7 Cognitive Development in the Preschool Years
Chapter Objectives
After this chapter, you should be able to:
- Compare and contrast Piaget and Vygotsky’s beliefs about cognitive development.
- Explain the role of information processing in cognitive development.
- Discuss how preschool-aged children understand their worlds.
- Put cognitive milestones into the order in which they appear in typically developing children. Discuss how early child education supports development and how our understanding of development influence education.
- Describe autism spectrum disorder as atypical cognitive development
Introduction
Understanding of cognitive development is advancing on many different fronts. One exciting area is linking changes in brain activity to changes in children’s thinking[1]. Although many people believe that brain maturation is something that occurs before birth, the brain actually continues to change in large ways for many years thereafter. For example, a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is located at the front of the brain and is particularly involved with planning and flexible problem solving, continues to develop throughout adolescence [2].
preschool cognitive skills
The Continuum of Development [3] describes the core skills which are part of the preschool/ kindergarten stage of development. These skills are also reflected the overall and specific expectations in the four frames in Ontario’s the Kindergarten Program[4]. This document will be referred to throughout the chapters on preschool development.
Below is a summary of the core skills in preschool cognitive development as described in the Continuum of Development by Ontario Ministry of Education [5].
During the preschool years children continue to observe their world, ask questions, and develop and test their theories about how things work. During this stage of development children master new ways of describing and making meaning of their experiences. At this stage their reasoning is more logical. They solve problems by collecting and organizing information, reflecting on it, drawing conclusions and communicating their findings with others. This may include the skills of classifying and seriating. Increased verbal abilities allow them to use spatial terms and positional words such as behind, inside, in front of, between. They can follow directions, creating and using maps.
Preschoolers’ exploration of mathematics continues to grow with an increasing understanding of numeracy, which includes counting in meaningful ways to determine quantity, comparing quantities, and completing simple number operations using number symbols. They explore ways to represent number such as tally marks. They demonstrate a growing ability to describe attributes of 2 dimensional figures and 3 dimensional solids, to identify patterns and show an interest in measurement, particularly linear measurement. They become more skilled at understanding time and how it is measured.
The ability t