Cognitive and language Essay

Horizontal – vertical – actions by children, such as climbing, stepping up and down. These schemas are then developed further through the progresses of ‘assimilation’ (this is taking in new information from the environment through the childs existing patterns of actions) and ‘accommodation’ (this is modifying existing patterns of actions to accommodate new information and knowledge) and balancing it out with what new experiences they have made (this is called equilibration). Piaget emphasised his theory on the role of the individual child, where as Vygotsky’s work looked at the importance of the social world in children’s learning and emphasised on promoting through social interaction and communicating. He said that children were born to be sociable by being with parents/friends and that they acquire skills and concepts. He thought the children were incapable of learning alone but was possible with assistance (this is called ‘zone of proximal development’). Vygosky theory would be used in schools for the children’s education, hands on role for teacher, teachers scaffolding the children, giving the child a more challenging and stimulating environment then if was left to discover and learn alone. Skinner’s theory on learning is the change in behaviour as a result of reinforcement. He believed that children develop their language through imitating role models and reinforcement. Skinner found that if you praise or rewarded a child for its good behaviour the child would repeat the behaviour again (this is called positive reinforcement). He found this a more effective strategy than punishment which is called negative reinforcement. He called his theory ‘operant conditioning’. Television can influence the child’s development. It can stimulate curiosity, increase knowledge, enlarges vocabulary, it can encourages family discussions and conversation and it entertains. It can broaden the child’s experience, bringing the wider world within their reach, although television can be harmful for children when the television is on continuously, it can make conversation difficult it would also reduce the opportunity for playing, reading and writing. Unsuitable programmes watched can encourage the child to behave in an anti-social way or even frighten the child. Bandura’s theory emphasised on the children learning behaviour of observing and imitating adults/people. Including aggression, sharing, sex roles and altruism, this could be from the television and the environment around them.