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Neural & Cognitive Development
Basics – Chapter 3
Progression of Prenatal Brain
Development
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Neurulation – cells turn inward & curl
into a neural tube (beginning of CNS)
Neurons – building blocks of the brain
(100 billion at birth)
Glia – supporting cells
4. Neurons migrate from the inside out,
through already formed layers, to form the
Hindbrain, Midbrain, & Cerebral Cortex of
the forebrain
The neurons migrate in an orderly way –
cluster with similar cells into distinct
sections; By the 4th month – basic
structures are formed
Neuroplasticity
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Neural specialization (structural
organization) appears to be influenced by
environmental input
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The brain is malleable throughout the
lifespan, but especially during early
stages of development
Structure & Function
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Neurons communicate via electrochemical
messages
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Neurotransmitters – chemical messengers that
stimulate firing or inhibition of neurons (100
have been identified)
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Neurons are joined via their connections into
circuite, which are part of larger organizations
called systems
Later brain development
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Neurons begin to fire around the 4th month of gestation
Responsivity to experience (pre & post-natal) shapes the brain
by establishing patterns of connections(e.g. research p. 74)
Timing of stimulation is important (critical periods)
Sensory systems influence each other (e.g. interrelation
between visual & tactile or visual & auditory)
An optimal range of sensory experience is critical for brain
development – too much or too little can cause disturbances
arousal level is also influential – infants attend differently to
stimuli based on their own arousal level
Scientists continue to examine the interaction between amount
of stimulation, timing of stimulation & arousal level, which
together influence sensory system development
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Neuron are over-produced; reproduction slows
around 12 months of age
Most brain growth after birth is due to the formation
of synapses – new connections among neurons
(synaptogensis)
Rapid strides in cognitive development occur at end
of 1st year when prefrontal synapses are at peak
density
Over 12 years or more, neural pruning occurs; those
that remain reflect genetics & pre & postnatal
experience
Sensory & Motor Development
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Babies have competencies at birth
Sensory & motor systems develop & become
more smoothly integrated during the first
year of post-natal life
Sensory Integration Dysfunction: extreme
unevenness of motor and sensory systems
Sensorimotor & cognitive development can
be uneven in normal children & are linked to
brain changes
Piaget’s Constructivist Theory
The human mind constructs its knowledge
Adaptation – active participation in the learning
process (children are active learners)
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Assimilation: interpret new stimulation in ways that fit with
what they already know, sometimes distorting it as a result
Accommodation (learning): existing knowledge may be
modified as new information is assimilated, providing a better
match or fit to what is new.
Assimilation & Accommodation are complementary in every
interaction with the environment. In order to accommodate,
children must be able to assimilate.
Transparency 11 – Piaget’s Theory
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Piaget - stages with substages
Recent research
 less support for overarching stages
 development can proceed at different rates in different domains
(domain specific)
 Intersensory integration – senses may be related at birth
 Object permanence & representational thought may occur
earlier than thought
Thinking emerges and improves through the 1st & 2nd years of life
& beyond
Infant Cognition: Sensorimotor Stage
Research using the habituation paradigm has
provided information about perceptual abilities
& also inferences about what babies can
understand & how they think
The habituation paradigm takes advantage of a
baby’s tendency to orient to a new stimulus and
habituate to repeated stimulation.
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Orienting response – longer looking, suck
more vigorously, blood pressure & heart rate
decrease from base rate
Habituation – baby seems to grow bored with
the stimulus (shorter looking times, less
vigorous sucking, return to base rate for
heart rate & blood pressure)
Dishabituation – a renewed orienting
response
Understanding Objects
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Object concept – what infants know about objects –
objects have properties that stimulate all of their senses
Newborns are capable of recognition & intersensory
integration/intermodal perception (assessed via the
preferential looking paradigm)
speed of habituation correlates with later
intelligence test performance
Object permanence – objects exist apart from the
perceiver – requires representational thought (fail to
search younger than 8 – 12 months);
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Some research shows object permanence
occurs much earlier (2.5 months)
Most research supports the general idea that
thinking & conceptual developments that
depend on thinking (e.g. object permanence)
gradually develops & improves through 1st &
2nd years of life & beyond
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Recall emerges later on (8-9 mths) and improves in
duration and complexity over the 2nd year (deferred
imitation research is 1 indicator) – dependent on
representational thought; makes observational
learning/modeling possible
Separation anxiety – sign of object permanence &
recall (around 8 mths of age)
By the end of the 1st year, means-end behavior &
intentional communication
By end of the 2nd year, invent new means to an end
Babies expect agency & have a rudimentary
understanding of intention as early as 6 months (p.87)
Preschooler’s Cognition –
preoperational stage
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Use of symbols – must be able to mentally represent
what is being symbolized
Language skills & pretend play blossom as
representational skills grow
Conservation task & centration – thought is focused
on one feature at a time, so conclusions drawn are
illogical
Decentration – ability to take into account multiple
pieces of information simultaneously (occurs
between 5 & 7)
Piaget may have underestimated preschoolers
skills, however, interpretation of data is
disputed
 newborns discriminate differences between
small numbers
 2-3 year olds have some understanding of
fundamental counting principles, such as the
one-to-one principle & order-irrelevance
principle
Conclusions
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Concepts such as number are understood in
ever-increasing breadth & depth
Appearance based conclusions – miss
deeper significance of events
Focus on singular, salient features of events
Limitations occur sometimes, not always
Experience, especially interaction with
adults, affects how early abilities develop
Understanding the Mind
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Preoperational egocentrism – centered on their own
perspective & have no awareness of the possibility
of a different perspective
Understanding is gradually built with improvement in
decentering & social interaction with feedback about
different viewpoints
When emotions are strongly involved, perspective
taking is especially difficult
Siblings, pretend play, role-playing – more rapid
advances on theory of mind skills
Symbolic Artifacts
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Difficult for children because of their dual
nature – both concrete objects & symbols for
other things (must be represented 2 ways at
