Cognitive Development

Overview

 In this module, you will have a deeper understanding on the mental processes individuals
undergo as he progresses in his life. Different theories of learning explaining the various
processes or changes on the different stages in the life among children and adolescent will
be tackled.
 You will be required also to enumerate and analyze the impact of the different factors
that somehow influence the development of the cognitive domain and acquisition of their
language.
 You are going to study also the different concept/principles that may guide you in dealing
with your students and managing your classroom once you become a teacher to ensure
learning process will take place.
I. Objectives

After studying this module, the student should be able to:

1. characterize the nature of Piaget’s theory and identify the major cognitive accomplishments of
each stage;
2. come up with a simple Piagetian task interview with children;
3. explain Vygotsky theory and list down the important concepts;
4. discuss the different theories of intelligence;
5. identify the different factors that affect the cognitive development of human beings;
6. discuss the language acquisition and achievements of child and adolescent in every period in the
life span;
7. name the different factors affecting the language development of child and adolescent; and
8. analyze how each factor affects the language development of child and adolescent
II. Learning Activities

Discussion
A. Cognitive Development Theories
1. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget, a child psychologist, laid emphasis on how learners interact with their
environment and develop complex reasoning and knowledge. Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental
Theory states that children, quite simply, think differently than adults. While this may seem
obvious to some, this was a revolutionary theory that went on to provide the foundations for
several other theories to come. Essentially, this theory divided the child life into four separate
categories, or stages, each of which carries its own important qualities and vulnerabilities. The
key terms here used are assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration. Jean Piaget, the
theory’s author was a notable psychologist and scientist of his time. Further, he states four
stages of cognitive development depending on the perception and observation of a person.
 Schemas – Piaget (1954) said that as the child seeks to construct an understanding of the
world, the developing brain creates schema. These are actions or mental representations
that organize knowledge.
 Assimilation – Piagetian concept of the incorporation of new information into their
existing knowledge or schemas.
 Accommodation – Piagetian concept of adjusting schemas to fit new information and
experiences.

Consider an 8-year-old girl who is given a hammer and nail to hang a picture on the
wall. She has never used a hammer, but from observing others do this she realized that a
hammer is an object to be held, that is swung by the handle to hit the nail, and that is usually is
swung a number of times. Recognizing each of these things, she fits her behavior into this
schema she already has (assimilation). But the hammer is heavy, so she holds it near the top.
She swings too hard and the nail bends, so she adjust the pressure of her strikes. These
adjustments reflect her ability to slightly alter her conception of the world (accommodation).
Just as both assimilation and accommodation are required in this example, so are they required
in many of the child’s thinking challenges.
 Organization – Piagetian concept of grouping isolated behavior into a higher-order more
smoothly functioning cognitive system the grouping of items into categories.
 Equilibration – A mechanism that Piaget proposed to explain how children shift from one
stage of thought to the next. The shift occurs as children experience cognitive conflict or
disequilibrium in trying to understand the world. Eventually, they resolve the conflict and
reach a balance or equilibrium of thought. Piaget pointed out that there is considerable
movement between states of cognitive equilibrium and disequilibrium as assimilation and
accommodation work in concert to produce cognitive change.
For example, if a child believes that the amount of a liquid changes simply because
the liquid is poured into a container with a different shape – for instance, from a container that
is short and wide into a container that is tall and narrow – she might be puzzled by issues as
where the “extra” liquid came from and whether there is actually more liquid to drink. The
child will eventually resolve these puzzles as her thinking becomes more advanced. In the
everyday world, the child is constantly faced with such counterexamples and inconsistencies.
 Assimilation and accommodation always take the child to a higher ground. For Piaget, the
motivation for change is an internal search for equilibrium. As old schemas are adjusted and new
schemas are developed, the child organizes and reorganizes the old and new schemas. Eventually,
the organization is fundamentally different from the old organization; it is a new way of thinking.
