The Impact of Social Interactions on

Children’s Cognitive Development

A. P. Mandira Fernando
014
Final Module Presentation
 Content

 Introduction

 Jean Piaget’s Cognitive

Developmental Theory

 Lev VyGotsky’s Cognitive

Developmental Theory
(socio- cultural viewpoint)
 Introduction
What is Cognition?

 Cognition refers to the inner processes and products of the

mind that lead to “knowing”

 It includes all mental activity, attending, remembering,

symbolizing, categorizing, planning, reasoning, problem
solving, creating, and fantasizing

 Unlike other species who benefit from camouflage, feathers or

fur coats, and remarkable speed to adapt to changing
environmental conditions, Humans rely on thinking, not only
adapting to their environments but also transforming them.
How Social Interactions impact on cognitive
development?

Child cognitive development is a complex system

of relationships affected by multiple levels of the
surrounding environment, from settings of family
(parent- child relationship, with siblings), peer
relationship, teacher- child relationship, cultural
values and so on.
 Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory

According to Piaget, human infants do not start out as cognitive beings. Instead, out of
their perceptual and motor activities, they build and refine psychological structures—
Schemas; organized ways of making sense of experience that permit them to adapt
more effectively to the environment.

And, Children develop these structures actively, using current structures to select and
interpret experiences, and modifying those structures to take into account more subtle
aspects of reality. Then, it can either be assimilated (The process of which children
interpret new experiences by incorporating them into their existing schemes
or accommodated (Process by which children modify their existing schemes in order to
incorporate or adapt to new experiences).

Although Piaget’s works were mostly focused on the biological mechanisms of cognitive
change, he depicted that how the social agents impact on Children in the process of
actively construct new understandings of the world based on their own experiences.
For instance, a particular child can identify a “cat.” because the family has a calico
cat that is orange, black, and white. That schema is already in place, and it
includes information about not pulling the cat’s tail, petting the cat gently, and
that the cat does not eat “people food.” Then, that child and his/her parents
read a picture book. In the book is a picture of a cat, but it looks nothing like
his/her cat. Instead of a calico pattern of orange, black, and white, it is an all-grey
cat. Maybe it’s a hairless cat. Rather than warping child’s entire idea of what a cat
is and what a cat does, parents add the new information to child’s schema. Cats
can be one plain color, or they can have different colors in a specific pattern. As
child continue to learn about cats, he/she can identify a variety of cats
Here, parents involvement is crucial in order to help the child to sort to the
confusing or contradictory information to their prevailing schemas ( state of
disequilibrium/cognitive discomfort) which is aided the child to modify the
existing schema without any confusion. (build up the environment or surrounding
that a child can learn through exploring by herself/ himself without always telling
the child to think in a particular way).
 Evaluation of the role of social agents in the Stages of Jean
Piaget’s theory

1. Sensorimotor Stage

The sensorimotor stage is the first stage of child’s life, according to Jean
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. It begins at birth and lasts
through age of 2. During this period, little one learns about the world by
using their senses to interact with their surroundings. They touch things, lick
them, bang them together (with joy, we might add), and put them into their
mouths. They also begin to develop fine motor skills. But the advances of
the sensorimotor stage are so vast that Piaget divided it into six sub stages;
Reflexive schemes, Primary circular reactions, Coordination of secondary
circular reactions , Tertiary circular reactions, and Mental representation.
 Sensorimotor Substage Typical Adaptive Behaviors

Reflexive schemes (birth–1 month) Newborn reflexes

Primary circular reactions (1–4 months) Simple motor habits centered around the infant’s own body;
limited anticipation of events

Secondary circular reactions (4–8 months) Actions aimed at repeating interesting effects in the
surrounding world; imitation of familiar behaviors

Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8–12 Intentional, or goal-directed, behavior; ability to find a hidden
months) object in the first location in which it is hidden (object
permanence); improved anticipation of events; imitation of
behaviors slightly different from those the infant usually
performs

Tertiary circular reactions (12–18 months) Exploration of the properties of objects by acting on them in
novel ways; imitation of novel behaviors; ability to search in
several locations for a hidden object

