Week 4: Write an Essay on Cognitive Development Instructions For this assignment

Week 4: Write an
Essay on Cognitive Development
Instructions
For this assignment, write an essay about cognitive
development in childhood and adolescence. Select one aspect of cognitive
development (i.e., the theory of mind, moral development, language
development, egocentrism), and then explain how it develops across childhood
and adolescence. You must include at least one theoretical framework for
understanding cognitive development, and integrate at least three recent
articles about your topic (within the last 5 years) to demonstrate current
research and thinking in the field. For example, you may decide to select
language development. You would need to introduce language development and at
least one theory about how language develops. Then, you would explain how
language development occurs in childhood and adolescence, making sure to
highlight current research and thinking in the field, including citations
throughout your paper to show that you are including evidence-based
information. Length:
5-7 pages, not including title and reference pages References:
Include three scholarly resources. Your
essay should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts
presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating
directly to this topic. Cognitive
Development in Childhood and Adolescence
Cognitive development refers to how people think and how they
learn, and how the ways they think and learn change across time. Cognition
becomes more complex across childhood and adolescence. One of the primary theories of cognitive development during childhood
and adolescence is from Jean Piaget. He argued that individuals construct
knowledge through the development of schemas and that cognitive development
occurs in four stages:
sensorimotor
(infancy/first two years),
preoperational
(early childhood),
concrete
operations (middle childhood), and
formal
operations (adolescence). During the preoperational stage, children develop language and
can engage more fully with the world around them. However, they are still
limited in their thinking (a young child, for example, is unable to consider
the point of view of other people or engage in reversibility. If you ask her,
“Do you have a brother?” she will say, “Yes!” But if you ask her if her brother
has a sister, she will say, “No”, because she doesn’t have a sister). In middle
childhood, children have graduated into Piaget’s third stage of cognitive
development, concrete operations. In this stage, children are able to
manipulate concrete objects. During this stage, the properties of identity,
reversibility, and decentration are appreciated by the child. Memory and
attention improve during this stage, which suits children well because this is
when they begin formal schooling.
Once in adolescence, formal operations have developed. Formal
operational thought involves abstract, logical thinking. It includes
hypotheticodeductive reasoning (making hypotheses from observations, which are
then systematically tested) and propositional reasoning (making inferences from
initial premises whether factually true or not). Formal operational thought
develops through adolescence, though with wide individual differences, and is
especially promoted by formal education. It helps adolescents understand
abstract thinking, consider possible consequences of actions, and engage in
critical thinking. Some older adolescents may develop post-formal thinking, a
more flexible and pragmatic approach, involving the application of life
experience and social judgment, to deal with complex social problems that
cannot be solved by logic alone. Adolescent
Egocentrism
PDF
document
Cognitive Development in
Childhood and Adolescence
Imuta, K., Henry, J. D.,
Slaughter, V., Selcuk, B., & Ruffman, T. (2016). Theory of mind and
prosocial behavior in childhood: A meta-analytic review. Levine, L. (2016). Laura
Levine Defines Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development [Video file].
Wang, Z., Devine, R. T.,
Wong, K. K., & Hughes, C. (2016, September). Theory of mind and executive
function during middle childhood across cultures.