Thus, the result of these processes, according to Piaget, is that individuals go through four
stages of development. A different way of understanding the world makes one stage more advanced
than another. Cognition is qualitatively different in one stage compared with another. In other words,
the way children reason at one stage is different from the way they reason at another stage.
a. Stage 1. Sensori-motor Stage. The first stage corresponds from birth to infancy. This is the stage
when a child who is initially reflexive in grasping, sucking, and reaching becomes more
organized in his movement and activity. The term sensori-motor focuses on the prominence of
the senses and muscle movement through which the infant comes to learn about himself and the
world. 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. This is the ability of the child to know that an object
still exists even when out of sight. This ability is attained in the sensory motor stage.
b. Pre-operational Stage-This stage covers from about two to seven years old, roughly
corresponding to the preschool years. Intelligence at this stage is intuitive in nature. At this
stage, the child can now make mental representations and is able to pretend, the child is
now ever closer to the use of symbols. . Partially logical thinking or thought begins during
these years. Preoperational thinking can and usually is illogical. This stage is highlighted
by the following
Symbolic Function. This is the ability to represent objects and events. A
symbol is a thing that represents something else. A drawing, a written
word, or a spoken word comes to be understood as representing a real object like a
real MRT train. Symbolic function gradually develops in the period between 2 to 7
years. Riel, a two year old may pretend that she is drinking from a glass which is
really empty. Though she already pretends the presence of water, the glass remains to be
a glass. At around four years of age, Nico, may, after pretending to drink from an empty
glass, turn the glass into a rocket ship or a telephone. By the age of 6 or 7 the child
can pretend play with objects that exist only in mind. Enzo, who is six can do a whole
ninja turtle routine without any costume nor “props”. Tria wo is 7 can pretend to host an
elaborate princess ball only in her mind.
 Egocentrism. This 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. The
child cannot take the perspective of others. You see this in five year-old who
buys a toy truck for his mother’s birthday. Or a three year old girl who cannot
understand why her cousins call her daddy, uncle and not daddy.
Centration. This refers to the tendency of the child to only focus on one
aspect of a thing or event and exclude other aspects. For example, when a child is presented
with two identical glasses with the same amount of water, the child will say they have the
same amount of water. However, once water from one of the glasses is transferred to an
obviously taller but narrower glass, the child might say that there is more water in
the taller glass. The child only focused or “centered” only one aspect of the new
glass, that is a taller glass. The child was not able to perceive that the new glass is also
narrower. The child only centered on the height fo the glass and excluded the width
in determining the amount of water in the glass.
Irreversibility. Pre-operational children has the inability to reverse their
thinking. They can understand that 2 +3 is 5, but cannot understand that 5- 3 is
2.
 Animism. This is the tendency of children to attribute human like traits
or characteristics to inanimate object. When at night, the child is asked,
where the sun is, she will reply, “Mr Sun is asleep”.
Transductive reasoning. This refers to the pre-operational 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. For example, since her
mommy comes home everyday around six o’clock in the evening, when asked why it is
already night, the child will say, “because my mon is already home”.
c. Stage 3. Concrete-Operational Stage. This stage is characterized by the ability of the child
to think logically but only in terms of concrete objects. This covers approximately the ages
between 8-11 years or the elementary school years. The concrete operational stage is
marked by the following:
Decentering. This refers to the ability of the child to perceive the
different features of objects and situations. No longer is the child focused or limited to
one aspect or dimension. This allows the child to be more logical when dealing with concrete
objects and situations.
 Reversibility. During the stage of concrete operations, the child can now
follow the certain operations can be done in reverse. For example, they can already
comprehend the commutative property of addition, and that subtraction is the reverse of
addition. They can also understand that a ball of clay shaped into a dinosaur can again be
rolled back into a ball of clay.

Conservation. This 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.
Because of the development of the child’s ability of decentering and also reversibility, the
concrete operational child 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. The children progress to attain conservation abilities gradually being a pre-
conserver, a transitional thinker and then a conserver.

Seriation. This refers to the ability to order or arrange things in a series

based on one dimension such as weight, volume or size.
d. Stage 4. Formal Operational Stage. In the final stage of formal operations covering ages
between 12 and 15 years, thinking becomes more logical. They can now solve abstract
problems and can hypothesize. This stage is characterized by the following.
Hypothetical Reasoning. This is the ability to come up with different
hypothesis about a problem and to gather and weight data in order to make a final
decision or judgment. This can be done in the absence of concrete objects. The individuals can
now deal with “What if” questions.
Analogical Reasoning. This is the ability to perceive the relationship in
one instance and then use that relationship to narrow down possible answers in
another similar situation or problem. The individual in the formal operations stage can make
an analogy. If United Kingdom is to Europe, then the Philippines is to ___. The individual
will reason that since UK is found in the continent of Europe then the Philippines is found
in what continent? Then Asia is his answer. Through reflective thought and even in the
absence of concrete objects, the individual can now understand relationships and do
analogical reasoning.
