UNIT IV – THE CHILD’S COGNITIVE AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT

OVERVIEW

“The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of

doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have
done - men who are creative, inventive, and discoverers.” - Jean Piaget
Cognitive development means how children think, explore and figure things out. It is the
development of knowledge, skills, problem solving and dispositions, which help children to
think about and understand the world around them. Brain development is part of cognitive
development.
Language development is the process by which children come to understand and
communicate language during early childhood. It is the process through which a person
develops and learns a language throughout infancy and childhood, which typically refers to a
person’s first or primary language.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: After the completion of this unit, the students will be able to:
1. Describe the different approaches to the study of Cognitive and Language Development

2. Compare each theory and approaches on Language and Literacy Development

3. Cite examples on the application of Language and Literacy Development

4. Relate Piaget’s and Chomsky theories on Cognitive and Language Development

5. Explain Skinner’s Operant Conditioning Theory

6. Discuss the Different Approaches to the Language Development

COURSE MATERIAL
An Infant begins learning about the world throughout basic activities such as sucking,
grabbing, staring and listening and yet within two years, he or she will be able to anticipate
future events, deducing the causes of events, experimenting with objects and pretending.
The development of language is remarkable for young infants. Crying and smiling are the
major mode of expressions; yet by age two, the average toddler will be able to converse simply
but effectively with others.

Lesson 1: APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF COGNITIVE & LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

There are several approaches to the study of cognitive as well as language development.

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➢ BEHAVIORIST APPROACH studies the basic mechanics of learning. It is concerned with
how behavior changes in response to experience. Psychologists sometimes called it
Learning Theory which focuses on changes in particular behavior (called responses) and on
the specific, observable causes and consequences (reinforcement or punishment) of those
behaviors. Learning theorists identify two kinds of behavioral learning: classical conditioning
and operant conditioning.

• Classical Conditioning is learning based on associating a stimulus that does not ordinarily
elicit a response with another stimulus that does elicit the response. Salivating in response
to the smell of food is a good example of a naturally occurring stimulus. Classical
conditioned learning will fade or become extinct if it is not reinforced.

• Operant Conditioning is learning based on reinforcement or punishment in which the

learner acts or operates on, and influences the environment. For example: A child gets
reward or positive reinforcement if she performs actions correctly or unexpectedly. While if a
child was not able to perform an action or task correctly, he gets negative reinforcement or
punishment.

➢ PSYCHOMETRIC APPROACH has something to do with testing especially measurement of

intelligence. The goals are to measure quantitatively the factors are thought to make up
intelligence; and from the results of that measurement, to predict future performance.

➢ PIAGETIAN APPROACH looks at changes or stages in the quality of cognitive functioning.

It is concerned with how the mind structures its activities and adapts to the environment.

➢ INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH focuses on the processes involved in

perception, learning, memory and problem solving. It seeks to discover what people do with
information form the time they encounter it until they use it.

LESSON 2 - PIAGET’S COGNITIVE THEORY OF LEARNING

Jean Piaget Cognitive Theory attempts to explain human behavior by understanding the
thought process—the nature of intelligence and how children acquire knowledge. Piaget
believed that children take active role in the learning process—exploring, experimenting, making
observations, and exposing to learn about the world. Piaget proposed the four stages of mental
representation s that children pass through on their way to adult level of intelligence.

PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Cognitive Approximate Characteristics
Development Stage Age
Sensorimotor Birth to 2 years Children are beginning how to learn thru
language development. They do this
experiencing everything with their five (5)
senses; hence, “sensory” and by learning to
crawl and then walk, point and then grasp;
hence, “motion”

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 Pre-Operational 2 to 7 years Children start to use mental symbols to
understand and to interact with the world. They
begin to learn language and to engage in
pretend play.
Operational 7 to 11 years Children gain the ability to think logically to
solve problems and to organize information
they learn. They remain limited to considering
only concrete, not abstract because the
capability for abstract thought is not
welldeveloped yet.
Formal Operational 11 years onward Adolescents learn how to think more abstractly
to solve problems and to think symbolically.

