Prepared by: Leila M.

Collantes
E-mail Address: leilacollantes@[Link]

Central Luzon State University

Science City of Muñoz 3120
Nueva Ecija, Philippines

Instructional Module for the Course

SED 2100- The Child and Adolescent Learners and Learning Principles

Module 3 : Cognitive Development

 SED 2100 The Child and Adolescent Learner and Learning Principles

I. Objectives

After studying this module, the student should be able to:

1. characterize the nature of Piaget’s theory and identify the major cognitive
accomplishments of each stage;
2. come up with a simple Piagetian task interview with children;
3. explain Vygotsky theory and list down the important concepts;
4. discuss the different theories of intelligence;
5. identify the different factors that affect the cognitive development of
human beings;
6. discuss the language acquisition and achievements of child and adolescent
in every period in the life span;
7. name the different factors affecting the language development of child
and adolescent; and
8. analyze how each factor affects the language development of child and
adolescent

II. Learning Activities

Discussion

A. Cognitive Development Theories

1. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget, a child psychologist, laid emphasis on how learners interact with
their environment and develop complex reasoning and knowledge. Piaget’s
Cognitive Developmental Theory states that children, quite simply, think
differently than adults. While this may seem obvious to some, this was a
revolutionary theory that went on to provide the foundations for several other
theories to come. Essentially, this theory divided the child life into four separate
categories, or stages, each of which carries its own important qualities and
vulnerabilities. The key terms here used are assimilation, accommodation, and
equilibration. Jean Piaget, the theory’s author was a notable psychologist and

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scientist of his time. Further, he states four stages of cognitive development

depending on the perception and observation of a person.
1. Pre-operational (2-7 yrs)
2. Concrete Operation (7-12 years)

3. Formal operations (12+ years)

This final stage encompasses the rest of our lives. Piaget believes that after
reaching this stage one is quite capable of thinking logically and solving
problems in their heads. During this period, children are more capable of
abstract thinking and could deal with more complex issues.

Schemas – Piaget (1954) said that as the child seeks to construct an

understanding of the world, the developing brain creates schema.
These are actions or mental representations that organize knowledge.

Assimilation – Piagetian concept of the incorporation of new

information into their existing knowledge or schemas.

Accommodation – Piagetian concept of adjusting schemas to fit new

information and experiences.

Consider an 8-year-old girl who is given a hammer and nail to

hang a picture on the wall. She has never used a hammer, but from
observing others do this she realized that a hammer is an object to be
held, that is swung by the handle to hit the nail, and that is usually is
swung a number of times. Recognizing each of these things, she fits
her behavior into this schema she already has (assimilation). But the
hammer is heavy, so she holds it near the top. She swings too hard
and the nail bends, so she adjust the pressure of her strikes. These
adjustments reflect her ability to slightly alter her conception of the
world (accommodation). Just as both assimilation and accommodation
are required in this example, so are they required in many of the
child’s thinking challenges.

Organization – Piagetian concept of grouping isolated behavior into

a higher-order more smoothly functioning cognitive system the
grouping of items into categories.

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Equilibration – A mechanism that Piaget proposed to explain how

children shift from one stage of thought to the next. The shift occurs
as children experience cognitive conflict or disequilibrium in trying to
understand the world. Eventually, they resolve the conflict and reach a
balance or equilibrium of thought. Piaget pointed out that there is
considerable movement between states of cognitive equilibrium and
disequilibrium as assimilation and accommodation work in concert to
produce cognitive change.

For example, if a child believes that the amount of a liquid changes

simply because the liquid is poured into a container with a different
shape – for instance, from a container that is short and wide into a
container that is tall and narrow – she might be puzzled by issues as
where the “extra” liquid came from and whether there is actually more
liquid to drink. The child will eventually resolve these puzzles as her
thinking becomes more advanced. In the everyday world, the child is
constantly faced with such counterexamples and inconsistencies.

Assimilation and accommodation always take the child to a higher

ground. For Piaget, the motivation for change is an internal search for
equilibrium. As old schemas are adjusted and new schemas are
developed, the child organizes and reorganizes the old and new
schemas. Eventually, the organization is fundamentally different from
the old organization; it is a new way of thinking.

Thus, the result of these processes, according to Piaget, is that

individuals go through four stages of development. A different way of
understanding the world makes one stage more advanced than
another. Cognition is qualitatively different in one stage compared with
another. In other words, the way children reason at one stage is
different from the way they reason at another stage.

a. Stage 1. Sensori-motor Stage. The first stage corresponds from

birth to infancy. This is the stage when a child who is initially
reflexive in grasping, sucking, and reaching becomes more
organized in his movement and activity. The term sensori-motor
focuses on the prominence of the senses and muscle movement
through which the infant comes to learn about himself and the
world. In working with children in the sensorimotor stage, teachers
should aim to provide a rich and stimulating environment with
appropriate objects to play with.
Object permanence. This is the ability of the child to know
that an object still exists even when out of sight. This ability is
attained in the sensory motor stage.