 Deductive Reasoning. This is the ability to think logically by applying a
general rule to a particular instance or situation. For example, all countries near
the north pole have cold temperature. Greenland is near the North pole. Therefore,
Greenland has cold temperature.
Inductive Reasoning
2. Vygotsky
In Vygotsky’s theory children’s cognitive development is shaped by the cultural
context and that social interaction plays a very important role.
The Zone of Proximal Development. Vygotsky’s belief in the importance of social
influences, especially instruction, on children’s cognitive development is reflected in his
concept of the zone of proximal development. Zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a term
for the range of tasks that are too difficult for the child to master alone but that can be learned
with guidance and assistance from adults or more-skilled children. Thus, the lower limit of the
ZPD is the level of skill reached by the child working independently. The upper limit is the
level of additional responsibility the child can accept with the assistance of an able instructor.
The ZPD capture the child’s cognitive skills that are in the process of maturing and can be
accomplished only with the assistance of a more skilled person.
Scaffolding means changing the level of support. Over the course of teaching
session, a more skilled person (a teacher or more advanced peer) adjust the amount of
guidance to fit the child’s current performance (Wikinson and Gaffney, 2016). When the
student is learning a new task, the skilled person may use direct instruction. As the student’s
competence increases, less guidance is given. Scaffolding is often used to help students attain
the upper limits of their zone of proximal development.
 Asking probing questions is an excellent way to scaffold students’ learning and help
them to develop more sophisticated thinking skills. A greater might ask a student such
questions as “What would an example of that be?” ‘Why do you think that is so?” “Now,
what’s the next thing to do?” and “How can you connect those?” Overtime, students should
begin internalizing these kinds of probes and improve monitoring of their own work (Horowitz
& other, 2005).
Language and Thought. In Vygotsky’s view, language plays a important role in a
child’s development. According to Vygotsky, children use speech not only for social
communication, but also to help them solve task. Vygotsky (1962) further argued that young
children use language to plan, guide and monitor their behavior. This use of language for self-
regulation is called private speech. For example, young children talk aloud to themselves
about such things as their toys and the tasks they are trying to complete. Thus, when working
on a puzzle, a child might say, “This piece doesn’t fit; maybe I’ll try that one.” A few minutes
later she utters, “This is hard.”
B. Intelligence and Individual Difference
1. Concept of Intelligence (Binet)
The term “intelligence” has been generally operationalized as a
construct reflecting individual differences in cognitive abilities underlying various skills
and behaviors such as educational and occupational success. However, the definition of
“intelligence” and the abilities, aptitudes, and behaviors this construct includes has
been a source of debate over the course of human history.
Many definitions of intelligence have emerged over the years. For
example, Binet (Binet & Simon, 1905) defined intelligence in terms of judgment,
practical sense, initiative, and adaptability; whereas Wechsler (1958) later defined it as
“the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think
rationally, and to deal effectively with his/her environment” (p. 7). Moreover,
intelligence was viewed by Wechsler as a composite of different abilities...
2. General Intelligence (Spearman)
General intelligence, also known as g factor, refers to the existence of
a broad mental capacity that influences performance on cognitive ability
measures. Charles Spearman first described the existence of general intelligence in 1904.
According to Spearman, this g factor was responsible for overall performance on
mental ability tests.
Spearman noted that while people certainly could and often did excel
in certain areas, people who did well in one area tended also to do well in other areas.
For example, a person who does well on a verbal test would probably also do well on
other tests.
Those who hold this view believe that intelligence can be measured and
expressed by a single number, such as an IQ score. The idea is that this
underlying general intelligence influences performance on all cognitive tasks.
General intelligence can be compared to athleticism. A person might be
a very skilled runner, but this does not necessarily mean that they will also be an
excellent figure skater. However, because this person is athletic and fit, they will probably
perform much better on other physical tasks than an individual who is less coordinated
and more sedentary.
 Spearman and General Intelligence
Charles Spearman was one of the researchers who helped develop a
statistical technique known as factor analysis. Factor analysis allows researchers to use a
number of different test items to measure common abilities. For example, researchers
might find that people who score well on questions that measure vocabulary also perform
better on questions related to reading comprehension.
