Cognitive development of infants and toddlers

1. Cognitive Development of Infants and Toddlers
*** It talks about how Infants psychological processes involved in thinking and knowing develop into
young children.
The term cognitive development refers to the process of growth and change in intellectual/mental
abilitiessuchasthinking,reasoningandunderstanding. It includes the acquisition and consolidation of
knowledge.
Cognitive developmentininfancyreferstodevelopmentinthe waya baby thinks. This includes his/her
language, communication and exploration skills.
Examples of cognitive activities:
 paying attention
 remembering learning to talk
 interacting with toys
 identifying faces
***There are four stages of cognitive development according to Jean Piaget
1. SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
2. PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
3. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
4. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE
***These were discussed in Part 1, Unit 2, Module 6
***This module 13 will focus on the SENSORIMOTOR STAGE, 1st stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive
development thatcoversthe infantand the toddlerscognitive development. This stage begins at birth
and continues until about age 2.
**During the sensorimotor period, they respond to immediate stimuli—what they see, hear, taste,
touch, and smell—and learning takes place through the senses and motor activities.
SENSORIMOTOR STAGE (the senses really develop)
- birth to 2 years
- Initially “think” with their eyes, ears, and hands
- By the end,childrencansolve problemsandrepresenttheirexperiencesinspeechandgesture
*** After extensive observations of infants and toddlers, especially his
own three children, Piaget described the sensorimotor stage as a series of six substages:

2. 1. SIMPLE REFLEXES (birth to 1 month)
**In the firstmonthof life,infants’behaviorsreflectinnate reflexes—automaticresponses to particular
stimuli.
For instance,if youputa nipple orpacifierinor neara newborn’smouth,she will automatically suck on
it. If you put something against the palm of a newborn’s hand, his
fingerswill automaticallyclose aroundit.Manyof these inbornreflexesare designed to keep the infant
alive.The infantsoonbeginstomodifysome reflexes to better accommodate to the environment—for
instance, by learning to distinguish between a nipple and the surrounding areas of a breast or bottle.
And other reflexes, such as the tendency to grab onto something placed in the hand, fade away over
time.
**Coordination of sensation and action through reflexive behaviors.
Three primary reflexes are described by Piaget.
These are:
a) Suckingof objectsinthe mouth (Babies suck, grasp, and look in much the same way no
matter what experiences they encounter), (Ex. 2 week old laying in bed next to her
father, begins sucking on his arm)
b) Moving or interesting objects with the eyes
c) Closing of the hand when an object makes contact with the palm
2. FIRST HABITS AND PRIMARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS (1-4 MONTHS)
**It involvescoordinatingsensationandnew schemas.Inthe firstfew monthsof life,infants‘ behaviors
are focusedalmostexclusivelyontheirownbodies(inPiaget‘sterminology, the behaviors are primary)
and are repeatedoverandoveragain(i.e., they are circular). Infants also begin to refine their reflexes
and combine them into more complex actions.
For example:A childmaysuckhisor her thumbbyaccidentand thenlaterintentionallyrepeatthe
action.These actionsare repeatedbecause the infantfindsthempleasurable.
(Repeat chance behaviors largely motivated by basic needs), (Ex. 1 month old will open its mouth
differently for a nipple than for a spoon)
3. SECONDARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS (4-8 MONTHS)
**In this stage the infants become more object-oriented, moving beyond self- preoccupation repeat
actions that bring interesting or pleasurable results. This stage is associated primarily with the
development of coordination between vision and prehension. Three new abilities occur at this stage:
intentional grasping for a desired object, secondary circular reactions , and differentiations between
ends and means.
At this stage, infants will intentionally grasp the air in the direction of a desired object, often to the
amusementof friendsandfamily. Secondary circular reactions, or the repetition of an action involving
an external objectbegin:forexample, moving a switch to turn on a light repeatedly. This means that a
secondary action is focused on an object outside the body of an infant. The differentiation between

