Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Trends and issues
- List of Family life-cycles
- List of Figures and Tables
- Note to the Student
- Note to the Instructor
- How to use the CD-ROM
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1 The Study of Human Development
- Part 2 Conception and Birth
- Part 3 Infancy
- 6 Physical Development in Infancy
- 7 Cognitive Development in Infancy
- 8 Social and Emotional Development in Infancy
- Part 4 Toddlerhood
- Part 5 The Pre-school Years
- Part 6 Middle Childhood
- Part 7 Adolescence
- Part 8 Studying Human Development
- Glossary
- References
- Index
- STUDENT FEEDBACK FORM
7 - Cognitive Development in Infancy
from Part 3 - Infancy
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Trends and issues
- List of Family life-cycles
- List of Figures and Tables
- Note to the Student
- Note to the Instructor
- How to use the CD-ROM
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1 The Study of Human Development
- Part 2 Conception and Birth
- Part 3 Infancy
- 6 Physical Development in Infancy
- 7 Cognitive Development in Infancy
- 8 Social and Emotional Development in Infancy
- Part 4 Toddlerhood
- Part 5 The Pre-school Years
- Part 6 Middle Childhood
- Part 7 Adolescence
- Part 8 Studying Human Development
- Glossary
- References
- Index
- STUDENT FEEDBACK FORM
Summary
They (grown-ups) always need to have things explained
I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them. But they answered: ‘Frighten? Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?’ My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little PrinceKEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
Cognition
Structure
Equilibrium
Assimilation
Accommodation
Sensori-motor
Circular reaction
Object permanence
Scaffolding
Enactive representation
Iconic representation
Symbolic representation
Perception
Introduction
In the first 18 months of life, infants are maturing not only physically but cognitively and socially as well. Sometimes their cognitive development is overshadowed by the more readily observable achievements of eye–hand coordination, sitting, crawling and walking. But, as noted in chapter 5, children are learning from the moment they are born and perhaps even while they are still inside the womb. After birth this learning continues in ever more complex ways.
In this chapter, consideration is given to children's cognitive development during the first 18 months of life. In a little over half a century, the science of the study of an individual's cognitive development has come a long way. As noted in chapter 1, during the 1930s, psychology was very empirical in its methodology, particularly in North America.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Child, Adolescent and Family Development , pp. 140 - 159Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002