Spearman believed that general intelligence represented an intelligence
factor underlying specific mental abilities. All tasks on intelligence tests, whether they
related to verbal or mathematical abilities, were influenced by this underlying g-factor.
 Many modern intelligence tests, including the Stanford-Binet, measure
some of the cognitive factors that are thought to make up general intelligence.
• Visual-spatial processing: Abilities such as putting together puzzles
and copying complex shapes
• Quantitative reasoning: The capacity to solve problems that involve
numbers
• Knowledge: A person's understanding of a wide range of topics
• Fluid reasoning: The ability to think flexibly and solve problems
• Working memory: The use of short-term memory (such as being able
to repeat a list of items)
 Challenges to the Concept of General Intelligence
The notion that intelligence could be measured and summarized by a
single number on an IQ test was controversial during Spearman's time and has remained
so over the decades since. Some psychologists, including L.L. Thurstone, challenged the
concept of a g-factor. Thurstone instead identified a number of what he referred to as
"primary mental abilities."
More recently, psychologists such as Howard Gardner have argued
against the notion that a single general intelligence can accurately capture all of human
mental ability. Gardner instead proposed that multiple intelligences exist. Each
intelligence represents abilities in a certain domain, such as visual-spatial intelligence,
verbal-linguistic intelligence, and logical-mathematical intelligence.
Research today points to an underlying mental ability that contributes
to performance on many cognitive tasks. IQ scores, which are designed to
measure this general intelligence, are also thought to influence an individual's overall
success in life. However, while IQ can play a role in academic and life success, other factors
such as childhood experiences, educational experiences, socioeconomic status,
motivation, maturity, and personality also play a critical role in determining overall
success.
3. Primary Mental Abilities (Thurstone)
Definition of Intelligence
“Intelligence, considered as a mental trait, is the capacity to make impulses focal
at their early, unfinished stage of formation. Intelligence is therefore the capacity for
abstraction, which is an inhibitory process (Thurstone, 1924/1973 p. 159).”
Major Contributions
• Theory of Primary Mental Abilities
• Developed the statistical technique of multiple-factor analysis
Ideas and Interests
Louis Leon Thurstone made significant contributions in many areas of
psychology, including psychometrics, statistics, and the study of human
intelligence. He developed methods for scaling psychological measures, assessing
attitudes, and test theory, among many other influential contributions. He is best known for
the development of new factor analytic techniques to determine the number and nature of
latent constructs within a set of observed variables.
 The new statistical techniques developed by Thurstone provided the necessary tools
for his most enduring contribution to psychology: The Theory of Primary Mental Abilities, a model of
human intelligence that challenged Charles Spearman’s then-dominant paradigm of a unitary
conception of intelligence. Spearman, using an earlier approach to factor analysis, found that scores on
all mental tests (regardless of the domain or how it was tested) tend to load on one major factor.
Spearman suggested that these disparate scores are fueled by a common metaphorical “pool” of
mental energy. He named this pool the general factor, or g (Spearman, 1904).
Thurstone argued that g was a statistical artifact resulting from the mathematical
procedures used to study it. Using his new approach to factor analysis, Thurstone found that intelligent
behavior does not arise from a general factor, but rather emerges from seven independent factors that
he called primary abilities: word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial visualization, number facility,
associative memory, reasoning, and perceptual speed (Thurstone, 1938). Furthermore, when Thurstone
analyzed mental test data from samples comprised of people with similar overall IQ scores, he found
that they had different profiles of primary mental abilities, further supporting his model and
suggesting that his work had more clinical utility than Spearman’s unitary theory. However, when
Thurstone administered his tests to an intellectually heterogeneous group of children, he failed to find
that the seven primary abilities were entirely separate; rather he found evidence of g. Thurstone
managed an elegant mathematical solution that resolved these apparently contradictory results, and the final
version of his theory was a compromise that accounted for the presence of both a general factor and the
seven specific abilities. This compromise helped lay the groundwork for future researchers who
proposed hierarchical theories and theories of multiple intelligences (Ruzgis, 1994).
Please open this link for additional reading materials:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Leon_Thurstone#:~:text=The%20seven%20primary%20mental
%20abilities,%2C%20perceptual%20speed%2C%20and%20reasoning.