3. means and ends also occurs. This is perhaps one of the most important stages of a child’s growth as it
signifies the drawn of logic.
(Try to repeatinterestingeventsinthe surroundingenvironment that are caused by their own actions)
Ex. 4 month old accidentally knocks a toy hanging in front of her producing a fascinating swinging
motion and attempts to repeat this effect.
4. COORDINATION OF REACTIONS STAGE SECONDARY CIRCULAR (8-12 months)
**Coordination of vision and touch-hand-eye coordination; of schemes intentionally. This stage is
associated primarily with the development of logic and the coordination between means and ends.
**This is an extremely important stage of development , holding what Piaget calls the “first proper
intelligence”.
** Also,thisstage marksthe beginningof goal orientation ,the deliberate planning of steps to meet an
objective. The action is directed towards a goal.
**Combine schemes into new, more complex action sequences
**Intentional orgoal directedbehavior –coordinating schemes deliberately to solve simple problems.
GOAL DIRECTED BEHAVIOR... Theybehave inwaysthatthey know will bringabout desired results. They
also begin to combine behaviors in new ways to accomplish their goals.
For example: whenaninfantseesthe stringof a pull-toy near her, rather than crawling over to the toy
she might instead reach out and grab the string and then purposely pull the string in order to acquire
the toy.
** Yet another acquisition at this substage is object permanence
Object permanence – understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight
For example, when a caregiver hides an attractive toy beneath a pillow, the infant knows that the toy
still exists, also knows where it exists, and will attempt to retrieve it.
Ex. Mother shows 11 month old, a toy, then hides it under a blanket
*****Infant coordinates two schemes, “pushing” the blanket aside and “grasping” the toy
**Still make the A-not-B search error
**If theyreach several timesforanobjectin1st
hidingplace (A), then see it moved to a 2nd
hiding place
(B), they still search for it in the first hiding place (A)
5. TERTIARY CIRCULAR REACTIONS ,NOVELTY, AND CURIOSITY (12-18 months)
** Infants become intrigued by the many properties of objects and by the many things they can make
happen to objects; they experiment with new behavior.
** This stage is associated primarily with the discovery of new means to meet goals.

4. ** Piagetdescribesthe childatthisjuncture asthe “ youngscientist.,“conductingpseudo- experiments
to discover new methods of meeting challenges.
**By the end of the sensorimotor period, objects are both separate from the self and permanent
Object permanence - is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be
seen.
** Toddlers repeat behaviors with variation or experiment
Ex. 16 month old figures out how to fit a shape through a hole in a container by turning and twisting it
until it falls through.
Ex. 18 month old figures out how to use a stick to get toys that are out of reach
6. INTERNALIZATION OF SCHEMES ( INVENTION OF NEW MEANS THROUGH MENTAL COMBINATION)
(18-24 months)
** Infants develop the ability to use primitive symbols and form enduring mental representations.
**This stage is associated primarily with the beginnings of insight , or true creativity.
** This marks the passage into the preoperational stage.
** Evidence of aninternal representational system.Symbolizing the problem- solving sequence before
actually responding.
**Arrive at solutions suddenly rather than through trial-and-error, like they are experimenting with
actions inside their heads.
Ex. 19 month old bumps his new push toy against a wall, pauses for a moment as if “thinking,” then
immediately turns the toy in a new direction
The capacity for mental representation is seen in the emergence of deferred imitation, the ability to
recall and copy another person’s behaviors hours or days after their behaviors have been observed.
Although infants show some ability to imitate others’ actions quite early in life, up until now, Piaget
suggested, they have imitated only the behaviors they see someone else demonstrating on the spot.
Theirnewlyacquiredabilitytorecall andimitate otherpeople’s past actions enables them to engage in
make-believe andpretendplay—forinstance, by “talking” on a toy telephone or “driving” with the toy
steering wheel attached to their car seats. As children move into more advanced stages of cognitive
development,theydon’tentirelydiscardsensorimotorways of interacting with the environment. Even
as adults we continue to use the behavioral and perceptual schemes we acquired as infants (reaching
and grasping, following a moving object with our eyes, etc.), and sometimes trial-and-error
experimentation is the only way to interact with a new and puzzling object.
ABSTRACTION
The six sub stages of the sensorimotor shows the development begins form reflexive behaviors to
more refinedandmore coordinatedactivities.Cognitivedevelopment of infants evolves in orientation
frombecomingfocusedonthemselves to becoming object or world-oriented , from one that is action-
basedto one that ismentally-based, from one that does not involve much of coordination of schemes
to one involvingintentionally,noveltyandcuriosityandfroma thinking that is purely sensorimotor to a
symbolic one.