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b. Pre-operational StageThis stage covers from about two to seven

years old, roughly corresponding to the preschool years.
Intelligence at this stage is intuitive in nature. At this stage, the
child can now make mental representations and is able to pretend,
the child is now ever closer to the use of symbols. . Partially logical
thinking or thought begins during these years. Preoperational
thinking can and usually is illogical. This stage is highlighted by the
following

Symbolic Function. This is the ability to represent objects

and events. A symbol is a thing that represents something else. A
drawing, a written word, or a spoken word comes to be understood
as representing a real object like a real MRT train. Symbolic
function gradually develops in the period between 2 to 7 years.
Riel, a two year old may pretend that she is drinking form a glass
which is really empty. Though she already pretends the presence of
water, the glass remains to be a glass. At around four years of age,
Nico, may, after pretending to drink from an empty glass, turn the
glass into a rocket ship or a telephone. By the age of 6 or 7 the
child can pretend play with objects that exist only in mind. Enzo,
who is six can do a whole ninja turtle routine without any costume
nor “props”. Tria wo is 7 can pretend to host an elaborate princess
ball only in her mind.

Egocentrism. This is the tendency of the child to only see is

point of view and to assume that everyone also has his same point
of view. The child cannot take the perspective of others. You see
this in five year-old who buys a toy truck for his mother’s birthday.
Or a three year old girl who cannot understand why her cousins
call her daddy, uncle and not daddy.

Centration. This refers to the tendency of the child to only

focus on one aspect of a thing or event and exclude other aspects.
For example, when a child is presented with two identical glasses
with the same amount of water, the child will say they have the
same amount of water. However, once water from one of the
glasses is transferred to an obviously taller but narrower glass, the
child might say that there is more water in the taller glass. The
child only focused or “centered” only one aspect of the new glass,
that is a taller glass. The child was not able to perceive that the

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new glass is also narrower. The child only centered on the height fo
the glass and excluded the width in determining the amount of
water in the glass.

Reversibility. Pre-operational children has the inability to

reverse their thinking. They can understand that 2 +3 is 5, but
cannot understand that 5-3 is 2.

Animism. This is the tendency of children to attribute human

like traits or characteristics to inanimate object. When at night, the
child is asked, where the sun is, she will reply, “Mr Sun is asleep”.

Transductive reasoning. This refers to the pre-operational

child’s type of reasoning that is neither inductive nor deductive.
Reasoning appears to be from particular to particular i.e. if A
causes B, then B causes A. For example, since her mommy comes
home everyday around six o’clock in the evening, when asked why
it is already night, the child will say, “because my mon is already
home”.

c. Stage 3. Concrete-Operational Stage. This stage is characterized by

the ability of the child to think logically but only in terms of
concrete objects. This covers approximately the ages between 8-11
years or the elementary school years. The concrete operational
stage is marked by the following:

Decentering. This refers to the ability of the child to perceive

the different features of objects and situations. No longer is the
child focused or limited to one aspect or dimension. This allows the
child to be more logical when dealing with concrete objects and
situations.

Reversibility. During the stage of concrete operations, the

child can now follow the certain operations can be done in reverse.
For example, they can already comprehend the commutative
property of addition, and that subtraction is the reverse of addition.
They can also understand that a ball of clay shaped into a dinosaur
can again be rolled back into a ball of clay.

Conservation. This is the ability to know that certain

properties of objects like number, mass, volume, or area do not
change even if there is a change in appearance. Because of the
development of the child’s ability of decentering and also

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reversibility, the concrete operational child can now judge rightly

that the amount of water in a taller but narrower container is still
the same as when the water was in the shorter but wider glass.
The children progress to attain conservation abilities gradually
being a pre-conserver, a transitional thinker and then a conserver.

Seriation. This refers to the ability to order or arrange things

in a series based on one dimension such as weight, volume or size.

d. Stage 4. Formal Operational Stage. In the final stage of formal

operations covering ages between 12 and 15 years, thinking
becomes more logical. They can now solve abstract problems and
can hypothesize. This stage is characterized by the following.

Hypothetical Reasoning. This is the ability to come up with

different hypothesis about a problem and to gather and weight
data in order to make a final decision or judgment. This can be
done in the absence of concrete objects. The individuals can now
deal with “What if” questions.

Analogical Reasoning. This is the ability to perceive the

relationship in one instance and then use that relationship to
narrow down possible answers in another similar situation or
problem. The individual in the formal operations stage can make an
analogy. If United Kingdom is to Europe, then the Philippines is to
___. The individual will reason that since UK is found in the
continent of Europe then the Philippines is found in what continent?
Then Asia is his answer. Through reflective thought and even in the
absence of concrete objects, the individual can now understand
relationships and do analogical reasoning.

Deductive Reasoning. This is the ability to think logically by

applying a general rule to a particular instance or situation. For
example, all countries near the north pole have cold temperature.
Greenland is near the North pole. Therefore, Greenland has cold
temperature.

2. Vygotsky

In Vygotsky’s theory children’s cognitive development is

shaped by the cultural context and that social interaction plays a
very important role.

