperative 7.) Erikson: Theory of psychosocial development 7.) Creative curriculum 8.) Kohlberg: Theory of moral development 8.) Play based learning

Step 2

Learning is said to be a relatively permanent process that results in a behavioral change. Though various theorists and learning approaches have been proposed, there is one thing all psychologists and people in ...

Cognitive development in children parallels with brain development. By early childhood (2 to 4 years of age), children begin to recognize, recall and use information in a context. The child’s experience with the immediate environment will continue to prune his/her cognitive process. Playing with peers, interacting with adults and certain inherent qualities of the child, will determine the rate of cognitive development. As cognition develops, the child is able to understand stories that are told and will begin to understand certain complex explanation. They also begin to learn languages and try applying it in different situations. (Keels 381-397) ...

Introduction

Cognitive development in my view may be described simply as the process how an individual changes how they think. This change in how the person thinks may come in different perspectives, from how the person processes information, to how the person perceives other things in life and this change will always tend to increase as the person increases in age and experiences various things over time . This change or rather advancement, how I am able to understand, may be really dependent on my experiences, the knowledge that I have been able to learn in class and life in general. ...

Summary of theorists

SUMMARY OF THEORISTS

Ainsworth looks at attachment theory in three different classifications. The attachment theory brings out the difference in children’s behaviors at different ages. This is based on how they have been brought up by their parents. Ainsworth has been known best for developing Strange Situation as a tool for research and assessment. Ainsworth classified the theory of attachment into three different categories that were based on the observations she made during the Strange Situation experiment; Secure attachment looks at the environment where the children have the presence of their mothers. In such instances, the theory states ...

Abstract

Lately, a lot of questions have been raised about the impacts that prenatal care may have on the development of a child in different stages. Based on important pieces of data, it is evident that human development is contributed to by a lot of factors with prenatal care being central to such factors. This paper has extensively explored secondary data to unearth aspects natured in prenatal sessions such as nutrition, genetics, behavior and teratogens as they contribute to the eventual cognitive awareness of a child. Notably, the paper is strategic in its choice for childhood cognitive development as it ...

Paper One: Language Development and Cognitive Development

Developmental Domain: Language Arts/English/EFL Sequence of Events: Instructor began the lesson with an introductory activity, asking the students what they did the previous evening. Students were encouraged to answer questions about their daily activities. After this, students reviewed their homework assignment, which was a worksheet about the book that they’re reading. Students then read the next part of the book—Where the Wild Things Are—and did an in-class exercise with the new part of the text. Students were then asked to cut and color monsters for a play of the book.

Reflection.

Because this is an ESL classroom ...

The institutional affiliation

Humans make life-changing decisions every day and it is of high importance that those decisions are made deliberately and carefully. Moreover, an answer or a solution to the arisen issue may be constructed in different stages of thinking. Sometimes it is hard to determine the stage of thinking and cognitive development. In order to complete this task, I have interviewed my family member and my friend about the most significant and powerful decisions in their lives, about people who have helped them make those decisions and about their current opinions of those exact situations and if they would set ...

Theoretical literature strongly points to a role of social and other environmental factors in predicting academic outcomes (Shaffer & Kipp, 2010; Condron, 2009; Panofsky, 2003). According to Shaffer & Kipp (2010), while behaviourist learning theories consider the environment and child-specific circumstances are inconsequential learning, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory consider linguistic, emotional, cognitive, and social development to be complementary processes that shape children’s growth and literacy. Vygotsky and Piaget’s theories emphasize the interaction between nurture and nature in learning and development. Piaget believed that children were moulded by their interaction with the environment, ...

Introduction

The present document presents case analysis of Melissa Hershey is analyzed. The mentioned conditions in the case depict the psychological condition of Melissa. It can be observed that the Melissa is undergoing stress, lack of concentration in her education and aggressive behavior. Moreover, she is going through trauma due to the death of her father that reoccurs depression and anxiety. However, Melissa is social and likes going out with her friends, but the past events in the family have greatly affected her patterns of interactivity, behaviors, responses and learning capabilities (Morriss, 2015). The information shared by her mother, teacher ...

Every person goes through many changes during his life: his body and mind change and develop because of the influence from society he lives in. The most common changes are cognitive, physical and social, which are inevitable. To the middle of adulthood one experiences his improvement clearly, and accepts the changes as they should be. The understanding and perception of the peculiarities of self-development are the most important issues when discussing human individuality. This paper is to examine social, physical and cognitive changes in middle adulthood for both women and men. The changes acquired with age influence every muscle ...

Abstract

Pretend play is one of the avenues through which children get to experience the world at an experiential level . It is through this form of play that the children get to develop key cognitive skills necessary for fully functional adults. Pretend play can take different forms, but the games have common features such as allowing room for children to vent their feelings and emotions while giving their description of actual and fictional objects. Various theories explain the importance of pretend play, with the Lev Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development, offering essential insights on the importance of pretend play . ...

