What Have You Learned?

1. Question 9.1

   What are the strengths of preoperational thought?

   Symbolic thought allows a child to become much more adept at pretending and to refer to things not seen. Symbolic thought enables the language explosion, since children can now talk about what they think, imagine, and remember.Piaget underestimated cognition during early childhood. He relied on words spoken in an experimental setting rather than nonverbal signs in play content. There are thinking errors that are typical of the preoperational stage, which weaken the child’s ability to make accurate judgments. For example, centration causes children to focus on one aspect of a situation, excluding other aspects. A specific type of centration is egocentrism (assessing the world exclusively from their own perspective). They also focus on appearance (short hair means the child is a boy), static reasoning (Mommy has always been an adult), and irreversibility (removing the lettuce from the sandwich does not fix the problem that there was lettuce on the sandwich).

2. Question 9.2

   What is the difference between egocentrism in a child and selfishness in an adult?

   A child’s egocentrism is not selfishness. It is the child’s inability to see life from anyone’s perspective but his or her own. An egocentric child can be very generous, often giving elaborate gifts chosen with care. Unfortunately, the gifts represent the child’s interests instead of the receiver’s. Selfishness in an adult focuses on ignoring other people’s reasonable needs in favor of pursuing one’s own self-interest. An adult might give a gift that represents his or her own interests, in the hope that the receiver will just give the gift back. The egocentric child would be disappointed if the receiver gave the gift back.

3. Question 9.3

   How does guided participation increase a child’s zone of proximal development?

   The zone of proximal development is an intellectual arena in which new ideas and skills can be mastered. Guided participation allows children to expand the zone of ideas that they can almost understand and skills that they can almost master because their mentors provide scaffolding as they present challenges, offer assistance without taking over, add crucial information, and encourage motivation.

4. Question 9.4

   Why did Vygotsky think that talking to oneself is not a sign of illness but an aid to cognition?

   Children talk aloud to review, decide, and explain events to themselves, as well as to mediate social interaction that is vital to learning and cognitive development.

5. Question 9.5

   What factors spur the development of theory of mind?

   A person’s theory of mind refers to his or her theory of what other people might be thinking. The development of theory of mind correlates with a maturing prefrontal cortex. Other contributing factors include language development, the presence of an older sibling, and culture and context. The main criterion for having a theory of mind is an awareness that other people may not be thinking the same thoughts that you are, which usually occurs around age 4.

6. Question 9.6

   What is the evidence that early childhood is a sensitive time for learning language?

   Young children are called “language sponges” because they soak up every drop of language they encounter. Language learning is an example of dynamic systems, in that every part of the developmental process influences every other part. To be specific, there are “multiple sensitive periods . . . auditory, phonological, semantic, syntactic, and motor systems, along with the developmental interactions among these components.” All of these facilitate language learning.

7. Question 9.7

   How does fast-mapping aid the language explosion?

   Children develop an interconnected set of categories for words, a kind of grid or mental map, which makes speedy vocabulary acquisition, or fast-mapping, possible. Rather than figuring out the exact definition after hearing a word used in several contexts, children hear a word once and quickly stick it into a category in their mental language grid.

8. Question 9.8

   How does overregularization signify a cognitive advance?

   Sometimes children apply the rules of grammar when they should not, an error called overregularization. This is actually evidence of increasing knowledge: Many children first say words correctly (feet, teeth, mice), repeating what they have heard. Later, when they grasp the systematic rules of grammar and try to apply it, they overregularize, assuming that all constructions are regular.

9. Question 9.9

   What evidence in language learning shows the limitations of logic in early childhood?

   Logical extensions are evidence of the limits of logic. Children learn a word and use it to describe other objects that fall in their same “category.” For example, after learning the word for ketchup, a child may state they had “ketchup soup” at preschool, not knowing the term “tomato soup” and thinking ketchup was a good fit.

10. Question 9.10

    What are the advantages of teaching a child two languages?

    Neuroscience finds that young bilingual children site both languages in the same areas of their brains yet manage to keep them separate. This separation allows them to activate one language and temporarily inhibit the other, experiencing no confusion when they speak to a monolingual person. They may be a millisecond slower to respond if they must switch languages, but their brains overall function better and may even have some resistance to Alzheimer dementia in old age. Studies show that learning a second language in adulthood usually shows different activation of brain areas, and there is a slower response to the language.

11. Question 9.11

    How can native language loss be avoided in children?

    The attitude of the parents and the larger society about the child’s native language is crucial to its retention. If children sense that the native language spoken at home is somehow a liability to them outside of the home, they may completely drop the native language in favor of the majority language.

12. Question 9.12

    What do most preschools provide for children that most homes do not?

    Preschools allow for interaction with same-age peers, and such social interaction is crucial to development.

13. Question 9.13

    In child-centered programs, what do the teachers do?

    Child-centered programs stress each child's development and growth. Teachers in such programs assist children in artistic expression and exploring their own interests rather than providing authoritative direction.

14. Question 9.14

    What makes the Reggio Emilia program different from most other preschool programs?

    In Reggio Emilia, children are encouraged to master skills that are not usually taught in North American schools until age 7 or so, such as writing and using tools. Every school has a studio and an artist who encourages the children to be creative. Reggio Emilia programs have a low child to teacher ratio, ample space, and abundant materials for creative expression. One distinctive feature of the curriculum is that a small group of children may work on a long-term project that allows them to learn to work as part of a team.

15. Question 9.15

    Why are Montessori schools still functioning, 100 years after the first such schools opened?

    The Montessori philosophy seems to work. A study of 5-year-old children in inner-city Milwaukee who were chosen by lottery to attend Montessori programs found that, compared to their peers in other schools, the children were advanced in prereading (such as recognizing letters) and math skills, as well as theory of mind. The probable explanation: Their Montessori tasks seem to bolster self-confidence, curiosity, and exploration, all of which transferred to academic tasks.

16. Question 9.16

    What are the advantages and disadvantages of teacher-directed preschools?

    Unlike child-centered programs, teacher-directed preschools stress academics, usually taught by one adult to the entire group. The curriculum includes learning the names of letters, numbers, shapes, and colors according to a set timetable; every child naps, snacks, and goes to the bathroom on schedule as well. Children are taught to sit quietly and listen to the teacher. Praise and other reinforcements are given for good behavior, and time-outs (brief separation from activities) are imposed to punish misbehavior. As a result, children may assimilate into the elementary school system more quickly and be better prepared for academia coming from this environment. However, creativity and problem-solving skills may lag behind children coming from child-centered programs.

17. Question 9.17

    What are the goals of Head Start?

    The goals of Head Start have changed over the decades, from lifting families out of poverty to promoting literacy, from providing dental care and immunizations to teaching standard English. The goals evolved as the culture evolved. However, Head Start is intended to prepare children in at-risk or low-income homes for success in reading and math during their elementary school years and to build a foundation for academic success in the future.

18. Question 9.18

    Why have various evaluations of Head Start reached different conclusions?

    Research has looked at different outcomes/aspects of Head Start and thus arrived at different conclusions about the overall effectiveness of the program. Some assessments have focused on literacy, whereas others have emphasized health-related behaviors. The program has been very effective in reaching some goals, and less effective in reaching others. In addition, Head Start programs have changed their strategies over time, moving from child-centered toward more teacher-centered emphases. As a result of these evolutions, evaluators have varied in their conclusions about the effectiveness of the program.

19. Question 9.19

    What are the long-term results of intervention preschools?

    Research on preschool programs for children in low-income families has proven that high-quality early education benefits children by improving language learning, social skills, and prospects for the future.