5. Piaget’s sub stages are termed circular because the adaptive behavior to the world involves repeated
actions. Circular reactions are attempts to repeat an event that the baby likes.
Primary circular reactions are oriented toward the infant’s own body, whereas secondary circular
reactionsare aimedtowardthe environmentincluding others. Here is an example of a primary circular
reaction:
At first, by accident , the baby gets her thumb in her mouth. But she doesn’t know how to do it again.
She wavesherhandaround and,aftermany attempts ,eventuallysucceedsindoingitagain. Gradually ,
she learns how to do it at will.
Secondarycircularreactionsare repetitiveactionsthat involve recreating events which 4-10 month old
babiesobserve outside of theirownbodies,suchasmakingtheir mobile cribshake bykicking their legs.
Tertiary circular reactions, seen from approximately 10 to 18 months, is when a baby does things over
and overagain,justa little differentlyeachtime.Whenababyseems to enjoy dropping the spoon over
and over again in many different ways, a proof of the creation of novel variations in events. Piaget
described the baby at this stage as the “scientist”.
Acquiring the sense of object permanence is one of the infant’s most important accomplishments,
according to Piaget’s.” Object permanence is the understanding that objects are not immediately
perceptible through the senses.
LEARNING AND REMEMBERING
Do infants learn and remember?
Yes! Pavlov’s classical conditioning and Skinner’s operant conditioning have been proven to apply to
infants.
All of us experience infantile amnesia,the inabilitytorecall events that happened when we were very
young.Generally,we canrememberlittleornothingthat has happened to us before the age of about 5
years, and it is extremely rare for someone to recall many memories before 3 years. Reports of
childhoodmemoriesusuallyinvolve memoriesof significantevents(e.g.birthof asiblingorthe death of
a parent).
For example,someadultshave recalledtheirown hospitalization or the birth of a sibling as far as age 2
years, and the death of a parent or a family move may be recalled from as far back as age 3 years.
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
** Language development is a process starting early in human life. Infants start without language, yet
by 4 months of age, babies can distinguish speech sounds and engage in babbling. Some research has

6. shown that the earliest learning begins in utero when the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and
speech patterns of its mother's voice.
From dayone,infantsappearto be programmedintotheirlinguisticenvironment with the specific goal
of acquiring language. Infants clearly have remarkably acute language learning abilities even form an
early age.
Within the first years of life, we humans seem to progress through the following stages in producing
language:
1. Cooing, which comprises consonant as well as vowel sounds
***Infants produce soft vocalizations around 3 months of age
2. Babbling,whichcomprisesconsonantaswell asvowel sounds;tomostpeople’s ears, the babbling of
infants growing up among speakers from different language groups sounds very similar.
example: “bababababa” or “nanananana”
3. One- wordutterances; these utterancesare limitedinboththe vowelsandthe consonantstheyutilize
example:Usuallytheyrefertoimportantpeople (“mama,” “dada”), animals (“doggie,” “kitty”), objects
that move (“ball,”“car”), foods (“milk,” “apple”), familiar actions (“bye-bye,” “more”), or outcomes of
familiar actions (“wet,” “hot”)
4. Two-word utterances (telegraphic speech)
example: "go car,” “mommy shoe,” “door open” OR "WHERE DADDY GO?"
5. Basic adultsentence structure ( presentbyaboutage 4 years) withcontinuingvocabularyacquisition.
As children become more sophisticated in their language, they overgeneralize rules in ways that are
inconsistent with common usage.
for example, "I comed home" for "I came home" (sometimes called creative grammar). Correct forms
are temporarily replaced as rules are internalized.
*****
The infantuttershis/herword- followedbyone ortwo more,andsoon after,yeta few more. The infant
uses these one- word utterances termed holophrases- to convey intentions, desires and demands.
Usually, the words are nouns describing familiar objects that the child observes (e.g. book, ball, and
baby) or wants (e.g. Mama, Dada)
By 18 monthsof age,childrentypicallyhave vocabulariesof 3 to 100 words( Siegler, 1986). Because the
youngchild’svocabularyisverylimitedatthispointinthe developmental process,the childoverextends
the meaning of words in his/her existing lexicon to cover things and ideas for which a new word is
lacking.Forexample the general termforanykindof four- leggedanimal maybe “doggie”.Inlinguistics
this is called overextension error.