Introduction

Studies on psychology and cognition have shown that a child’s language has a great impact on his/her ability to regulate his emotions and behavior. In order for two people to understand and share meaning with one another, a clear ground should first be laid out to avoid misunderstandings. A study involving 120 children aged 18 months to 4 years old showed that participants who had superior language skills expressed less anger upon reaching 4 years old (Roben, Cole, & Armstrong, 2012). Most children in their early stages learn to use language as a means of self-expression and self-regulation, because ...

Abstract

My motor skills developed on time, although my motor coordination is still not very good. My physical development is in line with normal course of development of a person. I have sustained healthy weight throughout my childhood and adolescence, and my height and weight started growing rapidly during puberty that started at the age of 11. My height and weight during puberty were different from my peers, which made me feel self-conscious and lowered my self-esteem. Puberty was also marked with emotional and behavioral changes that affect many adolescents. I have completed Piaget’s stages of development on time ...

Christopher is seven years old and attends a district 75,6:1:1 classroom. He is an only child

and he was born in the United States. His parents migrated from Ecuador and they speak

Spanish at home. While his father is able to communicate with a limited vocabulary his

mother has less command of the English language. Christopher is on the Autistic Spectrum and he has been having Speech Therapy to help him develop his language.

Personal Identity

Personal Identity can be defined as the perception of self that grows over time. It is defined Christopher’s personality has been formed by the influence at home, in his formative years. Many migrant families in the US bring up their offspring with the concept that ‘children should be seen and not heard’. This is in ...

Introduction

Jean Piaget is one of the greatest psychologists to have ever lived. His thinking has influenced many areas of the study of the human mind, from development, to education and even psychopathology. Through a study of his general theory, many parameters of his thinking will be examined. Then, there will be a brief discussion of his cognitive development stages, which is the contribution he is most known for. Finally, some criticisms to his theory will be addressed, and some possible answers from within Piaget’s theory.

General Theory

According to Carey, Zaitchik and Bascandziev (2015), there are two main components of ...

<Institution> The development of human intelligence is a complex process, and many factors are involved in it. The following are some of the important concepts and theories that are helpful in understanding more about human intelligence.

Concrete-Operational Period and Formal-Operational Period

Concrete operations stage is the third stage of cognitive development that was formulated by Jean Piaget. Children ages 7 to 11 years go through this stage, which is further divided into two sub-stages: the concrete-operational period and the formal-operational period. During concrete-operational period, a child develops the ability to apply logical thinking about an object as long as it can be manipulated (“ ...

A mental thinking process directs daily human activities. The mental development of a person involves the mind encompassing perceptions, images, and languages and plans to inform the knowledge and comprehension process (Burton, 2015). The knowledge process involves gaining understanding knowing, thinking, remembering, judging and problem-solving. This development of the mind is referred to as cognition (Burton, 2015). The cognitive development process has been explained by different theories; among these theories are Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development and Lev Vygotsky Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development (Burton, 2015). Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories provide insight on how children ...

Introduction

Proper environmental exposure is essential to the development of a child. In fact, lack thereof compromises their intellectual growth, which may have adverse impacts to their adulthood. As such, controversies have arisen on the influence of the society on the cognitive development of a child. Some maintain that the environment and society an individual is exposed to during their infancy contributes to their overall cognitive development while others dispute this claim. For starters, Vygotsky’s theory stresses that social interaction has an indispensable role in the elaboration of an infant’s cognitive abilities (Rochester, 2015). Contrastingly, Piaget’s theory ...

Introduction

In the recent times, people have been exposed to the media than ever before. Most of our homes comprise of TV sets, internet connections, and newspapers amongst others. The internet, for instance, is perceived as a tool that makes life easier by providing essential information. Obviously, excessive exposure to violent media has detrimental effects on the behaviors of the child (Escobar-Chaves, Liliana, and Craig A, 2008). All-encompassing research has revealed that media violence develops aggressive behavior to children. Therefore, stakeholders must ensure they promote a safer media environment for the children during developing through media literacy. Throughout this paper ...

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is a brain disorder that interferes with children’s concentration, attention, self-esteem, and self-control. The children have trouble staying focused, being organized, thinking before acting, and making realistic plans. They develop an aggressive, socially inept, and defiant attitude, therefore, making it difficult to undertake their daily chores. Children with ADD face difficulty adapting to changing situations and become noisy and fidgety when exposed to unfamiliar situations (Brown, Reichel & Quinlan, 2012, p.60). The disorder affects about 10% of children in America and is easily identifiable in the first six years of a child. Various social psychologists ...