The sensorimotor stage consists of six substages, which flow from one to another as a baby’s
schemes, organized patterns of behavior, become more elaborate. During the first five
substages, babies learn to coordinate input from their senses and organize their activities in
relation to their environment. They do this by the process of:

ORGANIZATION is the tendency to create increasingly complex cognitive structures;

systems of knowledge on ways to thinking that incorporate more and more accurate images of
reality.

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➢ SCHEMA. Piaget used this term to refer to the cognitive structures by which individuals
intellectually adapt to and organize their environment. It the individual’s way of understand
or create meaning about a thing or experiences. In Piaget’s theory, behavioral schemas
(physical activities) characterize infancy, and mental schemas (cognitive activities) develop
in childhood. A baby’s schemas are structured by simple actions that can be performed on
objects, such as sucking, looking, and grasping. Older children have schemas that include
strategies and plans for solving problems. For example, If a child sees a dog for the first time,
he creates his own schema of what a dog is - - four legs and a tail, furry, barks - - the child
then” puts this description of a dog on “file” in his mind. When he sees another similar dog,
he “pulls” out the file (his schema of a dog) in his mind, looks at the animal and says, “four
legs, tail, furry, and barks…That’s a dog!
ADAPTATION is how children handle new information in light of what they already know. It
involves two steps:

➢ ASSIMILATION is the process of taking in new information into already existing schemas.
Essentially, when you encounter something new, you process and make sense of it by
relating it to things that you already know. Through assimilation, we take in information or
experiences and incorporate them into our existing ideas. By assimilating information, you
are keeping your existing knowledge and schemas intact and simply finding a place to store
this new information.

➢ ACCOMMODATION. This involves changing or altering the existing schemas in light of new
information. Accommodation involves actually changing your existing knowledge of a topic.
A child adjusts their schemas to fit new information and experiences. For example, If the
child (same as in no. 1) now sees another animal that looks like a dog, but somehow a
different from a dog; he would say “Mommy what a funny looking dog. Its bark is so funny”
Then the mother explains, “That’s not a funny looking dog. That’s a goat!” With her mother
further explanation, the child will now create a new schema, which is a goat. 4.

➢ EQUILIBRATION. Piaget believed that all children try to strike a balance between
assimilation and accommodation. As they progress through the stages of cognitive
development, it is important to maintain a balance between applying previous knowledge
(assimilation) and changing behavior for new knowledge (accommodation). It explains how
children shift from one stage of thought to the next. Equilibration is achieving proper balance
between assimilation and accommodation. When our experiences do not match our schema,
we experience cognitive disequilibrium, which is the discrepancy between what is perceived
and what is understood. We then exert effort through assimilation and accommodation to
establish equilibrium once more.

Cognitive development involves a continuous effort to adapt to the environment in terms of

assimilation and accommodation. In this sense, Piaget’s theory is similar in nature to other
constructivist perspective of learning like Bruner and Vygotsky.

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HIGHLIGHTS IN PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Stage 1. SENSORIMOTOR STAGE. In working with children in the sensorimotor stage,
teachers should aim to provide a rich and stimulating environment with appropriate objects to
play with.

➢ Object Permanence is the ability of the child to know that an object still exists even when
out of sight. It is the realization that an object or a person continues to exist when out of
sight. This can be seen in the game of “peek-a-boo”.

➢ This object concept is the basis for children for children’s awareness that they themselves
exist apart from objects and other people.

➢ The Objects in space lets the children see things in their own point of view, and they want
others to do the same. This is the egocentric behavior of the children.

Stage 2. PRE-OPERATIONAL STAGE. The child can now make mental representations and is
able to pretend; he even closer to the use of symbols:
➢ Symbolic Function is the ability to represent objects and events. A symbol is a thing that
represent something else. A drawing, a written word, or a spoken word comes to be
understood as representing a real object.

➢ Egocentrism is the tendency of the child to only see his point of view and to assume that
everyone also has his same point of view.

➢ Centration is the tendency of the child to only focus on one aspect of a thing or event and
exclude other aspects.
➢ Irreversibility is the inability to reverse the child’s thinking. If they know 2+3 = 5, he cannot
understand that 5-3=2.