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The Zone of Proximal Development. Vygotsky’s belief in

the importance of social influences, especially instruction, on
children’s cognitive development is reflected in his concept of the
zone of proximal development. Zone of proximal development
(ZPD) is a term for the range of tasks that are too difficult for the
child to master alone but that can be learned with guidance and
assistance from adults or more-skilled children. Thus, the lower
limit of the ZPD is the level of skill reached by the child working
independently. The upper limit is the level of additional
responsibility the child can accept with the assistance of an able
instructor. The ZPD capture the child’s cognitive skills that are in the
process of maturing and can be accomplished only with the
assistance of a more skilled person.

Scaffolding means changing the level of support. Over the

course of teaching session, a more skilled person (a teacher or
more advanced peer) adjust the amount of guidance to fit the
child’s current performance (Wikinson and Gaffney, 2016). When
the student is learning a new task, the skilled person may use
direct instruction. As the student’s competence increases, less
guidance is given. Scaffolding is often used to help students attain
the upper limits of their zone of proximal development.

Asking probing questions is an excellent way to scaffold

students’ learning and help them to develop more sophisticated
thinking skills. A greater might ask a student such questions as
“What would an example of that be?” ‘Why do you think that is
so?” “Now, what’s the next thing to do?” and “How can you
connect those?” Overtime, students should begin internalizing
these kinds of probes and improve monitoring of their own work
(Horowitz & other, 2005).

Language and Thought. In Vygotsky’s view, language plays a

important role in a child’s development. According to Vygotsky,
children use speech not only for social communication, but also to
help them solve task. Vygotsky (1962) further argued that young
children use language to plan, guide and monitor their behavior.
This use of language for self-regulation is called private speech. For
example, young children talk aloud to themselves about such things
as their toys and the tasks they are trying to complete. Thus, when
working on a puzzle, a child might say, “This piece doesn’t fit;
maybe I’ll try that one.” A few minutes later she utters, “This is
hard.”

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B. Intelligence and Individual Difference

1. Concept of Intelligence (Binet)

The term “intelligence” has been generally operationalized as a

construct reflecting individual differences in cognitive abilities underlying
various skills and behaviors such as educational and occupational
success. However, the definition of “intelligence” and the abilities,
aptitudes, and behaviors this construct includes has been a source of
debate over the course of human history.

Many definitions of intelligence have emerged over the years. For

example, Binet (Binet & Simon, 1905) defined intelligence in terms of
judgment, practical sense, initiative, and adaptability; whereas Wechsler
(1958) later defined it as “the aggregate or global capacity of the
individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively
with his/her environment” (p. 7). Moreover, intelligence was viewed by
Wechsler as a composite of different abilities...

2. General Intelligence (Spearman)

General intelligence, also known as g factor, refers to the existence

of a broad mental capacity that influences performance on cognitive
ability measures. Charles Spearman first described the existence of
general intelligence in 1904. According to Spearman, this g factor was
responsible for overall performance on mental ability tests.

Spearman noted that while people certainly could and often did
excel in certain areas, people who did well in one area tended also to do
well in other areas. For example, a person who does well on a verbal
test would probably also do well on other tests.

Those who hold this view believe that intelligence can be measured
and expressed by a single number, such as an IQ score. The idea is that
this underlying general intelligence influences performance on all
cognitive tasks.

General intelligence can be compared to athleticism. A person

might be a very skilled runner, but this does not necessarily mean that

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they will also be an excellent figure skater. However, because this person
is athletic and fit, they will probably perform much better on other
physical tasks than an individual who is less coordinated and more
sedentary.

Spearman and General Intelligence

Charles Spearman was one of the researchers who helped develop
a statistical technique known as factor analysis. Factor analysis allows
researchers to use a number of different test items to measure common
abilities. For example, researchers might find that people who score well
on questions that measure vocabulary also perform better on questions
related to reading comprehension.
Spearman believed that general intelligence represented an
intelligence factor underlying specific mental abilities. All tasks on
intelligence tests, whether they related to verbal or mathematical
abilities, were influenced by this underlying g-factor.
Many modern intelligence tests, including the Stanford-Binet,
measure some of the cognitive factors that are thought to make up
general intelligence.

● Visual-spatial processing: Abilities such as putting

together puzzles and copying complex shapes
● Quantitative reasoning: The capacity to solve problems
that involve numbers
● Knowledge: A person's understanding of a wide range of
topics
● Fluid reasoning: The ability to think flexibly and solve
problems
● Working memory: The use of short-term memory (such as
being able to repeat a list of items)

Challenges to the Concept of General Intelligence

The notion that intelligence could be measured and summarized by
a single number on an IQ test was controversial during Spearman's time
and has remained so over the decades since. Some psychologists,
including L.L. Thurstone, challenged the concept of a g-factor. Thurstone
instead identified a number of what he referred to as "primary mental
abilities."

More recently, psychologists such as Howard Gardner have argued

against the notion that a single general intelligence can accurately
capture all of human mental ability. Gardner instead proposed
that multiple intelligences exist. Each intelligence represents abilities in a

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certain domain, such as visual-spatial intelligence, verbal-linguistic

intelligence, and logical-mathematical intelligence.

