Promoting Cognitive Development



Promoting Cognitive Development

Introduction

Child development can be described as growth, physically and emotionally, and cognitive development - biologically. Child development plays an essential role in developing the personality of the child as the child grows up. To live a satisfying and momentous life, two areas are very important for the individuals. Interpersonal relationships and intellectual capability development defines the proper development of a child (Santrock, 2008).

Child development is distributed in multiple dimensions that differ according to context and impact on child behavior. Numerous things simultaneously influence the mental, physical, and emotional development of the child. Child development is determined according to these three principle dimensions which defines the behavioral consequences of a child as he grows up. All these three states are interrelated to each other; lack of concern on any of these dimension affect the other two subsequently. Behavioral responses of child are consequences of experiences he had in his early stages of life. It is essential to address the key areas related to child development that may create potential problems in normal upbringing of child (Kail, 2006).

Theoretical Aspect of Cognitive Development

Empirical research and theoretical modeling of the child's language acquisition is an interdisciplinary project. Already in the initial phase of research is characterized by contributions of psychology, education, linguistics and medicine. Pointing the way in this area of ??cooperation for a long time was the work of the psychology of language. For several decades, the role of psycholinguistics is overgrown. In this paper we try to compare the different theoretical models theoretical perspective influences approaches to child development by different researchers.

Piagetian Theory

In Piagetian theory of childhood cognitive development, children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their surroundings (Berk, 2000). Piaget asserts that development takes place in stages and is uniform across individuals regardless of social environment. Emphasizing the biological nature of cognition, Piaget's cognitive-developmental theory suggests that children adapt to the external world as the structures of their minds develop, just as the structures of the body are adapted to fit with the environment. This adaptation is innate and inevitable, and is augmented with a need to maintain a balance between children's internal structures and information they gather in their everyday environments (Fonagy, 2009).

According to Piaget, each sequential stage of cognitive development is characterized by distinct ways of thinking. During the sensorimotor stage, which occurs from birth until 2 years, children think by acting on the world with their senses. Between the ages of 2 and 7 years, children experience the pre-operational stage as they develop symbolic but illogical thinking. Until the age of 11 years, children experience a phase known as the concrete operational stage, in which thinking is transformed into more organized reasoning (Allan, 2008).

Erik Erikson's Theory of Development

Each and every person has his own characteristics of personality and identity. Such identity is basically composed from different personality traits that can be a combination of negative as well as positive elements. The personality traits might be acquired or innate, thus, this ...