➢ Animism is the tendency of children to attribute human like traits or characteristics to

inanimate objects.

➢ Transductive reasoning refers to child’s type of reasoning that is neither inductive nor
deductive. Reasoning appears to be from particular to particular i.e. If A causes B, then B
causes A.

➢ Intuitive thought is thinking that reflects preschoolers’ use of primitive reasoning and their
avid acquisition of knowledge about the world. Children may act as if they are
knowledgeable on particular topics, feeling sure they are correct but they cannot explain or
give the reason for their answers.

➢ Functionality refers to the concepts that actions, events outcomes are related to one
another in fixed patterns. Preschoolers now ill understand that pushing harder on the pedals
makes a bicycle move faster.

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 ➢ Identity is an understanding that certain things stay the same regardless of changes in
shape, size, and appearance.

Stage 3. CONCRETE – OPERATIONAL STAGE. This is characterized by the ability to think

logically but only in terms of concrete objects. This is marked by the following:
➢ Decentering refers to the ability of the child to perceive the different features of objects and
situations. It allows the child to deal more on logical when dealing with concrete objects and
situations.

➢ Reversibility. The child can now follow that certain operations can be done in reverse. They
can now comprehend the commutative property of addition.

➢ Conservation is the ability to know that certain properties of objects like number, mass,
volume or area do not change even if there is a change in appearance. He can now judge
rightly that the amount of water in a taller but narrower container is still the same as when
the water was in the shorter but wider glass.

➢ Seriation refers to the ability to order or arrange things in a series base on one dimension
such as weight, volume, or size.

Stage 4. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE is the final stage of formal operations, where
thinking is becomes more logical. This is characterized by:
➢ Hypothetical Reasoning is the ability to come up with different hypothesis about a problem
and to gather and weigh data in order to make a final decision or judgement. An individual
can now deal with “What if” questions.

➢ Analogical Reasoning is the ability to perceive the relationship in one instance and then
use that relationship to narrow down possible answers in another similar situations or
problem.
➢ Deductive Reasoning refers to the ability to think logically by applying a general rule to a
particular instance of situation.

From Piaget’s findings and comprehensive theory, we can derive the following principles:
1. Children will provide different explanations of reality at different stages of cognitive
development.

2. Cognitive development is facilitated by providing activities or situations that engage

learners and require adaptation.

3. Learning materials and activities should involve the appropriate level of motor or mental
operations for a child of a given age; avoid asking students to perform tasks that are
beyond their current cognitive capabilities

4. Use teaching methods that actively involve students and present challenges.

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LESSON 3 – NOAM CHOMSKY’S LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THEORY

Chomsky’s theory is based on the idea that all children are born with the innate ability to
learn any human language and have LAD, otherwise known as a Language Acquisition
Device. The LAD’s job is to encode into a child’s brain the major principles of language and
grammatical structure of the language.
According to Chomsky, a theory of language should be known as a theory of competence.
He believes once a full theory of competence is developed then other cognitive abilities and
performance will be integrated.
Chomsky argued that children will never acquire the tools needed for processing an infinite
number of sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was dependent on language input
alone.

Consequently, he proposed the theory of Universal Grammar: an idea of innate, biological

grammatical categories, such as a noun category and a verb category that facilitate the entire
language development in children and overall language processing in adults.

Universal Grammar is considered to contain all the grammatical information needed to

combine these categories, e.g., noun and verb, into phrases. The child’s task is just to learn the
words of her language (Ambridge & Lieven).

For example, according to the Universal Grammar account, children instinctively know how to
combine a noun (e.g., a boy) and a verb (to eat) into a meaningful, correct phrase (A boy eats).

A. FACTORS OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE

1. All Children have an optimal learning age. Between the ages of 3 and 10 is when children
will learn to talk in its entirety, and they will grasp fluency.
2. Children do not need a trigger to learn a language. Language comes naturally. Parents do
not need to coax their child to speak. Simply speaking around the child will help the child to
produce a language on their own.
3. Even if a child is corrected, they will still speak in the same way they spoke before they were
corrected.