Research today points to an underlying mental ability that

contributes to performance on many cognitive tasks. IQ scores, which
are designed to measure this general intelligence, are also thought to
influence an individual's overall success in life. However, while IQ can
play a role in academic and life success, other factors such as childhood
experiences, educational experiences, socioeconomic status, motivation,
maturity, and personality also play a critical role in determining overall
success.

3. Primary Mental Abilities (Thurstone)

Definition of Intelligence
“Intelligence, considered as a mental trait, is the capacity to make
impulses focal at their early, unfinished stage of formation.
Intelligence is therefore the capacity for abstraction, which is an
inhibitory process (Thurstone, 1924/1973 p. 159).”
Major Contributions

● Theory of Primary Mental Abilities

● Developed the statistical technique of multiple-factor analysis

Ideas and Interests

Louis Leon Thurstone made significant contributions in many
areas of psychology, including psychometrics, statistics, and the
study of human intelligence. He developed methods for scaling
psychological measures, assessing attitudes, and test theory,
among many other influential contributions. He is best known for
the development of new factor analytic techniques to determine the
number and nature of latent constructs within a set of observed
variables.
The new statistical techniques developed by Thurstone
provided the necessary tools for his most enduring contribution to
psychology: The Theory of Primary Mental Abilities, a model of
human intelligence that challenged Charles
Spearman’s then-dominant paradigm of a unitary conception of
intelligence. Spearman, using an earlier approach to factor analysis,
found that scores on all mental tests (regardless of the domain or
how it was tested) tend to load on one major factor. Spearman
suggested that these disparate scores are fueled by a common

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metaphorical “pool” of mental energy. He named this pool the

general factor, or g (Spearman, 1904).
Thurstone argued that g was a statistical artifact resulting
from the mathematical procedures used to study it. Using his new
approach to factor analysis, Thurstone found that intelligent
behavior does not arise from a general factor, but rather emerges
from seven independent factors that he called primary abilities:
word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial visualization, number
facility, associative memory, reasoning, and perceptual speed
(Thurstone, 1938). Furthermore, when Thurstone analyzed mental
test data from samples comprised of people with similar overall IQ
scores, he found that they had different profiles of primary mental
abilities, further supporting his model and suggesting that his work
had more clinical utility than Spearman’s unitary theory. However,
when Thurstone administered his tests to an intellectually
heterogeneous group of children, he failed to find that the seven
primary abilities were entirely separate; rather he found evidence
of g. Thurstone managed an elegant mathematical solution that
resolved these apparently contradictory results, and the final
version of his theory was a compromise that accounted for the
presence of both a general factor and the seven specific abilities.
This compromise helped lay the groundwork for future researchers
who proposed hierarchical theories and theories of multiple
intelligences (Ruzgis, 1994).
Please open this link for additional reading materials:
[Link]
0seven%20primary%20mental%20abilities,%2C%20perceptual%20s
peed%2C%20and%20reasoning.

4. Multiple Intelligence (Gardner)

a. Linguistic/Verbal Intelligence (Word Smart) – learning visually and

organizing ideas spatially. Seeing concepts in action in order to
understand them. The ability to “see” things in one’s mind in
planning to create a product or solve a problem or the ability to use
and understand words and nuances of meaning.

b. Logical-mathematical (Number Smart/Logic Smart) – learning

through reasoning and problem writing. Also highly valued in the
traditional classroom, where students were asked to adapt to
logically sequenced delivery of instruction. Simply, the ability to
manipulate numbers and solve logical problems.

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c. Spatial/Visual Intelligence (Picture Smart) – learning visually and

organizing ideas spatially. Seeing concepts in action in order to
understand them. The ability to see things in one’s mind in
planning to create a product or solve a problem. Also the ability to
find one’s way around in an environment and judge relationships
between objects in space.

d. Musical Intelligence (Music Smart) – learning through patterns,

rhtyhms and music. This includes not only auditory learning, but
the identification of patterns through all the senses. Ability to
perceive and create patterns of pitch and rhythm.

e. Bodily-kinesthetic (Body Smart) – learning through interaction with

ones’s environment. This intelligence is not the domain of “overly
active” learners. It promotes understanding through concrete
experience. It is also the ability to move with precision.

f. Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart) – learning through

interaction with others. Not the domain of children who are simply
“talkative” or “overly social”. This intelligence promotes
collaboration and working cooperatively with others. It involves the
ability to understand and communicate with others.

g. Intrapersonal Intelligence ((Self Smart) – learning through feelings,

values and attitudes. This is a decidedly affective component of
learning through which students place value on what they learn
and take ownership for their learning or the ability to understand
the self.

h. Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart) – learning through

classification, categories and hierarchies. The naturalist intelligence
picks up on subtle differences in meaning. It is not simply the study
of nature it can be used in all areas of study but the ability to
distinguish specimens and their characteristics.

5. Triarchic Theory of Intelligence(Sternberg)

a. The componential element or the analytical intelligence; it

determines how efficiently people process information. It tells
people how to solve problems, how to monitor solutions, and how
to evaluate the results.

