Theories of development

theorist of child development - constructivist = children construct knowledge themselves

process by which people translate incoming information into a form they already understand
- Generalise to other circular objects e.g. ball and moon

process by which people adapt current knowledge structures in response to new experiences/theories about the world

process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding

stage 1: sensorimotor stage (birth-2yrs) - - Infants get to know the world through their sense and through their actions
- Babies are born with many reflexes - grasping, sucking
- They learn to integrate reflexes in their first few months (grasp + suck)
- Critical cognitive achievement by 8 months
object permeance = knowledge that objects continue to exist even when they are out of view

pre operational stage (2-7) - - Toddlers start to rely on internal representations of the world based on language and mental imagery
- A mix of impressive cognitive acquisitions and equally impressive limitations
- Symbolic representation - the use of one object to stand for another which makes a variety of new behaviours possible
- Egocentrism - tendency to perceive the world from solely ones point of view
- Conservation errors - where they incorrectly believe that merely changing the appearance of objects can change their quantity

the repetition of other peoples behaviour a substantial time after it has occured

· Perceive the world solely from ones own viewpoint
· Difficulty in taking other peoples spatial perspectives
· Most 4 year olds cant do this
· Piaget and inhelders 1956- three mountains task
· Preschoolers
· can talk past each other without listening to their conversational partner

formal operational stage (12+) - - Cognitive development culminates in the ability to think abstractly and reason hypothetically
- Individuals can imagine alternative worlds and reason systematically about all possible outcomes
- This stage isn't universal

too vague about cognitive processes/ underestimate the contribution of social world to cognitive development

- Sociocultural approach to child development
- Thus theory presents children as social beings, intertwined with other people who are eager to help them gain skills and understanding

· Focus on the contribution of other people and the surrounding culture to children's development
· Emphasised guided participation, a process which more knowledgeable individuals organise activates in ways that allow less knowledgeable people to engage in them at a higher level than they could manage on their own
· Present interactions as occurring in a broader sociocultural context that includes cultural tool
· E.g talking to kids in a baby voice- innate thing all adults do (infant directed speech)

- Lower mental functions- regarded as elementary mental abilities such as memory which are closely tied to biological processes that are innate and involuntary
- Higher mental functions - continuously controlled transformations of lower functions that are developed through cultural mediation, voluntary attention, conceptual thought and logical planning

- Higher mental functions develop through cultural mediation- the transmission of knowledge through social interactions with other people
- Interactions allow a child to learn the cultural tools of their society
- Eventually the child understands a cultural tool and can use it independently =internalisation

A foundation for all higher cognitive processes
- Helps guide behaviour
- Talking to themselves
Used when tasks are difficulty

The content that children learn varies greatly from culture to culture and these differences shape children's thinking accordingly
Children's spatial abilities are influenced by differences in how much freedom children are given from a young age
We don’t know of our own culture until you look at others and realise how it differs

· Intersubjectivity
· Zone of proximal development
· Social scaffolding
· Guided participation

- The mutual understanding that people share during communication- serves as a foundation of human cognitive development

social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external environment - • Infants between 9-15 months can increasingly follow the gaze of their social partners and adjust where they look if their partner’s gaze turns towards a new object
The younger the age at which infants begin to show joint attention, the faster their s

tendency to look to social partners for guidance about how to respond to unfamiliar or threatening events

Refers to the range of performance between what children can do unsupported and what they can do with optimal support

the child has to explore the world on their own - the child has to find out independently about the world and people

the child needs parents and other adults to teach them- social interactions have significant contribution to make the childs development