June 29, 2010

Paiget: knowledge is the product of direct motor behavior in infants Believed that infants have mental structures called schemes which are organized patterns of sensorimotor functioning 2 principle underlie childrens schemes Assimilation when ppl understand an experience in terms of their current stage of cognitive development and way of thinking Trying to make sense of what is in front of them

Accommodation change is existing ways of thinking that occur in response to encounters with new stimuli or events

Information processing approaches: seek to identify the way that individuals take in, use, and store info 3 basic aspects Encoding: process by which info is initially recorded in a dorm usable to memory Storage: maintenance of material saved in memory Retrieval: process by which material in memory storage is located, brought into awareness, and used

Memory: process by which info is initially recorded, stored and retrieved The ability to habituate implies some memory Infants memories improve with age Research suggests that memory during infancy is dependent upon the hippocampus and that at a later age involves additional structures of the brain Research supports the notion of infantile amnesia. The lack of memory for experiences that occurred prior to 3 years of age Although memories are stored from early infancy, they cant be easily retrieved

Early memories are susceptible to interference from later events Memories are sensitive to environmental context

Language: (movie) Infants lay the foundation for spoken language First vocalization: crying Increases interaction with caregivers

Another vocalizations: cooing Vowel sounds With time also using consonant sounds

After cooing: babbling Allows to continuously move into the direction of the language they are gonna be speaking

After babbling: they continue to talk with everyone and no one. Just keep talking

Language: systematic, meaningful arrangement of symbols and provides the basis for communication Language has several formal characteristics that must be mastered as linguistic competence is developed Phonology: basic sounds of language, called phonemes, that can be combined to produce words and sentences Morphemes: smallest language unit that has meaning Semantics: rules that govern the meaning of words and sentences Language is closely tied to the way infants think and how they understand the world Linguistic comprehension: understanding of speech Linguistic production: use of language to communicate Comprehension precedes production

Infants show prelinguistic communication thru sounds facial expression gestures imitation and other non linguistic means Babbling: when infants make speech like but meaningless sounds at abt 2-3 months continuing to abt 1 year Universal phenomenon Begins with easy sounds and proceeds to more complex sounds By age 6 months, babbling differs acc to the language to which the infant is exposed

First words : 10-14 months (holophrases) 15 months: average child has a vocabulary of 15 words 16-24 months: vocabulary increases to 100 words

Linguists are divided on the origins of language Learning theory approach: posits that language acquisition follows the basic laws of reinforcement and conditioning Thru the process of shaping, language becomes more and more similar to adult speech Does not explain how children learn grammar Does not explain how children produce novel phrases, sentences and constructions such as nonsense words using correct grammar

Alternate theory by Noam Chomsky Chomsky argues that there is a genetically determined innate mechanism that directs the development of language Argues that all the worlds language share a similar underlying structure called universal grammar The brain is wired with a language acquisition device (LAD), a neural system of the brain hypothesized to permit the understanding of language

Infant directed speech: type of speech directed towards infants, characterized by short, simple sentences

This type was previously called motherese Pitch of voice becomes higher Intonation may be singsong Typically only used during first year

Infants seem more receptive to this type of speech Use of this type of speech is related to the early appearance of words

Research shows that parents use diff language for boys than for girls They use diminutives more with girls warmer phrases and more emotional referents and tend to hear firmer clearer language

Socioemotional development: (movie) Attachment: keeping infant close to a protective adult, One who offers comfort and satisfied their emotional need

Secure Avoidant Disorganized Ambivalent

Temperament better if u have multiple reporters and multiple assessments to understand it Anxious avoidant Anxious agitated

Easy easily adaptable Difficult hard to please Slow to warm will adapt but will take a while to adapt

Self soothing behavior when mother is in the room but not interacting with the infant Both help facilitate the infants social and emotional development i.e. attachment and temperament Stranger anxiety: when in the initial part of their life the only ppl they saw were their parents.any stranger can cause anxiety Separation anxiety: separation from primary care taker