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It includes what we normally measure on IQ and

achievement tests. Planning, organizing and remembering facts and
applying them to new situations are all part of analytic intelligence

b. The experiential element is insightful or creative intelligence; it

determines how people approach novel or familiar tasks. It allows
people to compare new information with what they already know
and to come up with new ways of putting facts together – in other
words to think originality.
A person with well-developed creative intelligence can see
new connections between things, can relate to experience in
insightful ways. A graduate student who can come up with good
ideas for experiments, who can see how a theory could be applied
to a new totally different situation, or who can synthesize a great
many facts into a new organization is high in creative intelligence.

c. The contextual element or practical intelligence; it determines how

people deal with their environment. It is the ability to size up
situation and decide what to do, adapt to it, change it, or get out of
it.
Sometimes also called “street smarts”. People who are skilled
in this are good at seeing how some bit of information may be
applied to the real world or finding some practical solution to a
real-life problem such as finding shortcuts for repetitive tasks or
figuring out which of several different-sized boxes of cereal or
laudry soap in the grocery store is the best buy. Practical
intelligence may also involve being skilled at reading social cues
or social situations, such as knowing not to give your boss bad
news when she is clearly in a bad mood over something else, or
knowing how to persuade your superiors to invest a large amount
of money on your favorite sales plan.

6. Cognitive Information Processing Theory (Atkinson and

Shiffrin)

Information processing is a cognitive theoretical framework

that focuses on how knowledge enters and is stored and retrieved
from our memory. It was one of the most significant cognitive
theories in the last century and it has strong implications on the
teaching-learning process.

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Relating how the mind and the computer work is a powerful

analogy. The terms used in the information processing theory (IPT)
extends his analogy. In fact, those who program and design
computers aim to make computers solve problems through
processes similar to that of the human mind. Read on to know
more about IPT.

IPT describes how the learner receives information (stimuli)

from the environment through the senses and what takes place in
between determines whether the information will continue to pass
through the sensory register, then the short term memory and the
long term memory. Certain factors would also determine whether
the information will be retrieved or “remembered” when the learner
needs it.

Stages in the Information Processing Theory

The stages of IPT involves the functioning of the senses,

sensory register, short term memory and the long term memory.
Basically, IPT asserts three primary stages in the progression of
external information becoming incorporated in to the internal
cognitive structure of choice (schema, concept, script, frame,
mental model, etc.).

These three primary stages in IPT are:

Encoding – Information is sensed, perceived, and attended

to.
Storage – the information is stored for either a brief or
extended period of time, depending upon the processes following
encoding.
Retrieval – The information is brought back at the
appropriate time, and reactivated for use on a current task, the
true measure of effective memory.

What made IPT plausible was the notion that cognitive

processes could be described in a stage-like model. The stages to
processing follow a trail along which information is taken into the
memory system, and brought back (recalled) when needed. Most
theories of information processing revolve around three mains
stages in the memory process.

Sensory Register

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The first step in the IP model, holds all sensory information

for a very brief time.
Capacity: Our mind receives a great amount of information
but it is more than what our minds can hold or perceive.

Duration: The sensory register only holds the information for

an extremely brief – in the order of 1 to 3 seconds.

There is a difference in duration based on modality: auditory

memory is more persistent than visual.

The Role of Attention

- The bring information into consciousness, it is necessary that we

give attention to it. Such that, we can only perceive and remember
later those things that pass through our attention “gate”.
- Getting through this attentional filter is done when the learner is
interested in the material; when there is conscious control over
attention, or when information involves novelty, surprise, salience
and distinctiveness.
- Before information is perceived, it is known as ‘precategorical”
information. This means that until that point, the learner has not
established a determination of the categorical membership of the
information. To this point, the information is coming in as
uninterpreted patterns of stimuli. Once it is perceived, we can
categorize, judge, interpret, and place meaning to the stimuli. If we
fail to perceive, we have no means by which to recognize that the
stimulus was ever encountered.
Short Term Memory (STM or Working Memory)
- Capacity : The STM can only hold 5 to 9 “chunks” of information
sometimes described as 7 + / - 2. It is called working memory
because it is where new information is temporarily placed while it is
mentally processed. STM maintain information for a limited time
until the learner has adequate resources to process the information
or until the information is forgotten.
- Duration: Around 18 seconds or less.
- To reduce the loss of information in 18 seconds, you need to do
maintenance rehearsal. It is using repetition to keep the
information active in STM, like when you repeat a phone number
just given over and over.
Long Term Memory (LTM)

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The LTM is the final or permanent storing house for memory

information. It holds the stored information until needed again.
- Capacity: LTM has unlimited capacity.
- Duration : Duration in the LTM is indefinite.
Executive Control Processes
The executive control processes involve the executive processor or
what is referred to as metacognitive skills. These processes guide the flow
or information through the system, helps the learner

C. Factors Affecting Cognitive Development

Please open the link below as your online reference for this topic.