LESSON 4. LITERACY DEVELOPMENT LANGUAGE AND THE CLASSROOM

Language is a form of communication—whether spoken, written, or signed—that is based on

a system of symbols. Language consists of the words used by a community (vocabulary) and
the rules for varying and combining them (grammar and syntax).

All human languages have some common characteristics (Clark, 2017; Hoff, 2015). These
include infinite generativity and organizational rules. Infinite generativity is the ability to produce
an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules.

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 When we say “rules,” we mean that language is orderly and that rules describe the way
language works (Berko Gleason & Ratner, 2009). Language involves five systems of rules:

(1) phonology or sound system of a language, including the sounds used and how they may be
combined (Del Campo & others, 2015).

(2) morphology or the units of meaning involved in word formation

(3) syntax or the way words are combined to form acceptable phrases and sentences (Los,
2015)

(4) semantics or the meaning of words and sentences, and (5) pragmatics or the appropriate
use of language in different contexts (Clark, 2014).

A. Infancy

Babbling occurs in the middle of the first year and infants usually utter their first word at about
10 to 13 months. By 18 to 24 months, infants usually have begun to string two words together.
In this two-word stage, they quickly grasp the importance of language in communication,
creating phrases such as “Book there,” “My candy,” “Mama walk,” and “Give Papa.”

B. Early Childhood

As children leave the two-word stage, they move rather quickly into three-, four-, and five-
word combinations. The transition from simple sentences expressing a single proposition to
complex sentences begins between 2 and 3 years of age and continues into the elementary
school years (Bloom, 1998).

Rule Systems of Language

• In terms of phonology, most preschool children gradually become sensitive to the sounds of
spoken words. They notice rhymes, enjoy poems, make up silly names for things by
substituting one sound for another (such as bubblegum, bubblebum, bubbleyum), and clap
along with each syllable in a phrase.

• As children move beyond two-word utterances, there is clear evidence that they know
morphological rules. Children begin using the plural and possessive forms of nouns (dogs
and dog’s); putting appropriate endings on verbs (-s when the subject is third-person
singular, -ed for the past tense, and -ing for the present progressive tense); and using
prepositions (in and on), articles (a and the), and various forms of the verb to be (“I was
going to the store”).

• Preschool children also learn and apply rules of syntax (Clark, 2017). After advancing
beyond two-word utterances, the child shows a growing mastery of complex rules for how
words should be ordered. Consider wh- questions, such as “Where is Daddy going?” or
“What is that boy doing?” To ask these questions properly, the child must know two
important differences between wh- questions and affirmative statements (for instance,
“Daddy is going to work” and “That boy is waiting on the school bus”). First, a wh- word must
be added at the beginning of the sentence. Second, the auxiliary verb must be inverted—

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 that is, exchanged with the subject of the sentence. Young children learn quite early where
to put the wh- word, but they take much longer to learn the auxiliary-inversion rule. Thus,
preschool children might ask, “Where Daddy is going?” and “What that boy is doing?”

• 6 key principles in young children’s vocabulary development:

Children learn the words Children learn words for Children learn words better
they hear most often things and events that in responsive and
interest them interactive contexts than in
passive contexts

Children learn words best Children learn words best Children learn words best
in contexts that are when they access clear when grammar and
meaningful information about word vocabulary are considered
meaning

Early Literacy

- Parents and teachers need to provide young children with a supportive environment for the
development of literacy skills (Vukelich & others, 2016). Children should be active participants in
a wide range of interesting listening, talking, writing, and reading experiences (Tompkins, 2015).

- What are some strategies for using books effectively with preschool children? Ellen Galinsky
(2010) recently emphasized these strategies:

Use books to initiate

conversation with young Use what and why questions
children

Encourage children to ask Choose some books that

questions about stories play with language

A. Middle and Late Childhood

▪ Children gain new skills as they enter school that make it possible to learn to read and
write. These include increased use of language to talk about things that are not
physically present, learning what a word is, and learning how to recognize and talk about
sounds. They also learn the alphabetic principle, which means that the letters of the
alphabet represent sounds of the language.

▪ During middle and late childhood, changes occur in the way mental vocabulary is
organized.

