LINGUISTIC AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

NATURAL HISTORY OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Speech and language are the tools humans use to communicate and share thoughts, ideas, and emotions. For babies and children, they come to know these tools and develop at a varying rate.Language differs from speech in that language is the set of rules, shared by the individuals who are communicating, that allows them to exchange those thoughts, ideas, or emotions. Speech is talking, one way that a language can be expressed. Language may also be expressed through writing or things like signing.

When we communicate successfully, we do so because we are able to do at least four different things. First, we need to be able to perceive and produce the sounds that make up a language and convey meanings to other people.How we produce meaningful sounds is the study of phonology. Second, we need to know what the words of a language mean.Semantics is the study of word meaning and how we acquire a vocabulary. Third, we need to know how to put these words together in grammatically appropriate ways such that others will understand us.The study of grammar (or syntax) refers to how we learn the rules of a language. Fourth, we need to know how to effectively use our language to communicate with others. Pragmatics is the study of how we use language to achieve communicative goals.

The earliest theory about language development assumed that children acquire language through imitation. While research has shown that children who imitate the actions of those around them during their first year of life are generally those who also learn to talk more quickly, there is also evidence that imitation alone cannot explain how children become talkers.

Theories of Language Development

1. Behavioral Theory/ Learning Perspective

Behaviorists believe language is something that can be observed and measured. The need to use language is stimulated and language is uttered in response to stimuli. To the behaviorist, competence in the rules of language is not as important as the ability to speak it; speaking is what makes language real. Knowledge is a mental state and the structure of a language doesnt make it a language; it is the function of speaking words that makes a language a language. B.F. Skinner is perhaps the best known behaviorist who posited that children are conditioned by their environment to respond to certain stimuli with language. Children imitate what they seeand hear, and children learn from punishment and reinforcement. When children speak the language of their parents they are rewarded and become more skillful. They grow in their ability to respond in a manner that responds to the environmental stimuli given by his parents. This shapes a childs language more than knowledge of rules. (Gleason and Ratner 2009). Skinner argued that adults shape the speech of children byreinforcing the babbling of infants that sound most like words.

While most would agree that a language-rich environment helps children achieve success in communication, experts havent been able to prove this with experiments outside the lab. The behaviorists approach has been criticized for not taking into account the many and varied influences on a childs language learning.

2. Nativist Linguistic Theory

The manner in which a child acquires language is a matter long debated by linguists and child psychologists alike. The father of most nativist theories of language acquisition is Noam Chomsky, who brought greater attention to the innate capacity of children for learning language, which had widely been considered a purely cultural phenomenon based on imitation. The nativist perspective argues that humans are biologically programmed togain knowledge. Nativist linguistic theories hold that children learn through their natural ability to organize the laws of language, but cannot fully utilize this talent without the presence of other humans. This does not mean, however, that the child requires formal tutelage of any sort. Chomsky claims that children are born with a hard-wired Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in their brains. They are born with the major principles of language in place, but with many parameters to set (such as whether sentences in the language(s) they are to acquire must have explicit subjects). According to nativist theory, when the young child is exposed to a language, their LAD makes it possible for them to set the parameters and deduce the grammatical principles, because the principles are innate. (Bigge and Shermis, 1998). This is still a very controversial view, and many linguists and psychologists do not believe language is as innate as Chomsky argues. There are important arguments both for and against Chomsky's view of development. One idea central to the Chomskian view is the idea of Universal Grammar, which posits that all languages have the same basic underlying structure, and that specific languages have rules that transform these underlying structures into the specific patterns found in given languages. Another argument is that without a propensity for language, human infants would be unable to learn such complete speech patterns in a natural human environment where complete sentences are the exception

More recently, researchers have shown that parents react differently to childrens grammatically correct and incorrect utterances. This shapes the childs behavior and therefore challenges the belief that language is innate.