[Link]

D. Language Development

Language is a form of communication-whether spoken, written, or

signed- that is based on a system of symbols. Language consists of the
words used by a community (vocabulary) and the rules for varying and
combining them (grammar and syntax).
All human languages have some common characteristics (Clark,
2017; Hoff. 2015). These include infinite generativity and organizational
rules. Infinite generativity is the ability to produce an endless number of
meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules.
When we say “rules,” we mean that language is orderly and that
rules describe the way language works (Berko Gleason & Ratner, 2009).
Languages involves five systems of rules: phonology, morphology, syntax,
semantics and pragmatics.
Phonology. Every language is made up of basic sounds.
Phonology is the sound system of a language, including the sounds used
and how they may be combined (Del Campo & other, 2015). For example,
English has the sounds, sp, ba, and ar, but the sound sequences zx and
qp do not occur.
A phoneme is the basic unit of sound in a language; it the smallest
unit of sound that affects meaning. A good example of a phonme in
English is /k/, the sound represented by the letter k in the work ski and
the etter c in the word cat. The /k/ sound is slightly different in these two
words, and in some languages such as Arabic these two sounds are
separate phonemes.
Morphology refers to the units of meaning involved in word
formation. A morpheme is a minimal unit of meaning; it s a word or a part

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of a word that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful parts. Every

word in the English language is made up of one or more morphemes.
Some words consist of a single morpheme (for example, help). Whereas
others are made up of more than one morpheme (for example, helper,
which has two morphemes, help + er, with the morpheme –er meaning
“one who”, in this case “one who helps”). Thus, not all morphemes are
words by themselves – for example, pre-,-tion, and –ing are morphemes.
Just as the rules that govern phonology describe the sound
sequences that can occur in a language, the rules of morphology describe
the way meaningful units (morphemes) can be combined in words (Clark,
2017). Morphemes have many jobs in grammar, such as marking tense
(for example, she walks versus she walked) and number (she walks versus
they walk).

Syntax involves the ways words are combined to form acceptable

phrases and sentences (Los, 2015). If someone says to you, “Bob slugged
Tom” or “Bob was slugged by Tom,” you know who did the slugging and
who was slugged in each case because you have a syntactic
understanding of these sentences structures. You also understand that the
sentence “You didn’t stay, did you?” is a grammatical sentence but that
“You didn’t stay, didn’t you?” is unacceptable and ambiguous.
Semantics refers to the meaning of words and sentences. Every
word has a set of semantic features, or required attributes related to
meaning. Girl and woman, for example, share many semantic features on
how they can be used in sentences (Clark, 2017; Duff, Tomblin & Cats,
2015). The sentence, The bicycle talked the boy into buying a candy bar,
is syntactically correct but semantically incorrect. The sentence violates
our semantic knowledge that bicycles don’t talk.
Pragmatics a final set of language rules involve pragmatics, the
appropriate use of language in different context (Clark, 2014). Pragmatics
covers a lot of territory. When you take turns speaking in a discussion, you
are demonstrating knowledge of pragmatics. You also apply the
pragmatics of English when you use polite language in appropriate
situations (for example, when talking to a teacher) or tell stories that are
interesting.
Pragmatic rules can be complex, and they differ from one culture to
another. If you were to study the Japanese language, you come
face-to-face with countless pragmatic rules about conversing with
individuals of various social levels and with various relationships to you.

E. Factors Affecting Cognitive and Language Development

Biological and Environmental Influences

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Famous linguist Noam Chomsky (1957) argued that humans are

prewired to learn language at a certain time and in a certain way. Some
language scholars view the remarkable similarities in how children acquire
language all over the world, despite the vast variation in language in-out
they receive, as strong evidence that language has a biological basis
(Hickok & Small, 2016).

Despite the influence of biology, children clearly do not learn

language in a social vacuum (Pace, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2016).
Children are neither exclusively biological linguists nor exclusively social
architects of language. No matter how long you converse with a dog, it
won’t learn to talk, because it doesn’t have the human child’s biological
capacity for language. Unfortunately, though, some children fail to develop
good language skills even in the presence of very good role models and
interaction. An interactionist view emphasizes the contributions of both
biology and experience in language development. That is, children are
biologically prepared to learn language as they and their caregivers
interact (Harley, 2017). In or out of school, encouragement of language
development is not simply a matter of being rewarded for saying things
correctly and imitating a speaker. Children benefit when their parents and
teachers actively engage them in conversation, ask them questions and
emphasize interactive rather than directive language (Hirsh-Pasek &
others, 2015; Pace & others, 2016).

How Language Develops?

Infancy Language acquisition advances past number of milestones

in infancy (Cartmill & Goldin-Meadow, 2016). Because the main focus of
this text is on children and adolescents rather than infants, we will only
describe several of the many language milestones in infancy. Babbling
occurs in the middle of the first year and infants usually utter their first
word at about 10 to 13 months. By 18 to 24 months, infants usually have
begun to string two words together. In this two-world stage, they quickly
grasp the importance of language in communication, creating phrases
such as “Book ther”,” “My cangy,” “Mama walk,” and “Give Papa.”

Early Childhood As children leave the two-words stage, they

move rather quickly into three-four-, four-, and five-word combinations.
The transition from simple sentences expressing a single proposition to
complex sentences begins between 2 and 3 years of age and continues
into the elementary school years (Bloom, 1998).