4. Multiple Intelligence (Gardner)
a. Linguistic/Verbal Intelligence (Word Smart) – learning visually and
organizing ideas spatially. Seeing concepts in action in order to understand them. The
ability to “see” things in one’s mind in planning to create a product or solve a problem or
the ability to use and understand words and nuances of meaning.
b. Logical-mathematical (Number Smart/Logic Smart) – learning through
reasoning and problem writing. Also highly valued in the traditional classroom,
where students were asked to adapt to logically sequenced delivery of
instruction. Simply, the ability to manipulate numbers and solve logical problems.
c. Spatial/Visual Intelligence (Picture Smart) – learning visually and
organizing ideas spatially. Seeing concepts in action in order to understand them.
The ability to see things in one’s mind in planning to create a product or solve a
problem. Also the ability to find one’s way around in an environment and judge
relationships between objects in space.
d. Musical Intelligence (Music Smart) – learning through patterns, rhtyhms
and music. This includes not only auditory learning, but the identification of
patterns through all the senses. Ability to perceive and create patterns of pitch and
rhythm.
e. Bodily-kinesthetic (Body Smart) – learning through interaction with
ones’s environment. This intelligence is not the domain of “overly active” learners. It
promotes understanding through concrete experience. It is also the ability to move
with precision.
f. Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart) – learning through
interaction with others. Not the domain of children who are simply “talkative” or
“overly social”. This intelligence promotes collaboration and working
cooperatively with others. It involves the ability to understand and communicate with
others.
g. Intrapersonal Intelligence ((Self Smart) – learning through feelings,
values and attitudes. This is a decidedly affective component of learning through
which students place value on what they learn and take ownership for their learning or
the ability to understand the self.
h. Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart) – learning through
classification, categories and hierarchies. The naturalist intelligence picks up on
subtle differences in meaning. It is not simply the study of nature it can be used in
all areas of study but the ability to distinguish specimens and their characteristics.
5. Triarchic Theory of Intelligence(Sternberg)
a. The componential element or the analytical intelligence; it
determines how efficiently people process information. It tells people how to
solve problems, how to monitor solutions, and how to evaluate the results.
It includes what we normally measure on IQ and achievement tests.
Planning, organizing and remembering facts and applying them to new situations are
all part of analytic intelligence
b. The experiential element is insightful or creative intelligence; it
determines how people approach novel or familiar tasks. It allows people to
compare new information with what they already know and to come up with new
ways of putting facts together – in other words to think originality.
A person with well-developed creative intelligence can see new
connections between things, can relate to experience in insightful ways. A graduate
student who can come up with good ideas for experiments, who can see how a theory
could be applied to a new totally different situation, or who can synthesize a great many
facts into a new organization is high in creative intelligence.
c. The contextual element or practical intelligence; it determines how
people deal with their environment. It is the ability to size up situation and
decide what to do, adapt to it, change it, or get out of it.
Sometimes also called “street smarts”. People who are skilled in this are
good at seeing how some bit of information may be applied to the real world or finding
some practical solution to a real-life problem such as finding shortcuts for repetitive
tasks or figuring out which of several different-sized boxes of cereal or laudry soap in the
grocery store is the best buy. Practical intelligence may also involve being skilled at reading
social cues or social situations, such as knowing not to give your boss bad news
when she is clearly in a bad mood over something else, or knowing how to persuade your
superiors to invest a large amount of money on your favorite sales plan.
6. Cognitive Information Processing Theory (Atkinson and Shiffrin)
Information processing is a cognitive theoretical framework that
focuses on how knowledge enters and is stored and retrieved from our memory. It
was one of the most significant cognitive theories in the last century and it has strong
implications on the teaching-learning process.
Relating how the mind and the computer work is a powerful analogy.
The terms used in the information processing theory (IPT) extends his
analogy. In fact, those who program and design computers aim to make
computers solve problems through processes similar to that of the human mind. Read on
to know more about IPT.
IPT describes how the learner receives information (stimuli) from the
environment through the senses and what takes place in between
determines whether the information will continue to pass through the sensory
register, then the short term memory and the long term memory. Certain factors would
also determine whether the information will be retrieved or “remembered” when the learner
needs it.
 Stages in the Information Processing Theory
The stages of IPT involves the functioning of the senses, sensory
register, short term memory and the long term memory. Basically, IPT asserts three
primary stages in the progression of external information becoming incorporated in to the
internal cognitive structure of choice (schema, concept, script, frame, mental model, etc.).
These three primary stages in IPT are:
Encoding – Information is sensed, perceived, and attended to.