3. Social Interactionist Theory

This theory is an approach to language acquisition that stresses the environment and the context in which the language is being learned. It focuses on the pragmatics of language rather than grammar, which should come later. In this approach, the beginning speaker and the experienced speaker--be they child and adult or second-language learner and fluent speaker--exist in a negotiated arrangement where feedback is always possible. The basic appeal of this approach is the importance it places on the home and the cultural environment in early-childhood language acquisition. Interactionist theories are concerned with the interplay between environmental & biological factors in the process of acquiring language. Interactionist theories are concerned with the interplay between environmental & biological factors in the process of acquiring language. Interactionists tend to view children as having a strong biological predisposition to acquire a language. However, in contrast to nativists, interactionists stress the importance of both the social support that parents provide the young language learner, as well as the social contexts in which language-learning child is instructed. Jerome Bruner (1983) argues parents provide their children a language acquisition support system or LASS. The LASS is a collection of strategies that parents employ to facilitate their childrens acquisition of language. One of these strategies is scaffolding, the deliberate use of language at a level that is slightly beyond what children can comprehend. With parental support, scaffolding leads the child to acquire complex language more quickly then they might on their own. Another strategy is called infant-directed speech or motherese (aka baby talk). When using infant-directed speech, parents speak in a higher pitch, stress important words, and talk more slowly to their infants. Very young infants show a clear preference for infant-directed speech. Gets an infants attention & increases the chances of their understanding the message. Another a pair of techniques that adults employ is expansion & recast. Expansion occurs when an adult takes a childs utterance and expands on its complexity. For example, when a child might utter something like Felix eated, the parent might expand on the complexity, adding Yes, thats right, Felix ate his dinner. Notice here that the parent has also corrected the childs grammar, changing eated to its appropriate past tense form, ate. When parents expand, as in this example, they often recast the childs utterance as well, correcting the grammatical form of the utterance. Language is a social concept that is developed through social interactions. According to Lev Vygotsky, language acquisition involves not only a childs exposure to words but also an interdependent process of growth between thought and language. Vygotskys influential theory of the "zone of proximal development" asserts that teachers should consider a childs prospective learning power before trying to expand the childs grasp of language. Vygotskys theory of language is based on constructivist learning theory, which contends that children acquire knowledge as a result of engaging in social experiences. It focuses on collaborative learning. Collaborative learning is the idea that conversations with older peoplecan help children both cognitively and linguistically. "Through social and language interactions, older and more experienced members of a community teach younger and less experienced members the skills, values, and knowledge needed to be productive members of that community." According to Vygotsky, words are signals. Rather than engage children in a primary signal system, in which objects are referred to merely as themselves, adults engage children in a secondary signal system, in which words represent objects and ideas. A childs intellectual development is crucial to his language development. By interacting with his environment, a child develops the ability to develop private, inner speech. "Inner speech is thinking in pure meanings; it is the link between the second signal system of the social world and the thought of the individual." Through the development of inner speech, children straddle the divide between thought and language, eventually being able to express their thoughts coherently to others. The language learning process occurs as a result of give and take. Parents and teachers usher a child through a process of guided discovery, addressing her learning potential. Eventually, children internalize language skills. As young learners experience language development, they "can reflect better on their own thinking and behavior and reach greater levels of control and mastery over their own behavior." Vygotskys constructivist language theory exists in opposition to Jean Piagets theory of language acquisition. According to Piaget, children construct knowledge about language through a complex process of assimilation, stressing the inherent capability of a childs brain to adapt to stimulation. By contrast, Vygotsky stresses the social nature of language learning, emphasizing the environment within which a child is raised.4. Cognitive Theory of language development

This theory was proposed by Jean Piaget.He theorized that language is made up of symbols and structures, but exhibits itself as a childs mental abilities mature. In addition, language is only one of many human mental or cognitive activities. Piagets view of how children's minds work and develop has been enormously influential, particularly in educational theory. His particular insight was the role of maturation (simply growing up) in children's increasing capacity to understand their world: they cannot undertake certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough to do so. His research has spawned a great deal more, much of which has undermined the detail of his own, but like many other original investigators, his importance comes from his overall vision. (Wood, 1998). Piaget proposed that children's thinking does not develop entirely smoothly: instead, there are certain points at which it "takes off" and moves into completely new areas and capabilities. He saw these transitions as taking place at about 18 months, 7 years and 11 or 12 years. This has been taken to mean that before these ages children are not capable (no matter how bright) of understanding things in certain ways, and has been used as the basis for scheduling the school curriculum. (Satterly, 1987).