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 ▪ The process of categorizing becomes easier as children increase their vocabulary.
Children’s vocabulary increases from an average of about 14,000 words at age 6 to an
average of about 40,000 words by age 11.

▪ Children make similar advances in grammar. During the elementary school years,
children’s improvement in logical reasoning and analytical skills helps them understand
such constructions as the appropriate use of comparatives (shorter, deeper) and
subjectives (“If you were president . . .”).

▪ They also learn to use language in a more connected way, producing connected
discourse. They become able to relate sentences to one another to produce descriptions,
definitions, and narratives that make sense. Children must be able to do these things
orally before they can be expected to deal with them in written assignments.

▪ Metalinguistic awareness allows children “to think about their language, understand what
words are, and even define them” (Berko Gleason, 2009, p. 4).

▪ Children also make progress in understanding how to use language in culturally

appropriate ways—pragmatics. By the time they enter adolescence, most children know
the rules for the use of language in everyday contexts—that is, what is appropriate and
inappropriate to say.

LESSON 5 – BURRHUS FREDERIC SKINNER’S OPERANT THEORY, also known as

instrumental conditioning, is a method of learning where the consequences of a response
determine the probability of it being repeated. Through operant conditioning behavior which is
reinforced (rewarded) will likely be repeated, and behavior which is punished will occur less
frequently. He believed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes of an
action and its consequences. He called this approach Operant Conditioning. Skinner
identified three types of responses, or operant that can follow behavior:

✓ Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase or decrease the
probability of a behavior being repeated.

✓ Reinforcers: responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behavior
being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative.

✓ Punishers: responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behavior
being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior.

EDUCATIONAL APPLICATIONS OF OPERANT THEORY

❖ In the conventional learning situation, operant conditioning applies largely to issues of class
and student management, rather than to learning content. It is very relevant to shaping skill
performance. A simple way to shape behavior is to provide feedback on learner
performance, e.g., compliments, approval, encouragement, and affirmation.

❖ For example, if a teacher wanted to encourage students to answer questions in class, they
should praise them for every attempt (regardless of whether their answer is correct).

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 Gradually, the teacher will only praise the students when their answer is correct, and over
time only exceptional answers will be praised.

❖ Unwanted behaviors such as tardiness and dominating class discussion can be

extinguished through being ignored by the teacher. This is not an easy task, as the teacher
may appear insincere if he/she thinks too much about the way to behave.

❖ Knowledge of success is also important as it motivates future learning. However, it is

important to vary the type of reinforcement given so that the behavior is maintained.

OTHER DIFFERENT APPROACHES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

✓ Learning Theory Approach – the perspective that language acquisition follows the basic
laws of reinforcement and conditioning. For example, a child utters the word “da” maybe
hugged and praised by the father who concludes that the child is referring to him. This
reaction reinforced the child who most likely to repeat the word.

✓ Nativist Approach argues that there is a genetically determined, innate mechanism that
directs the development of language. The innate capacity for language (mother tongue)
prepares the child to make sense of language and to discover its structure. (Piper, pp.76)
✓ Interactionist Approach suggest that language development is produced through
combination of genetically determined predisposition and environmental events. In essence,
it promotes that social influences play a definite role in the development of language.
Language development requires interaction with people. While trying to engage in
conversation, a learner is challenged to contextually apply the language.

Some developmentalists suggest that private speech performs an important function. It

is used to guide to behavior and thought. By private speech, children are able to try out ideas,
acting as their own sounding boards, and allowing children to solve problems and reflect on
difficulties they encounter.

Economic factors in the home have a significant influence on language development.

Children raised in affluence hear a greater quantity and variety of language from parents than
children of poverty.

READINGS/REFERENCES:
Cognitive and Language Development on Educational Psychology Sixth Edition Book by
John W. Santrock

Modules 7 & 12 on Facilitating Learning: A Metacognitive Process, by Brenda Corpuz and

Ma. Rita Lucas

What is Operant Conditioning and How does it Work? Saul McLeod, updated 2018.
Retrieved from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

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WATCH VIDEOS:

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhcgYgx7aAA)

Key Theories in Child Language Acquisition

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr_hK2Owq8o)

Difference of Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6LEcM0E0io)

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