The Theories Of Piaget's Cognitive Growth And Language Development

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Cognitive Growth and Language Development -- A discussion of Jack’s cognitive development can be started in the foundations of Piaget’s preoperational thinking. Piaget lists the significant advances made in language development at this stage. As well, Jack is applying symbolic function which allows him to express his thoughts beyond just repeating what he hears, now his words stand for something that cannot be seen. At this place of preoperational thinking, children can make up a story. Jack is still unable to use rational logic like he will when he reaches Piaget’s stage of concrete operational thought. The day care staff inform Kimberly he is able to identify and categorize objects and when helped by the day care staff, demonstrated the …show more content…

It is expected Jack will moving on from using holophrases, or single words that express the meaning of several to using telegraphic speech where several words are used, specifically the most important words to express the child’s message. It is also noted Jack is able to identify animals, showing his style to be more referential than expressive. It is also expected Jack begin to show a significant growth in the number of words he is able to learn by the age of three as well as showing the ability to follow correct grammar. There are several theories that attempt to explain how Jack may be gaining his language skills; B.F. Skinner’s learning theory, Naoam Chomsky’s nativist approach, and the interactionist perspective which is a blend of the two. The interactionist perspective recognizes a person is genetically wired to develop the ability to express oneself verbally and equally important is a person’s need for social interaction with its respective rewards to shaping our linguistic abilities. This was illustrated by the video clip shown in class where the Mandarin women was able to successfully teach the children her native language by speaking to them during their critical period of language development. However, attempts to teach them her language using recorded methods were not successful, concluding it was both the children hearing the Mandarin language and more importantly, the human interaction in which the children best

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