PRE-SPEECH FORMS OF COMMUNICATION During the first year and a half to two years of post natal life, until they have learned enough words to use as a form of communication, babies use four pre-speech forms of communication: crying, explosive sounds which soon develop into babbling; gestures; and emotional expressions. Of these four, the second-babbling-is the most important in speech development because it becomes the basis for real speech.1. Crying:In the early days of postnatal life, most vocalization consists of crying. Crying is one of the first ways in which the infant is able to communicate with the world at large. Through cries, babies make known their need for someone to relieve their hunger, pain, fatigue, and other unpleasant bodily states and to satisfy their desire for attention.To make this communication easier for others to understand, nature provides for differentiation in the tonal quality of the cries as early as the third or fourth week of life. Pain,for example, is expressed by loud, shrill cries interrupted by groaning and whimpering while hunger cries are loud and interrupted by sucking movements.Comprehension of the meaning fl cries is aided by the intensity of the cries and by bodily movements that accompany crying. The louder and the more persistent baby, for example, will have a louder and more persistent cry than a baby who is less hungry. Social reactions to crying influence the amount of crying babies do.2. Cooing and Babbling:The second pre-speech form of communication is called cooing or babbling. In addition to cries, babies may make simple sounds during the early months of life, such as grunts of pain or disgust, squeals of delight, yawns, sneezes, sighs, belching, coughing, guttural barking sounds, growls, and cries, that sound like the whine of a young pig or the bleat of a goat. These are known as cooing. As the babys neuromuscular mechanisms develop, explosive sounds change into babbling.3. Gestures:The third preliminary form of communication consists of gesturesmovements of the limbs or the body which serve as substitutes for, or supplements to, speech. As a substitute for speech, gestures take the place of words; an idea is conveyed to others by meaningful movements of the limbs or some part of the body. As a supplement to speech, gestures emphasize on the meaning of spoken words. Gestures have the serious purpose of communication. Most gestures made by babies are easy to understand. The need for gestures asasubstitute for speech does not end when babies say their first words, until children have time to build up a large enough vocabulary to express their wants, needs, thoughts, and feelings in words, they will continue to use gestures to make their incomplete sentences meaningful.4. Emotional Expressions:The fourth pre-speech form of communication is the expression of emotions through facial and bodilychanges. Thepleasant emotions are accompanied by pleasant vocalizations in the form of cooing, chuckling sounds, and laughs, while the unpleasant emotions are accompanied by whimpering and crying. When children grow older, they learn to control emotional expressions and this decreases their communicative value. Expressions of the emotions are a useful pre-speech form of communication for a second reason they are easy for babies to interpret when they are used by others. Babies quickly notice a changed expression on the parents (ace and a change in the tone of parental voice. Like gestures, emotional expressions continue to be a useful form of communication even after children have learned to speak.

BILINGUAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Bilingualism is the ability to speak or write fluently in two languages. It refers to those children who speak/have been spoken to in two languages in the home since birth and who are spoken to in only or both of those two languages at daycare or school

Some Myths about Bilingualism

1. Bilingualism causes language delay. While a bilingual childs vocabulary in each individual language may be smaller than average, his total vocabulary (from both languages) will be at least the same size as a monolingual child. Bilingual children may say their first words slightly later than monolingual children, but still within the normal age range (between 8-15 months). And when bilingual children start to produce short sentences, they develop grammar along the same patterns and timelines as children learning one language. Bilingualism itself does not cause language delay. A bilingual child who is demonstrating significant delays in language milestones could have a language disorder and should be seen by a speech language pathologist.