Storage – the information is stored for either a brief or extended period
of time, depending upon the processes following encoding.
Retrieval – The information is brought back at the appropriate time, and
reactivated for use on a current task, the true measure of effective memory.
What made IPT plausible was the notion that cognitive processes could be
described in a stage-like model. The stages to processing follow a trail along
which information is taken into the memory system, and brought back (recalled)
when needed. Most theories of information processing revolve around three mains
stages in the memory process.
 Sensory Register
The first step in the IP model, holds all sensory information for a very
brief time.
Capacity: Our mind receives a great amount of information but it is more
than what our minds can hold or perceive.
Duration: The sensory register only holds the information for an
extremely brief – in the order of 1 to 3 seconds.
There is a difference in duration based on modality: auditory memory
is more persistent than visual.
The Role of Attention
― The bring information into consciousness, it is necessary that we give attention to it. Such
that, we can only perceive and remember later those things that pass through our attention
“gate”.
― Getting through this attentional filter is done when the learner is interested in the material;
when there is conscious control over attention, or when information involves novelty,
surprise, salience and distinctiveness.
― Before information is perceived, it is known as ‘precategorical” information. This means
that until that point, the learner has not established a determination of the categorical
membership of the information. To this point, the information is coming in as uninterpreted
patterns of stimuli. Once it is perceived, we can categorize, judge, interpret, and place
meaning to the stimuli. If we fail to perceive, we have no means by which to recognize that
the stimulus was ever encountered.
Short Term Memory (STM or Working Memory)
― Capacity : The STM can only hold 5 to 9 “chunks” of information sometimes described as
7 + / - 2. It is called working memory because it is where new information is temporarily
placed while it is mentally processed. STM maintain information for a limited time until
the learner has adequate resources to process the information or until the information is
forgotten.
― Duration: Around 18 seconds or less.
― To reduce the loss of information in 18 seconds, you need to do maintenance rehearsal. It
is using repetition to keep the information active in STM, like when you repeat a phone
number just given over and over.
Long Term Memory (LTM)
The LTM is the final or permanent storing house for memory information. It holds
the stored information until needed again.
― Capacity: LTM has unlimited capacity.
― Duration : Duration in the LTM is indefinite.
Executive Control Processes
The executive control processes involve the executive processor or what is referred
to as metacognitive skills. These processes guide the flow or information through the system,
helps the learner

C. Factors Affecting Cognitive Development

Please open the link below as your online reference for this topic.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4800975/
D. Language Development
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.
When we say “rules,” we mean that language is orderly and that rules
describe the way language works (Berko Gleason & Ratner, 2009). Languages involves five systems of
rules: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.
Phonology. Every language is made up of basic sounds. Phonology is the
sound system of a language, including the sounds used and how they may be combined (Del Campo
& other, 2015). For example, English has the sounds, sp, ba, and ar, but the sound sequences zx and
qp do not occur.
A phoneme is the basic unit of sound in a language; it the smallest unit of
sound that affects meaning. A good example of a phonme in English is /k/, the sound represented by the
letter k in the work ski and the etter c in the word cat. The /k/ sound is slightly different in these two
words, and in some languages such as Arabic these two sounds are separate phonemes.
 Morphology refers to the units of meaning involved in word formation. A morpheme is
a minimal unit of meaning; it s a word or a part of a word that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful
parts. Every word in the English language is made up of one or more morphemes. Some words consist of a
single morpheme (for example, help). Whereas others are made up of more than one morpheme (for example,
helper, which has two morphemes, help + er, with the morpheme –er meaning “one who”, in this case
“one who helps”). Thus, not all morphemes are words by themselves – for example, pre-,-tion, and –ing are
morphemes.
Just as the rules that govern phonology describe the sound sequences that can occur in a
language, the rules of morphology describe the way meaningful units (morphemes) can be combined in words
(Clark, 2017). Morphemes have many jobs in grammar, such as marking tense (for example, she walks
versus she walked) and number (she walks versus they walk).
Syntax involves the ways words are combined to form acceptable phrases and sentences
(Los, 2015). If someone says to you, “Bob slugged Tom” or “Bob was slugged by Tom,” you know who did the
slugging and who was slugged in each case because you have a syntactic understanding of these
sentences structures. You also understand that the sentence “You didn’t stay, did you?” is a grammatical
sentence but that “You didn’t stay, didn’t you?” is unacceptable and ambiguous.