Mental representation (18 months–2 years) Internal depictions of objects and events, as indicated by
sudden solutions to problems; ability to find an object that has
been moved while out of sight (invisible displacement);
deferred imitation; and make-believe play
Parents involvement in developing cognition of children
In this time period, infants are likely to interact with their
caregivers therefore, caregivers can aid infant’s cognitive
development while letting them to learn things by their own
experiences.
 Playing peekaboo or hide-and-seek ( games can help your child
develop their understanding of object permanence through
games. (because in Piaget’s view, this means-end action
sequence consider as the foundation for later problem solving)
 Letting the child play with substances they can manipulate,
helps them learn about different sensations and develop their
motor skills and creativity like try giving your toddler a large
empty bowl, a small cup, and a smaller bowl filled with water.
Encourage them to pour the water from one bowl to the others
 During the sensorimotor stage, babies learn by using their
senses to explore their environments. Providing a range of
activities that involve the five senses help them develop their
sensory abilities as they move through the sub stages like toys
with different textures and fabrics, toys or activities that make
sounds
02. The Preoperational Stage

In preoperational stage, which spans the years 2 to 7, the most

obvious change is an extraordinary increase in representational, or
symbolic, activity. Moreover, the mental representations of Infants’
and toddlers become very advanced. According to Piaget, language
considered as the most flexible means of mental representation .
However, he showed that sensorimotor activity leads to internal
images of experience, which children then label with words (he
discarded that language didn’t play a major role in terms of
cognitive development of children.

By the time the child is about 7 years old, they can use their
imagination and play make-believe. Make believe play (which is self
centered initially but later become less self centered and involve
others to their imaginary world)
 Children practice and strengthen newly acquired representational
schemes through pretending play. Make believe play strengthens a
variety of mental abilities such as; sustained attention, memory,
logical reasoning, language & literacy, imagination, creativity,
understanding of emotions, improving fine motor capabilities etc..
Other characteristics of this stage are;
+ Egocentrism = failure to distinguish others’ symbolic
viewpoints from one’s own.
+ Conservation= It’s the understanding that a quantity
stays the same even if you change the
size, shape, or container it’s in. Piaget
found that most children can’t
understand this concept before 5
years old.
 + Symbolic representation= During the early
preoperational period, between 2 and 3 years old, child will begin
to realize that words and objects are symbols for something else.
Drawing is a great example for this. This will improve children's
spatial understanding and planning. Infarct, drawing serves as an
emphasis of how culture plays a considerable role on artistic
expressions.

Parents involvement in developing cognition of children

 Role play can help the child overcome egocentrism because
this is a way to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. Keep a
box of costume items (old scarves, hats, purses, aprons) so that
the little one can dress up and pretend to be someone else.
 let the child play with materials that change shape so that they
can begin to understand conservation. A ball of play dough can
be squashed into a flat shape that seems bigger, but is it? In the
bath tub, have them pour water into different shaped cups and
bottles.
 Set up a corner in house to look like the doctor’s office just
visited. Acting out what she/he experienced will help child to
internalize what they learned.
 Hands-on practice will help the child develop symbolic
representation. Have them roll play dough into the shapes of
letters or use stickers to fill in the shapes of letters. Use letter-
shaped magnets to build words on your refrigerator door.
03. The Concrete Operational Stage

The concrete operational stage usually starts when your child hits 7 years
old and lasts till they reach 11. And, children begin to think logically and
rationally, but they tend to be limited to thinking about physical objects
Characteristics of this stage can be listed as follows;
1. Conservation
This is understanding that something can stay the same in quantity even
though it looks different. In this age , they recognize this understanding
That ball of play dough is the same amount whether you squash it flat or
roll it into a ball.
2. Classification
There are two parts to classification. One is sorting things into categories.
Children can group flowers and animals into two separate categories.
At this stage, they can go one step further. They understand that there
are sub-classes within a group, like yellow and red flowers or animals that
fly and animals that swim.
 3. Seriation
It’s all about mentally sorting a group of things into some sort
of order. Now child can sort from the tallest to the shortest, or
the thinnest to the widest.