2.When children mix their languages it means that they are confused and having trouble becoming bilingual.When children use both languages within the same sentence or conversation, it is known as code mixing or code switching. Examples of English-Tagalog code-mixing: bigdede. Parents sometimes worry that this mixing is a sign of language delay or confusion. However, code mixing is a natural part of bilingualism. Proficient adult bilinguals code mix when they converse with other bilinguals, and it should be expected that bilingual children will code-mix when speaking with other bilinguals. Many researchers see code mixing as a sign of bilingual proficiency. For example, bilingual children adjust the amount of code-mixing they use to match that of a new conversational partner (someone theyve never met before who also code mixes). It has also been suggested that children code-mix when they know a word in one language but not the other. Furthermore, sometimes code-mixing is used to emphasize something, express emotion, or to highlight what someone else said in the other language. For example, I want DEDE. Therefore, code-mixing is natural and should be expected in bilingual children.

3. A person is not truly bilingual unless he is equally proficient in both languages. It is rare to find an individual who is equally proficient in both languages. Most bilinguals have a dominant language, a language of greater proficiency. The dominant language is often influenced by the majority language of the society in which the individual lives. An individuals dominant language can change with age, circumstance, education, social network, employment, and many other factors.

4. An individual must learn a second language as a young child in order to become bilingual.There is a Critical Period theory that suggests that there is a window of time (early childhood) during which a second language is most easily learned. This theory has led many people to believe that it is better to learn a second language as a young child. Young children have been found to achieve better native-like pronunciation than older children or adult second language learners. And they seem to achieve better long-term grammatical skills than older learners. But other findings have called the idea of a critical period into question. For example: older children (in middle elementary school) have been shown to have advantages when learning academic English. Academic language refers to the specialized vocabulary, grammar, and conversational ability needed to understand and learn in school. This is likely easier for older children because they learn their second language with more advanced cognitive skills than younger children, and with more experience with schooling and literacy. older children and adults seem to be advantaged when initially learning vocabulary and grammar.Therefore, while younger children seem to become more native-like in the long-term, older children may pick up vocabulary, grammar, and academic language more easily in the initial stages of language learning.

5. Parents should adopt the one parent-one language approach when exposing their child to two languages. Some parents may choose to adopt the one parent-one language approach, where each parent speaks a different language to the child. While this is one option for raising a bilingual child, there is no evidence to suggest that it is the only or best way to raise a child bilingually, or that it reduces code mixing. Parents should not worry if they both speak their native language to the child or if they mix languages with their child, as it has been recognized that children will mix their languages regardless of the parents approach. Many approaches can lead to bilingualism. Parents should speak to their child in a way that is comfortable and natural to them.

6. If you want your child to speak the majority language, you should stop speaking your home language with your child. Some parents attempt to speak the majority language to their child because they want their child to learn that language, even if they themselves are not fluent in the majority language. This can mean that conversations and interactions do not feel natural or comfortable between parent and child. There is no evidence that frequent use of the second language in the home is essential for a child to learn a second language. Furthermore, without knowledge of a familys home language, a child can become isolated from family members who only speak the home language. Research shows that children who have a strong foundation in their home language more easily learn a second language. Children are also at great risk of losing their home language if it is not supported continually at home.

Benefits of Bilingualism

Bilingual children are better able to focus their attention on relevant information and ignore distractions Bilingual individuals have been shown to be more creative and better at planning and solving complex problems than monolinguals. The effects of aging on the brain are diminished among bilingual adults. In one study, the onset of dementia was delayed by 4 years in bilinguals compared to monolinguals with dementia. Bilingual individuals have greater access to people and resources. Aside from the obvious advantage of being able to speak more than one language,it impacts the child positively in the sense of self esteem, future job opportunities and ability to live and travel abroad. The cognitive advantages of bilingualism (e.g. with attention, problem solving, etc.) seem to be relatedto an individuals proficiency in his languages. This means that a person will benefit more from hisbilingualism (cognitively) if he is more proficient in his languages.