7. Graduallybetween1.5and2.5 yearsof age,childrenstartcombiningsinglewordsto produce two-word
utterances. These two-word or three-word utterances with rudimentary syntax but with articles and
prepositions missing are referred to as telegraphic speech.
***HALOPHRASE
"[A]roundsix monthschildrenbeginbabblingandeventuallyimitatingthe linguistic sounds they hear in
the immediate environment.... By the end of the firstyear, the first true words emerge (mama, dada,
etc.). In the 1960s, the psycholinguist Martin Braine (1963, 1971) noticed that these single words
gradually embodied the communicative functions of entire phrases: e.g. the child's word dada could
mean'Where is daddy?''I wantdaddy,'etc. accordingto situation.He calledthem holophrastic, or one-
word, utterances. In situations of normal upbringing, holophrases reveal that a vast amount of neuro-
physiological andconceptual developmenthastakenplace inthe childbythe endof the firstyearof life.
Duringthe holophrasticstage, in fact, children can name objects, express actions or the desire to carry
out actions, and transmit emotional states rather effectively."
FOR EXAMPLE: Around 9 months of age, toddlers use single words (holophrases) to make requests or
express feelings. For example, "Doot!" might mean "Get me juice!"
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE (LAD)
The Language AcquisitionDevice(LAD) isthe innate biological abilityof humanstoacquire anddevelop
language.The LADwas developedbylinguistNoamChomsky whocontributedtothe fieldof cognitive
psychologythroughhislanguage research.He challengedthe prevailingbehavioristtheorythatlanguage
(like anyotherbehavior) wasacquiredthroughexposure toitinour environment.He theorizedthatall
humansshare a mechanismwhichallowsustocomprehend,develop,anduse language like noother
animal.Animalsraisedaroundhumansdon'tdevelopthe abilitytospeakbuthumansdo.He calledthis
biological languagemechanismthe Language AcquisitionDevice.
Our capacityfor language isthe same all overthe worldin wildlydifferentculturesandenvironments.
Childrenquicklylearnlanguage andlearnindevelopmental stagesthatoccurat the same age no matter
whatdifferingenvironmentstheygrowupin.Cognitive psychologistsuse the LADtheoryasevidence to
supportthe conceptthat language isbotha learnedandinnate capability.
***Noam Chomsky, noted linguist, claims that humans have an innate language acquisition device
(LAD). This means that we, humans seem to be biologically primed to be ready to acquire language.

8. ***Noam Chomsky believes that children are born with an inherited ability to learn any human
language. He claims that certain linguistic structures which children use so accurately must be already
imprinted on the child’s mind.
***The language acquisition device (LAD) was proposed by Noam Chomsky to explain how children,
when exposed to any human language, are able to learn it within only a few years following birth.
Chomsky argued that all humans are born with the knowledge of what makes a human language.
Included in this innate knowledge must be details of important characteristics of all the world's
languages.
***According to Chomsky, humans are born with the LAD, but other species are not. Nonhuman
primates and other species do not spontaneously learn human languages.
THANK YOU!!!
Prepared by:
MS. REYBETH DINEROS RACELIS