4. Spatial Reasoning
Piaget found that school-age children’s understanding of space
is more accurate than that of preschoolers (mental
representations of familiar large-scale spaces, such as their
neighborhood or school)
Parents involvement in developing cognition of children
 Math can be fun! Bake chocolate chip cookies and use the
measuring cups to give your child a good sense of fractions. Talk
about which ingredient represents the biggest amount. Let child
list them in order. And then be brave and double the recipe for
extra practice. As your child gets more proficient, move on to
word problems. This helps them develop their abstract thinking
 Ask the child to help you plan a surprise party for Grandma (or
another loved one). In there, child has to think of Grandma’s
favorite foods and even what kind of a present Grandma would
want. It’s all about moving beyond his/her own egocentric circle

 Take child’s favorite and different types of toys Then jumble all
the toys. And, encourage the child to categories them. This will
help to improve child’s ability of classification
.
04. The Formal Operational Stage

The formal operational stage is the final stage of Jean Piaget’s

theory of cognitive development. During this time, children
start thinking about abstract concepts and hypotheticals. The
formal operational stage starts around the age of 11 and
continues through to adulthood.

Also develop the systematic, scientific thinking. On the other

hand, concrete operational children can “operate on reality,”
formal operational adolescents can “operate on operations.”
Meaning, they can come up with new, more general logical
rules through internal reflection
Characteristics of this stage are;
1.Hypothetico-Deductive Reasoning
When faced with a problem, they start with a hypothesis, or
prediction about variables that might affect an outcome, from
which they deduce logical, testable inferences. Then they
systematically isolate and combine variables to see which of
these inferences are confirmed in the real world ( allows
them to function better in the world, understanding the
consequences of their actions and being able to problem-
solving)

2.Propositional Thought
Adolescents’ ability to evaluate the logic of propositions
(verbal statements) without referring to real-world
circumstances
Parents ,teacher, and peer involvement in developing
cognition of children
 Parents can include children in important decision-making
at home, encouraging them to think through the
consequences of those choices before making a decision
 As parents, teachers, and peers refrain from finding faults
with the adolescence and publically criticize them. Because
they are sensitive to criticisms. Speak privately with them if
the matter is important.
 In order to control the exaggerate sense of personal
uniqueness, as parents, acknowledge the adolescence’s
unique characteristics while encouraged to maintaining a
balanced perspective about them.
 Also, as parents, and teachers, help the teenagers to see
that people are blends of virtues and imperfections when
they criticize a particular religion, nation .
 Piaget and Education

Discovery learning Sensitivity to children’s

Than providing a ready-made readiness to learn
knowledge to children, Teachers introduce activities
children are encouraged to that build on children’s current
discover for themselves thinking, challenging their
through spontaneous incorrect ways of viewing the
interaction with the world without attempt to
environment such as art, speed up the development.
puzzles, table games, dress-up And teachers don’t impose
clothing, building blocks, new skills before children
books, measuring tools, indicate that they are
natural science tasks, and interested or ready
musical instruments
Acceptance of Individual Differences

All children should go though the same sequence of

development, but at different rates. Therefore teachers
should plan activities for individuals and small groups rather
than for the whole class. Further, teachers evaluate
educational progress by comparing them with their
previous stage of development. Piaget showed that this is
effective than measure up to average performances of same
peers.
Lev VyGosky’s Sociocultural Theory
A Russian psychologists

Developed a sociocultural approach to cognitive

development and viewed children as active seekers
of knowledge, emphasized the profound effects of
rich social and cultural contexts on their thinking.

Developed the zone of proximal development

Viewed language as the most important

psychological tool in changing thinking.

Rejected Piaget’s assumption that separating

learning from children's social context is possible.

His approach wasn't a complete one like Piaget’

because he died of Tuberculosis at age37.
 Language and Thoughts

 VyGosky believed that language is an important tool in shaping cognitive

development. Rapid growth of language leads to a profound change in
thinking

 It broards preschoolers’ participation in social dialogues with more

knowledgeable individuals, who encourage them to master culturally
important tasks

 Soon young children start to communicate with themselves much as they

converse with others

 As a result, basic mental capacities are transformed into uniquely human,

higher cognitive processes
Private Speech
In accordance to VyGosky’s view, children speak to themselves
for self guidance (because language helps children think about
mental activities and select courses of actions. As children get
older and find tasks easier, their self directed speech is
internalized as silent, inner speech; verbal dialogues with
themselves while thinking and acting in everyday situation. As
the result, children’s self directed speech is turned as a private
speech.