How Children LearnMore Than One Language

Bilingual acquisition can take place in one of two ways:1. Simultaneous Acquisitionoccurs when a child is raised bilingually from birth, or when the second language is introduced before the age of three. Children learning two languages simultaneously go through the same developmental stages as children learning one language. While bilingual children may start talking slightly later than monolingual children, they still begin talking within the normal range. From the very beginning of language learning, simultaneous bilinguals seem to acquire two separate languages. Early on, they are able to differentiate their two languages and have been shown to switch languages according to their conversation partner (e.g. speak French to a French-speaking parent, then switch to English with an English-speaking parent)2. Sequential Acquisitionoccurs when a second language is introduced after the first language is well-established (generally after the age of three). Children may experience sequential acquisition if they immigrate to a country where a different language is spoken. Sequential learning may also occur if the child exclusively speaks his heritage language at home until he begins school, where instruction is offered in a different language.

Ages of Bilingual Acquisiton

One way of categorizing types of bilingual acquisition is by the age at which the two languages are acquired- infants, child, adoloscent, and adult. Infant or early bilingual acquisiton involves the child learning two languages virtually simultaneosly from the outset. Sometimes this results from having parents who have different native languages, but also speak the other parents language. Early age of bilingual exposure has a significant impact on multiple aspects of a childs development: linguistic, cognitive and reading.Children who experince early and extensive exposure to both of their languages quickly grasp the fundamentals of both of their languages and in a manner similar to that of monolingual language learners

Child bilingual acquisiton may start quite early in life, but involves the successive acquisition of two languages, as do adolescent and adult bilingualism. This may be occasioned by the family moving to another country, the arrival of a caregiver who speaks a different language, or the child starting a nursery class or school is taught in a different language from the one used at home.

Adolescent bilingual acquisition refers to the acquisiton of a second language after puberty, while adult bilingual acquisition refers to acquisition after the teen years.

EMERGENT AND EARLY LITERACY DEVELOPMENT

Literacy is communication in all forms: listening, speaking, reading,and writing. Literacy is continually evolving, beginning at birth, through interactions with others and the environment in which a child lives. While the sequence of literacy development follows the same general pattern, individual rates of growth may vary. Childrens success in school and later in life is to a great extent dependent upon their ability to read and write. One of the best predictors of whether a child will function competently in school and go on to contribute actively in an increasingly literate society is the level to which the child progresses in reading and writing. A child's ability to read and write begins to develop long before entering Kindergarten. Infancy through age eight is the most important time in a child's early literacy development as they learn and develop the skills needed to be successful in school and later in life. According to the joint position statement of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), most children learn to read at around age six or seven, some children learn to read at age five, and a few at age four. In order for children to develop healthy dispositions toward reading and literacy, experiences in the early years must engage children actively in the process of learning. Early Literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they actually read and write. Research shows that children arriving at kindergarten with the following early literacy skills are more likely to be successful in learning to read and write: Vocabulary Development-- Knowing the names of things Narrative Skills-- Being able to describe things, events, and tell stories Letter Knowledge-- Understanding that each letter is unique and has a name and sound Print Awareness-- Experience with different forms of print; knowledge of how to handle books and how to follow words across a page Print Motivation-- Interest in and enjoyment from books Phonological Awareness-- Ability to hear and play with the small sounds that make up words

Early Literacy Behaviors

1. Book Handling Behaviors - behaviors related to a child's physical manipulation or handling of books, such as page turning and chewing.2. Looking and Recognizing Behaviors - related to how children pay attention to and interact with pictures in books, such as gazing at pictures or laughing at a favorite picture. Behaviors that show recognition of and a beginning understanding of pictures in books, such as pointing to pictures of familiar objects.3. Picture and Story Comprehension Behaviors - show a child's understanding of pictures and events in a book, such as imitating an action seen in a picture or talking about the events in a story.4. Story-Reading Behaviors - behaviors that include children's verbal interactions with books and their increasing understanding of print in books, such as babbling in imitation of reading or running fingers along printed words.

Promoting Literacy Development among Children1. Establish a positive climate that supports children as literacy learners.2. Use childrens play to facilitate reading and writing.3. Create a physical learning environment that promotes reading and writing.4. Make reading and writing a part of the daily routine of the classroom.5. Encourage children to read and write to one another.6. Read aloud to children on a regular basis.7. Engage parents in literacy activities.