Rule Systems of Language

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Let’s explore the changes in the five rules systems described

earlier- phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics-during
early childhood.
In terms of phonology, most preschool children gradually become
sensitive to the sounds of spoken words. They notice rhymes, enjoy
poems, make up silly names for things by substituting one sound for
another (such as bubblegum, bubblebum, bubbleyum), and clap along
with each syllable in a phrase.
As children move beyond two-word utterances, there is clear
evidence that they know morphological rules. Children begin using the
plural and possessive forms of nouns (dogs and dog’s); putting
appropriate endings on verbs (-s when the subject is third-person singular,
-ed for the past tense, and –ing for the present progressive tense); and
using prepositions (in and on), articles (a and the), and various froms of
the verb to be (“I was going to the store”). In fact, they overgeneralize
these rules, applying tehm to words that do not follow the rules. For
example, a preschool child might say “foots” instead of “feet” or “goed”
instead of “went”.
Children understanding of morphological rules was the subject of a
classic experiment by children’s language researcher Jean Berko (1958).
Berko presented preschool and first-grade children while the cards.
Children were asked to look at the card while the experimenter read the
words on it aloud. Then the children were asked to supply the missing
word. This might sound easy, but Berko was interested not just in the
children’s ability to recall the right word but also in their ability to say it
“correctly” with the ending that was dictated by morphological rules.
Wugs is the correct response for the car. Although the children’s responses
were not perfectly accurate, they were much better than chance would
dictate. Moreover, they demonstrated their knowledge of morphological
rules not only with the plural forms of nouns ( “There are two wug”) but
also with the possessive forms of nouns an with the third-person singular
and past-tense forms of verbs. Berko’s study demonstrated not only that
the children relied on rules, but also that they had abstracted the rules
from what they had heard and could apply them to novel situations.
Preschool children also learn and apply rules of syntax(Clark,
2017). After advancing beyond two-word utterances, the child shows a
growing mstery of complex rules for how words should be ordered.
Consider wh-questions, such as “Where is Daddy going?” or “What is that
boy doing?” To ask these questions properly, the child must know two
important differences between wh-questions and affirmative statements
(for instance, “Daddy is going to work” and “That boy is waiting on the
school bu”). First, a wh-word must be inverted-that is, exchanged with the
subject of the sentence. Yound children learn quiete early where to put
the wh- word, but they take much longer to learn the auxiliary-inversion

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rule. Thus, preschool children might ask, “Where Daddy is going?” and
“What that boy is doing?”

The speaking vocabulary of a 6-year-old child ranges from 8,000 to

14,000 words. Assuming that word learning began when the child was 12
months old, this translates into a rate of five to eight new word meanings
a day between the ages of 1 and 6.

What are some important aspects of how word learning optimally

occurs? Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff (Harris, Golinkoff, &
Hirsh-Pasek, 2011; Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2016) emphasize six key
principles in young children’s vocabulary development.

1. Children learn the words they hear most often. They learn the words
they encounter when interacting with parents, teachers, sibling, peers,
and also form books, They especially benefit from encountering words
that they do not know.
2. Children learn words for things and events that interest them. Parents
and teachers can direct young children to experience words in contexts
that interest the children, playful peer interactions are especially
helpful in this regard.
3. Children learn words better in responsive and interactive context that
in passive contexts. Children who experience turn-taking opportunities,
joint focusing experiences, and positive, sensitive socializing contexts
with adults encounter the scaffolding necessary for optimal word
learning. They learn worlds less effectively when they are passive
learners.
4. Children learn words best in contexts that are meaningful. Young
children learn new words more effectively when new words are
encouraged in integrated contexts rather than as isolated facts.
5. Children learn words best when they access clear information about
word meaning. Children whose parents and teachers are sensitive to
words the children might not understand and provide support and
elaboration with hints about word meaning learn words betten than
children whose parents and teachers quickly state a new word and
don’t monitior whether the child understands its meaning.
6. Children learn words best when grammar and vocabulary are
considered. Children who experience a large number of words and
diversity in verbal stimulation develop a richer vocabulary and better
understanding of grammar. In many cases, vocabulary and grammar
development are connected.

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Early Literacy.
Parents and teachers need with a supportive environment for the
development of literacy skills (Vukelich & others, 2016). Children should
be active participants in a wide range of interesting listening,talking,
writing, and reading experiences (Tompkins 2015).

Elln Galinsky (2010) emphasized strategies for using books effectively

with preschool children.
a. Use books to initiate conversation with young children. Ask them to
put themselves in the book character’s places and imagine what they
might be thinking or feeling.
b. Use what and why questions. Asl young children to describe what they
think is going to happen next in a story and then to see if it occurs.
c. Encourage children to ask questions about stories.
d. Choose some books that play with language. Creative books on the
alphabet, including those with rhymes, often interest young children.

Middle and Late Childhood.