Further, private speech considered as the foundation for all

higher cognitive processes, including controlled attention,
deliberate memorization and recall, categorization, planning,
problem solving, abstract reasoning, and self-reflection.
 Piaget viewed private speech as egocentric speech which is more
like ‘talk for self’. (they express thoughts in whatever form they
happen to occur, regardless of whether a listener can understand).
He considered that the difficulty of taking the perspectives of
others which young children have is the basis for egocentric
speech.

 Also, disagreements with peers often bring an end to egocentric

speech

 Through arguments with peers, children perceive that others hold

different viewpoint from their own, Therefore, egocentric speech
declines and is replaced by social speech; a type o speech that is
used to address another person.
 Vygotsky’s Concept of Zone of Proximal
Development

 He believed that private speech

comes from the zone of proximal
development that children’s learning
take place within the zone of
proximal development

 According to the Vygotsky theory of

cognitive development, children who
are in the zone of proximal
development for a particular task can
almost perform the task
independently, but not quite there
yet. With a little help from certain
people, they’ll be able to perform the
task successfully.
Some factors that are essential in helping a child in the zone of proximal
development:
 The presence of someone who has better skills in the task that the child is
trying to learn. This one is known as a more knowledgeable other(MKO,
such as teacher, parents, elders, peers)
 The child can receive instructions from the MKO during the learning
process.
 The MKO can offer temporary support (scaffolding) to the child during the
learning process.

Zone of Proximal Development underscores that social influences, (getting

instructions from someone) are important on the cognitive development in
early childhood. Because of the instructions give to children or show how to
perform certain tasks, they organize the new information received in their
existing mental schemas. They use this information as guides on how to
perform these tasks and eventually learn to perform them independently.
(These instructions use as private speech for guiding their own thoughts,
behaviors and actions)
 For instance,
A five-year-old child knows how to ride a tricycle, but can’t ride a
bicycle (with two wheels) unless his grandfather holds onto the
back of her bike. According to Vygotsky’s theory, this child is in the
zone of proximal development for riding bicycle.
With her grandfather’s help, this little girl learns to balance her
bike. After some practicing, she can ride the bike on her own. (level
of actual development)
 The concept of Scaffolding and Intersubjectivity
Scaffolding
 Scaffolding refers to the temporary support
Intersubjectivity
given to a child by a More Knowledgeable The process whereby two
Other that enables the child to perform a participants who begin a task with
task until such time that the child can
perform this task independently. different understandings arrive at
 Also, it entails changing the quality and a shared understanding. This
quantity of support provided to a child in capacity is presented in early
the course of a teaching session. The MKO
parent- child gaze (exchange of
adjusts the level of guidance in order to fit
the student’s current level of performance. emotional signals and imitation
 Examples, model building, puzzle, picture and later language facilitates it. At
matching, academic assessments in age 3-5, children strive for
schools, preschools, and even in house
based context
inersubjectivity in dialogues with
 pairing students with high intelligent peers peers ( sharing the viewpoint of “I
also help to develop logical knowledge as think” and “what do you think”. In
they both share their opinions and come to this way children began to create a
conclusions (guided participation)
zone of proximal development for
 Vygotsky and Educationa

Assisted Lerning
Teachers guide children’s learning, tailoring their interventions to
each child’s zone of proximal development. Also this can foster by
peer collaboration too. Children with varying abilities work in grope,
teaching and helping one another.
Make- believe Play
it’s a major source of development in preschool years. Make
believe paly is influential in zone of proximal development where
they advance themselves as they try out a wide variety of
challenging skills. Further, make-believe play is effective for later
academic learning.
Reciprocal Teaching
Teacher and two to four students form a collaborative group and
take turns leading dialogues on the content of a text passage

Within the dialogues, group members apply four cognitive

strategies: questioning, summarizing, clarifying, and predicting

Cooperative Learning
Small groups of classmates work toward common goals. Examples
of cooperative learning are;
 References

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