FACTORS AFFECTNG LNGUSTC AND LTERACY DEVELOPMENT A. BIOLOGICAL FACTORS1. Childs Age2. Cognitive Processing or Intelligence3. Delayed general development (global developmental delay), physical development (motor skills), cognitive development etc.4. Neurological Disorders or medical problems5. Family history ofspeechand language delays or difficulties6. Reduced hearing e.g. ear infection, fluid in ear, impacted earwax etc.

B. PSYCHOSOCAL FACTORS1. Early Stimulation 2. Family Structure or Literate Environment3. Childs Attitude (i.e. not very interested in language, prefers other modalities like physical activities.)4. Economic Status5. Changes in childs environment (e.g. moving.)6. Short attention span.7. Exposure to too many languages for the child.8. Inadequate awareness of communication, lacks communication intent.

EXCEPTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: APHASIA AND DYSLEXIA Language disordersorlanguage impairmentsrefer to any systematic deviation in the way people speak, listen, read, write, or sign that interferes with their ability to communicate with their peers. The disorders may involve the form of language (phonology, syntax, and morphology), its content or meaning (semantics), or its use (pragmatics), in any combination. The disorders themselves vary according to the degree of severity and the level of language they affect.

I. Aphasia

Aphasia is a condition that affects the brain and leads to problems using language correctly. Itis communication disorder that results from damage to the parts of the brain that contain language (typically in the left half of the brain).

People with aphasia make mistakes in the words they use, sometimes using the wrong sounds in a word, choosing the wrong word, or putting words together incorrectly. Aphasia also affects speaking and writing in the same way. Many people with the condition find it difficult to understandwords and sentences they hear or read.

Aphasia may causes difficulties in speaking, listening, reading, and writing, but does not affect intelligence. Individuals with aphasia may also have other problems, such asdysarthria (a condition in which problems effectively occur with the muscles that help produce speech, often making it very difficult to pronounce words),apraxia (a motor disorder caused by damage to the brain, in which someone has difficulty with the motor planning to produce speech), orswallowing problems.

Signs and Symptoms of Aphasia

The specific symptoms and severity of aphasia vary depending on the location and extent of brain damage. Individuals with damage to the front part of the brain may have "choppy" or non-fluent speech. However, they can typically understand what people say fairly well. Those with damage to the posterior regions of the brain often have fluent speechthat is, the rate and rhythm of speech may sound normal. However, their speech may contain the wrong words or made-up words. They also typically have difficulty understanding what is spoken. Additionally, all individuals with aphasia may also have one or more of the following problems:1. Difficulty producing language: Experience difficulty coming up with the words they want to say Substitute the intended word with another word that may be related in meaning to the target (e.g., "chicken" for "fish") or unrelated (e.g., "radio" for "ball") Switch sounds within words (e.g., "wish dasher" for "dishwasher") Use made-up words (e.g., "frigilin" for "hamburger") Have difficulty putting words together to form sentences String together made-up words and real words fluently but without makingsense2. Difficulty understanding language: Misunderstand what others say, especially when they speak fast (e.g., radio or television news) or in long sentences Find it hard to understand speech in background noise or in group situations Misinterpret jokes and take the literal meaning of figurative speech (e.g., "it's raining cats and dogs")3. Difficulty reading and writing: Difficulty reading forms, pamphlets, books, and other written material Problems spelling and putting words together to write sentences Difficulty understanding number concepts (e.g., telling time, counting money, adding/subtracting)

Causes of Aphasia

Aphasia is caused by damage to parts of the brain responsible for understanding and using language. Common causes include: stroke, thought to be the most common cause, around one in three people experience some degree of aphasia after having a stroke severe head injury brain tumour progressive neurological conditions (conditions that over time cause progressive brain and nervous system damage, such asAlzheimers disease)

Treatments of Aphasia

There are many types of treatment available for individuals with aphasia. The type of treatment depends on the needs and goals of the person with aphasia. Treatment may be provided in individual or group sessions.

If the brain damage is mild, a person may recover language skills without treatment. However, most people undergo speech and language therapy to rehabilitate their language skills and supplement their communication experiences. Researchers are currently investigating the use of medications, alone or in combination with speech therapy, to help people with aphasia.

