Week 8 Cognitive Development and Language

I do agree with most of what Piaget and Vygotsky said about cognitive development. I like that Piaget defines them and that there are different stages that we all go through. You don't jump over them during your development, and I think that in general they work as a good developmental definition. I do think, however, that they are not as cut and dry as he has them laid out. I think that there is more meshing of the stages. Not everyone developes at the same rate.

As far as Vygotsky is concerned I agree alot with the developmental process that we go through in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). I think alot of the development that we go through is scafolded my others. There is a certain amount that we can learn on our own before we need help. Then, if we have help or are able to learn from someone at about our same developmental level we can learn more still, but we still hit a stopping point. Then, if we recieve help from an expert we learn even more than we were capable of doing alone or even with a peer. As we learn more the cycle repeats as we move up. We then take our new information and start again.

I think the part of most interest to me was on language and cognitive development. I am not sure I agree that language is needed for conscious thought. We assume that an infant is not conscious of its thoughts but no one has ever been able to ask an infant what it is thinking. That is along the same lines as, "I think, therefore I am." Children at a young age do exhibit some problem solving skills even though they have no vocabulary, it does, I believe require conscious thought in order to problem solve. What about children that are born deaf? If that is discovered later in their developmental process, do they just not think, or rather, do they just not have conscious thought until words are supplied? Just because you cannot express your thoughts does not mean you don't have them and that you are not aware of yourself.

Looking at the role that play takes in a child's development, I think that it is interesting to note that much of their pretend has to do with adult roles. There are so many adults that wish they were kids again and so many kids pretending to be adults. If we knew when we were children what it felt like to be an adult that wanted their childhood back then maybe we would engage in different types of play. But as it is, I do agree that play is important in child development. The child is able, according to Vygotsky, to move up in the ZPD by taking on a new unfamiliar role.