once in the mind)
Practical implications – pictures, t.v., use of
dolls as models of humans (therapy, medical
procedures)
Language
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Phonology – sound system of the language - development
begins before birth & gradual advances are made
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By 6 months, babies exposed to only 1 language show signs of
sharpening their ability to discriminate distinctions important in
that language, but have begun to lose the ability to perceive
distinctions unimportant
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Begin babbling by 6 months, matching sounds to native
language by 9 months
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Semantics: learning meanings of words; vocabulary spurt at 18
to 24 months (using words as symbols) – marks end of
somatosensory period
By 3, most children can make themselves understood by
familiar listeners (by 4 – nonfamily members)
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Language is so complex and learned so early, it is difficult to
understand how - may be genetically programmed or the
analytic capacity of the brain
Begin to produce sketchy and largely uninformative narratives
by 2-3 (pragmatics – how to use language to communicate);
become more thorough with increase in perspective-taking –
adjustments are made depending on the listener
By 5 – produce most sentence structures (syntax/grammar)
Experience is key – vocabulary size is a later predictor of literacy
and success in school (related to home & preschool environmt)
Quantity & quality is important – more speech, asking questions,
elaborating more; Lengthy discussions about past experiences,
with lots of detail - results in more adequate & informative
narratives and better memory for past events
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
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Emphasis on culture or society into which one is born in the
transmission of knowledge. Children learn the meaning
ascribed to something by their culture. The individual can never
be separated from environment or culture – “child-in-context”.
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Mediated learning - human thinking is mediated by the tools
(e.g. language, numbering, writing systems) humans use,
shape & develop. The tools or signs shape thought. The mind
is collective – an individual cannot be separated from
environment/culture. More advanced thinkers or more capable
members of a culture provide novice learners with scaffolding
(prompts, cues, supports) that enables novices to reach
higher levels of thinking. Scaffolding occurs in the intermental
space between parent & child.
Transparency 12 – Vygotsky’s Theory
Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Scaffolding & the Zone of Proximal
Development
The zone contains the range of tasks that a
child cannot yet accomplish without the
assistance of others with greater
knowledge capabilities
Egocentric or private speech is transformed
into inner speech - the kind of internal
dialogue that facilitates thinking. It directs
thoughts & keeps them focused. It is a
precursor to problem solving, planning ability,
and self-control.
- at 3 – running commentary
- at 6 – more subdued & idiosyncratic
- at 8 – dialogue is internalized
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Piaget and Vygotsky: Implications for
Helping Professionals
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Piagetian implications:
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find ways to relate new information or insight to
client’s current knowledge structure
Understand client’s thinking and what meanings
they have already made
Vygotskian implications:
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Understand the importance of culture on cognitive
development
Be aware of cultural differences in parenting
practices and orientations to individualism and
collectivism
Early Childhood Education:
Helping All Children Succeed
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Early experiences build brain architecture
and behavioral foundations
Pre-K or preschool programs are diverse
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Child care or day care programs
Early education programs
Head Start and Early Head Start programs
Universal pre-K movement aims to bring
more uniformity of purpose and consistency
in quality
How Does Preschool Help?
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Building skills supportive of later academic
success
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Cognitive skills and executive functions
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Understanding of self, physical and social world
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Skills in controlling emotions and behavior
Providing essential building blocks for literacy
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Growing a good vocabulary
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Narrative or story telling skills
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Extensive and positive experience with books
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Phonological awareness
What Makes a Preschool Program
“High Quality”?
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Suggested key features of quality preschool
programs (consistent with NAEYC and
NIEER)
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Teachers with appropriate education, e.g.,
bachelors’ degrees, preparation in early childhood
education
Reasonable teacher–child ratios for age group
Equipment and materials offering choice & variety
General positive atmosphere, safe space where
children are comfortable and engaged
Applications
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Special skills are required of counselors who
work with young children and their families
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Guidelines for working with the youngest clients
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Be attentive and get out of the way
Maintain cooperation over time
Watch your language, keep it simple and concrete
Don’t be afraid of problems or conflicts
Don’t jump to conclusions
Lesson from Piaget and Vygotsky: The helper
needs to understand how clients are thinking
Focus on Developmental
Psychopathology: Autism
Spectrum
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Causes and prevalence
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No clear understanding of causes despite extensive
research
Possible contributors include individual differences in
the timing of brain development, genetic variation,
metabolic influences, and environmental (teratogenic)
factors
Affecting 1 in 110 individuals
Some show early indications from birth, in other
cases regressions can occur
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Focus on Developmental
Psychopathology: Autism
Spectrum
Diagnostic issues
Five disorders constituted the spectrum
– New DSM-V groups all categories into autism
spectrum disorder (ASD) because of overlapping
symptoms and presumably related etiologies
– Broad variation in impairments
Prominent features include difficulties in social
development and impairments in communication
Approximately two-thirds also meet criteria for mental
retardation
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Focus on Developmental
Psychopathology: Autism Spectrum
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Treatment approaches include Applied Behavior
Analysis, comprehensive interdisciplinary programs
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Guidelines for effective intervention
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Early entry into intervention program
Intensive, year-round, treatment
Small group teacher–student ratio
Parent training and support
Opportunities to interact with neurotypical peers
Ongoing assessment of progress
Address communication, social, adaptive, and school
readiness skills, decrease disruptive behavior