1. Speech and language rehabilitation Recovery of language skills is usually a relatively slow process. Although most people make significant progress, few people regain full pre-injury communication levels. In aphasia, speech and language therapy: Starts early.Therapy is most effective when it begins soon after the brain injury. Builds on success.The speech-language pathologist uses exercises to improve and practice communication skills. These may begin with simpler tasks such as naming objects and evolve into more complex exercises of explaining the purpose of an object. Shifts focus.The speech-language pathologist might teach the person ways to compensate for the language impairment and to communicate more effectively with gestures or drawings. Some people with aphasia may use a book or board with pictures and words to help them recall commonly used words or help them when they're stuck. Often works in groups.In a group setting, people with aphasia can try out their communication skills in a safe environment. Participants can practice initiating conversations, speaking in turn, clarifying misunderstandings and fixing conversations that have completely broken down. May include outings.Participating in real-life situations such as going to a restaurant or a grocery store puts rehabilitation efforts into practice. May include use of computers.Using computer-assisted therapy can be especially helpful for relearning verbs and word sounds (phonemes).

2. Medications Certain drugs are currently being studied for the treatment of aphasia. These include drugs that may improve blood flow to the brain, enhance the brain's recovery ability or help replace depleted chemicals in the brain (neurotransmitters). Several medications, such as memantine (Namenda) and piracetam, have shown promise in small studies. But more research is needed before these treatments can be recommended.

II. Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, which result in people having difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading.

Students with dyslexia usually experience difficulties with other language skills such as spelling, writing, and pronouncing words. Dyslexia affects individuals throughout their lives; however, its impact can change at different stages in a persons life.

It is referred to as a learning disability because dyslexia can make it very difficult for a student to succeed academically in the typical instructional environment, and in its more severe forms, will qualify a student for special education, special accommodations, or extra support services.

The problem in dyslexia is a linguistic one, not a visual one. Dyslexia in no way stems from any lack of intelligence. People with severe dyslexia can be brilliant.

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a spectrum disorder, with symptoms ranging frommild tosevere. People with dyslexia have particular difficulty with: phonological awareness verbal memory rapid serial naming verbal processing speed

1. Phonological awareness - is thought to be a key skill in early reading and spelling development. It is the ability to identify how words are made up of smaller units of sound, known as phonemes. Changes in the sounds that make up words can lead to changes in their meaning.For example, a child with a good level of phonological awareness would understand that if you change the letter "p" in the word "pat" to "s", the word becomes "sat".

2. Verbal memory - is the ability to remember a sequence of verbal information for a short period of time.For example, the ability to remember a short list such as "red, blue, green", or a set of simple instructions, such as "Put on your gloves and your hat, find the lead for the dog and then go to the park."

3. Rapid serial naming - this is the ability to name a series of colors, objects or numbers as fast as possible.

4. Verbal processing speed - is the time it takes to process and recognize familiar verbal information, such as letters and digits.For example,someone with a good verbal processing speed has the abilitytoquickly write down unfamiliar words when they are spelled out, or write down telephone numbers they are told.

TheDyslexia Research Trustincludes these as the most common signs and symptoms associated with dyslexia:a. Learning to read- the child, despite having normal intelligence and receiving proper teaching and parental support, has difficulty learning to read.b. Milestones reached later- the child learns to crawl, walk, talk, throw or catch things, ride a bicycle later than the majority of other kids.c. Slow in speech- apart from being slow to learn to speak, the child commonly mispronounces words, finds rhyming extremely challenging, and does not appear to distinguish between different word sounds.d. Slow at learning sets of data- at school the child takes much longer than the other children to learn the letters of the alphabet and how they are pronounced. There may also be problems remembering the days of the week, months of the year, colors, and some arithmetic tables.e. Problems in Coordination- the child may seem clumsier than his or her peers. Catching a ball may be difficult.f. Difficulties determining Left and right- the child commonly gets "left" and "right" mixed up.g. Reversal- numbers and letters may be reversed without realizing.h. Difficulties in Spelling- may not follow a pattern of progression seen in other children. The child may learn how to spell a word today, and completely forget the next day. One word may be spelt in a variety of ways on the same page.i. Phonology problems- phonology refers to the speech sounds in a language. If a word has more than two syllables, phonology processing becomes much more difficult. For example, with the word "unfortunately" a person with dyslexia may be able to process the sounds "un" and "ly", but not the ones in between.j. Concentration span- children with dyslexia commonly find it hard to concentrate for long, compared to other children. Many adults with dyslexia say this is because after a few minutes of non-stop struggling, the child is mentally exhausted. A higher number of children with dyslexia also haveADHD(attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), compared to the rest of the population.k. Sequencing ideas- when a person with dyslexia expresses a sequence of ideas, they may seem illogical for people without the condition.l. Autoimmune conditions- people with dyslexia are more likely to develop immunological problems, such ashay fever,asthma,eczema, and other allergies.