Children gain new skills as they enter school that make it possible
to learn to read and write. These include increased use of language to talk
about things that are not physically present, learning what a word is, and
learning how to recognize and talk about sounds. They also learn the
alphabetic principle, which means that the letters of the alphabet
represent sounds of the language.
Vocabulary development continues at a breathtaking pace for most
children during the elementary school years. After five years of word
learning, the 6-year-old child does not slow down.
During middle and late childhood, changes occur in the way mental
vocabulary is organized. When asked to say the first word that come to
mind when they hear a word, preschool children typically provide a word
that often follows the word in a sentence. For example, when asked to
respond to dog the young child may say “barks”, or to the word eat
respond with “lunch”. At about 7 years of age, children begin to respond
with a word hat is the same part of speech as the stimulus word. For
example, a child may now respond to the word dog with “cat” or “horse”.
To eat, they now might say “drink”. This is evidence that children now
have begun to categorize their vocabulary by parts of speech.
The process of categorizing becomes easier as children increase
their vocabulary. Children’s vocabulary increases from an average of about
14,000 words at age 6 to an average of about 40, 0000 word by age 11.
Children make similar advance in grammar. During the elementary
school years, children’s improvement in logical reasoning and analytical
skills helps them understand such constructions as the appropriate use of

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comparatives (shorter, deeper) and subjectives (“If you were president…..”

). During the elementary school years, children become increasingly able
to understand and use complex grammar, such as the following sentence.
The boy who kissed his mother wore a hat. They also learn to use
language in a more connected way, producing connected discourse. They
become able to relate sentences to one another to produce descriptions,
defiinitions, and narratives that make sense. Children must be able to do
these things orally before they can be expected to deal with them in
written assignments.
These advances in vocabulary and grammar during the elementary
school years are accompanied by the development of metalinguistic
awareness, which is knowledgeable about language, such as knowing
what a preposition is or being able to discuss the sounds of a language.
Metalinguistic awareness allows children “to think about their language,
understand what words are, and even define them” (Berko Gleason, 2009,
p.4). It improves considerably during the elementary school years. In
elementary school, defining words also becomes a regular part of
classroom discourse and children increase their syntax as they study and
talk about the components of sentences, such as subjects and verbs.
Children also make progression in understanding how to use
language in culturally appropriate ways – pragmatics. By the time they
enter adolescence, most children know the rules for the use of language
in everyday context – that is, what is appropriate and inappropriate to say.
Adolescence
Language development during adolescen includes increasingly
sophisticated use of word (Berko Gleason, 2009). As they develop
abstract thinking, adolescents become much better than children at
analyzing the function a word performs in a sentence.

Adolescents also develop more subtle abilities with words. They

make strides in understanding the metaphor, which is implied comparison
between unlike things. For example, individuals “draw a line in the sand”
to indicate a nonnegotiable position; a political campaign is said to be a
marathon, not a sprint. And adolescents become better able to
understand and to use satire, which is the use of irony, derision, or wit to
expose folly or wickedness. Caricutures are example of satire. More
advanced logical thinking also allows adolescents, from about 15 to 20
years of age, to understand complex literary works.

Most adolescents are also much better writers than children are. They
are better at organizing ideas before they write, at distinguishing between
general and specific points as they write, at stringing together sentences
that make sense, and at organizing their writing into an introduction,
body, and concluding remarks.

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F. Current Research and Pedagogical Applications

References
Acero, VO [Link]. Human Growth and Development and Learning: Rex
Bookstore
Bee, Helen. The Developing Child. Ninth Edition. A Pearson Education
Company. Copyright 2000 by Allyn and Bacon. Printed in the United State
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Berk, Laura E. Child Development, Ninth Edition. Pearson Education, Inc., 2013
Bustos, AS, Malolos, NI, Ramirez, AE, Ramos, EC, & Bustos-Orosa, MA.
Introduction to Psycholoy, Katha Publishing, 1999
Bustos, AS and Espiritu, SC. Psychological, Anthropological and Sociological
Foundations of Education. Katha Publishing Co., Inc 1996
Coleman, JS. The Adolescent Society, The Free Press Corporation
Corpuz, BB, Lucas MD, Borabo, HG & Lucida, PI. The Child and Adolescent
Learners and Learning Principles. Lorimar Publishing Inc. Quezon City,
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Corpuz,BB, Lucas MD, Borabo, HG & Lucida, PI. Child and Adolescent
Development. Lorimar Publishing Inc. Quezon City, Philippines, 2015
Hurlock. Elizabeth B. Developmental Psychology: A life Span Approach.,Fifth
Edition Mc Graw Hill Book Company, 1980
Jersild, AT. The Psychology of Adolescence, 2nd Edition Teachers College
Columbia University
Lerner, RM and Hultsch [Link] Development: A Life-Span Perspective,
McGraw Hiil Book Company
Lucas, MD. & Corpuz BB. Facilitating Learning: A Metacognitive process.
Lorimar Publishing Inc. Quezon City, Philippines, 2014
Owens, Karen B. Child and Adolescent Development an Integrated Approach.
Thomson Asian Edition Copyright 2006
Papalia, ED and [Link]. Human Development 9th and 10th Edition,Mc Graw Hill
2004
Santrock, John W. Educational Psychology: Theory and Application to Fitness
and Performance. 6th Edition. Published by McGraw-Hill Education. 2018
Schunck, Dale H. Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective. Sixth
Edition. Pearson Education. Inc., publishing as Ally and Bacon, Copyright
2012

Online References

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