Semantics refers to the meaning of words and sentences. Every word has a set of
semantic features, or required attributes related to meaning. Girl and woman, for example, share many
semantic features on how they can be used in sentences (Clark, 2017; Duff, Tomblin & Cats, 2015). The
sentence, The bicycle talked the boy into buying a candy bar, is syntactically correct but semantically
incorrect. The sentence violates our semantic knowledge that bicycles don’t talk.
 Pragmatics a final set of language rules involve pragmatics, the
appropriate use of language in different context (Clark, 2014). Pragmatics covers a lot of
territory. When you take turns speaking in a discussion, you are demonstrating
knowledge of pragmatics. You also apply the pragmatics of English when you use polite
language in appropriate situations (for example, when talking to a teacher) or tell stories
that are interesting.
Pragmatic rules can be complex, and they differ from one culture to
another. If you were to study the Japanese language, you come face-to- face with
countless pragmatic rules about conversing with individuals of various social levels and
with various relationships to you.
E. Factors Affecting Cognitive and Language Development
Biological and Environmental Influences
Famous linguist Noam Chomsky (1957) argued that humans are prewired to
learn language at a certain time and in a certain way. Some language scholars view the remarkable
similarities in how children acquire language all over the world, despite the vast variation in
language in-out they receive, as strong evidence that language has a biological basis (Hickok
& Small, 2016).
Despite the influence of biology, children clearly do not learn language in a
social vacuum (Pace, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2016). Children are neither exclusively biological
linguists nor exclusively social architects of language. No matter how long you converse with a dog,
it won’t learn to talk, because it doesn’t have the human child’s biological capacity for
language. Unfortunately, though, some children fail to develop good language skills
even in the presence of very good role models and interaction. An interactionist view emphasizes
the contributions of both biology and experience in language development. That is, children are
biologically prepared to learn language as they and their caregivers interact (Harley,
2017). In or out of school, encouragement of language development is not simply a matter of
being rewarded for saying things correctly and imitating a speaker. Children benefit when their
parents and teachers actively engage them in conversation, ask them questions and emphasize
interactive rather than directive language (Hirsh-Pasek & others, 2015; Pace & others, 2016).
 How Language Develops?
Infancy Language acquisition advances past number of milestones in
infancy (Cartmill & Goldin-Meadow, 2016). Because the main focus of this text
is on children and adolescents rather than infants, we will only describe several
of the many language milestones in 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-world stage, they
quickly grasp the importance of language in communication, creating phrases such as “Book
ther”,” “My cangy,” “Mama walk,” and “Give Papa.”
Early Childhood As children leave the two-words stage, they move rather
quickly into three-four-, 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
Let’s explore the changes in the five rules systems described earlier-
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics-during early childhood.
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 froms of the verb to be (“I was going to the
store”). In fact, they overgeneralize these rules, applying tehm to words that do not follow the rules.
For example, a preschool child might say “foots” instead of “feet” or “goed” instead of “went”.
Children understanding of morphological rules was the subject of a classic
experiment by children’s language researcher Jean Berko (1958). Berko presented preschool
and first-grade children while the cards. Children were asked to look at the card while the
experimenter read the words on it aloud. Then the children were asked to supply the missing
word. This might sound easy, but Berko was interested not just in the children’s ability to recall
the right word but also in their ability to say it “correctly” with the ending that was dictated by
morphological rules. Wugs is the correct response for the car. Although the children’s
responses were not perfectly accurate, they were much better than chance would dictate. Moreover,
they demonstrated their knowledge of morphological rules not only with the plural forms of
nouns ( “There are two wug”) but also with the possessive forms of nouns an with the third-person
singular and past-tense forms of verbs. Berko’s study demonstrated not only that the children relied
on rules, but also that they had abstracted the rules from what they had heard and could apply them
to novel situations.
 Preschool children also learn and apply rules of syntax(Clark, 2017). After
advancing beyond two-word utterances, the child shows a growing mstery 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 bu”). First, a wh-word must be
inverted-that is, exchanged with the subject of the sentence. Yound children learn
quiete 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?”
The speaking vocabulary of a 6-year-old child ranges from 8,000 to 14,000
words. Assuming that word learning began when the child was 12 months old, this
translates into a rate of five to eight new word meanings a day between the ages of 1 and 6.
What are some important aspects of how word learning optimally occurs?