A child needs stable family connections with the nurturing presence of their adults, which is their mother. Childhood is the most impersonating time of a person’s life which either makes or breaks a person. A mother is the direct source of influence and her ability to form a bond, provide paternal security and nurturing children’s needs by a constant guidance throughout. There are several factors, situations, condition and financial surrounding which help in influencing the children and generate long term benefits on upcoming generations.

Influences of Working Mothers on Children

During 1970-80s, the rate of working mothers was less as compare to today. ...

<Institution> Every year, more than 4.5 million women experience physical violence from their partner (Vagianos, 2014). This number only presents the victims of one form of domestic violence. Although 15 percent of men also experience some form of domestic violence, women are still more likely to be victimized at 85 percent (Vagianos, 2014). This issue has been affecting the society for many years, and it continue to do so. In fact, in 2011, the number of American soldiers (6488) that were killed in the Afghanistan war was only half of the women who were killed by their partners ( ...

Book Report

Thomas R.M believes that studying and understanding the growth and development of a child is helpful to train the young on how to live well. Children differ in emotional growth, physical, social and cognitive patterns. Children differ even if they are identical twins. Think of a child; you will find out that their response to the play, affection, people, and objects be it living or non-living in their environment is very different. In this book, Thomas R.M helps us to understand children better by discussing the principles of child development, the brain growth, and development of a child. He ...

Cognitive theories are trying to explain why the brain is the main incredible network within the body in information interpretation and processing learning (Fletcher & Fincham, 2013). Cognitive theories are divided into two major categories: the cognitive behavioral theory and the social cognitive theory (Fletcher & Fincham, 2013). The social cognitive theory considers three variables which include environmental factors (extrinsic), behavioral factors and personal factors (intrinsic). On the other hand, the cognitive behavioral theory is describing the role of the knowing in an attempt to predict and determine the behavioral pattern of a person. Jean Piaget looked at his work as ...

Importance of the Topic for the Early Childhood Education Field “Challenges Surrounding Parents and Children who are Homeless”

The significance of the larger topic Challenges Surrounding Parents and Children who are Homeless for The Early Childhood Education Field Homeless children are at great risk of different negative effects, such as poor well-being or negative social outcomes (Moore & McArthur, 2011). This paper deals with the topic of early childhood education. The main goal of this paper is to reveal the main questions regarding the issue of challenges that homeless children face in everyday life and how it can affect their education. In order to deal with this issue successfully, different sources of information were carefully examined and analyzed. ...

Early Adulthood Observation paper – Age 19-40

Details of observation and stages of subject  Place: Age: 24 years Gender: Male Developmental stage- Early Adulthood Raphael is a typical young adult who is full of health, vigor and vibrancy and is ready for intimacy, having the ability to relate as he seeks to establish himself independently while relating with others.

Developmental stage description

Raphael falls under Erikson’s love stage, which is a stage that pits intimacy against isolation and is a stage that goes all the way up to the age of 39years. According to Erikson, love is the predominant factor at this stage of the young adult as ...

Introduction

The field of psychology as an area of study consists of distinctive branches, each of which looks into human experiences, behavior, and mental process from a different point of view. For instance, cognitive psychology focuses on the study of human’s internal processes, such as what goes on in their minds, what motivates them as well as how they perceive people around them. Accordingly, as people’s curiosity in the relationship of the human brain and the behavioral responses in a cognitive task increased, many empirical and theoretical studies were conducted. The study of cognitive psychology has had a ...

Abstract

This paper presents a literature review on the effects of autism in early childhood development. Autism is a brain development disorder that has extremely debilitating effects on communicative and social development. Children suffering from autism exhibit different development patterns from their peers and develop at a much lower pace. They face considerable difficulties in understanding the feelings of others, as well as in interacting. These challenges can have adverse impacts on how they learn and develop. The symptoms of autism are varied and heterogeneous but involve repetitive behaviors, deficits in social relatedness and the presence of limited interests. The ...

Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development emphasizes the significance of language and social experience. Within this theory, human cognition is viewed as a social process, and language is referred to as a basis of more sophisticated cognitive processes (Berk, 2012, p. 275). Within Vygotsky’s framework, such phenomena as private speech, intersubjectivity, scaffolding, guided participation, reciprocal teaching and cooperative learning have gained much support. Therefore, it is of extreme importance for an efficacious teacher to consider these approaches to learning while teaching youth. First of all, private speech, according to Vygotsky, is used for self-guidance. Through the zone of ...

How Shall a Thing Be Called seeks to decipher how the naming of an object takes place. The central idea that surrounds the phenomenon is based on the use of simple names to give meanings to objects that are difficult for children to understand. The author of the journal seeks to make parents understand the positive benefits that culminate from using simple name-giving techniques to help them understand the world around them. Parents have a particular notion when it comes to naming items from their children. The concept of such reasoning is because children find it difficult to pronounce ...