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff (Harris, Golinkoff, & Hirsh-Pasek, 2011;
Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2016) emphasize six key principles in young children’s
vocabulary development.
1. Children learn the words they hear most often. They learn the words they
encounter when interacting with parents, teachers, sibling, peers, and also form books,
They especially benefit from encountering words that they do not know.
2. Children learn words for things and events that interest them. Parents and
teachers can direct young children to experience words in contexts that interest the
children, playful peer interactions are especially helpful in this regard.
3. Children learn words better in responsive and interactive context that in passive
contexts. Children who experience turn-taking opportunities, joint focusing experiences, and
positive, sensitive socializing contexts with adults encounter the scaffolding necessary
for optimal word learning. They learn worlds less effectively when they are passive learners.
4. Children learn words best in contexts that are meaningful. Young children learn
new words more effectively when new words are encouraged in integrated contexts rather
than as isolated facts.
5. Children learn words best when they access clear information about word
meaning. Children whose parents and teachers are sensitive to words the children might
not understand and provide support and elaboration with hints about word meaning learn
words betten than children whose parents and teachers quickly state a new word and don’t
monitior whether the child understands its meaning.
6. Children learn words best when grammar and vocabulary are considered.
Children who experience a large number of words and diversity in verbal stimulation
develop a richer vocabulary and better understanding of grammar. In many cases, vocabulary
and grammar development are connected.
 Early Literacy.
Parents and teachers need 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).
Elln Galinsky (2010) emphasized strategies for using books effectively
with preschool children.
a. Use books to initiate conversation with young children. Ask them to put
themselves in the book character’s places and imagine what they might be thinking
or feeling.
b. Use what and why questions. Asl young children to describe what they
think is going to happen next in a story and then to see if it occurs.
c. Encourage children to ask questions about stories.
d. Choose some books that play with language. Creative books on the alphabet,
including those with rhymes, often interest young children.
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.
Vocabulary development continues at a breathtaking pace for most children
during the elementary school years. After five years of word learning, the 6-year-old child
does not slow down.
During middle and late childhood, changes occur in the way mental
vocabulary is organized. When asked to say the first word that come to mind when they hear a
word, preschool children typically provide a word that often follows the word in a
sentence. For example, when asked to respond to dog the young child may say “barks”, or to
the word eat respond with “lunch”. At about 7 years of age, children begin to respond with a word
hat is the same part of speech as the stimulus word. For example, a child may now respond to
the word dog with “cat” or “horse”. To eat, they now might say “drink”. This is evidence
that children now have begun to categorize their vocabulary by parts of speech.
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, 0000 word by age 11.
 Children make similar advance 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…..” ). During the elementary school years, children become increasingly able to
understand and use complex grammar, such as the following sentence. The boy who kissed his
mother wore a hat. 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, defiinitions,
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.
These advances in vocabulary and grammar during the elementary school years
are accompanied by the development of metalinguistic awareness, which is knowledgeable
about language, such as knowing what a preposition is or being able to discuss the sounds of a
language. Metalinguistic awareness allows children “to think about their language, understand
what words are, and even define them” (Berko Gleason, 2009, p.4). It improves considerably during the
elementary school years. In elementary school, defining words also becomes a regular part of classroom
discourse and children increase their syntax as they study and talk about the components of
sentences, such as subjects and verbs.
Children also make progression 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 context – that is, what is appropriate and inappropriate to
say.
Adolescence
Language development during adolescen includes increasingly
sophisticated use of word (Berko Gleason, 2009). As they develop abstract thinking,
adolescents become much better than children at analyzing the function a word performs in a
sentence.
Adolescents also develop more subtle abilities with words. They make
strides in understanding the metaphor, which is implied comparison between unlike
things. For example, individuals “draw a line in the sand” to indicate a nonnegotiable
position; a political campaign is said to be a marathon, not a sprint. And adolescents
become better able to understand and to use satire, which is the use of irony, derision,
or wit to expose folly or wickedness. Caricutures are example of satire. More advanced
logical thinking also allows adolescents, from about 15 to 20 years of age, to
understand complex literary works.
Most adolescents are also much better writers than children are. They
are better at organizing ideas before they write, at distinguishing between
general and specific points as they write, at stringing together sentences that make
sense, and at organizing their writing into an introduction, body, and concluding remarks.
F. Current Research and Pedagogical Applications
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