Causes of DyslexiaSpecialist doctors and researchers are not sure what causes a person to develop dyslexia. Some evidence points to a possibility that the condition is inherited, as dyslexia often runs in families.1. Genetic Causes Genetic defect linked to reading problems- a team at the Yale School of Medicine found that defects in a gene, known as DCDC2, were associated with problems in reading performance. They also reported that this defective gene appears to interact with KIAA0319, a second dyslexia gene.

Dutch scientists reported in the journalDyslexiathat dyslexia is a "highly heritable learning disorder" that has a complex genetic architecture. Over the past ten years, they added, scientists have identified several candidate genes that may contribute to dyslexia susceptibility.

2. Acquired Dyslexia

A small minority of people with dyslexia acquired the condition after they were born. The most common causes of acquired dyslexia are brain injuries,strokeor some other type of trauma.

3. Phonological Processing

According to theNational Health Service8, people with dyslexia find reading and writing difficult because of "phonological processing impairment".

Humans have the ability to understand spoken language, it is something the brain acquires easily and naturally from a very early age. That is why during very early childhood (3 years) we can utter and understand relatively complicated sentences.

This natural ability to acquire language, which most linguists call the LAD (language acquisition device), explains the reason why, when we listen to verbal communication, we do not consciously register that words are made up of phonemes, we only hear the word itself. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that words are made of. For example, when we hear the word "Kangaroo", we hear it as a whole, seamless utterance. We do not need to break it down into the phonemes - "kan" "ga" "roo", then put them together again in order to make sense of it.

This is the case only when we learn to utter and hear speech, not when we are learning to read and write. When we learn reading/writing we need to be able to initially recognize the letters that make up a word, and then use them to identify the phonemes, and put them together to make sense of the word - this is called phonological processing. Experts say that people with dyslexia have problems with phonological processing.

Types of Dyslexia

A. By Sensory System

1. Auditory Dyslexia - Auditory dyslexia involves difficulty processing sounds of letters or groups of letters. Multiple sounds may be fused as a singular sound. For example the word 'back' will be heard as a single sound rather than something made up of the sounds 'b' - 'aa' -'ck'. Single Syllable words are especially prone to this problem.

2. Visual Dyslexia - Visual dyslexia is defined as reading difficulty resulting from vision related problems. Though the term is a misnomer, visual problems can definitely lead to reading and learning problems.

3. Attentional Dyslexia - A 2010 study from Tel Aviv University in Israel found a type of dyslexia they call Attentional Dyslexia in which children identify letters correctly, but the letters jump between words on the page. 'kind wing' would be read as 'wind king.' The substitutions are not caused by an inability to identify letters or convert them to sounds, but instead result from the migration of letters between wordsthe first letter of one word switches place with the first letter of another word.

B. By Deficit

1. Phonological Dyslexia - Phonological dyslexia is extreme difficulty reading that is a result of phonological impairment, meaning the ability to manipulate the basic sounds of language.The individual sounds of language become 'sticky', unable to be broken apart and manipulated easily.

2. Surface Dyslexia - According to Nancy Mather and Barbara Wendling in their excellent 2012 bookEssentials of Dyslexia Assessment and Intervention, surface dyslexia is: "A type of dyslexia characterized by difficulty with whole word recognition and spelling, especially when the words have irregular spelling-sound correspondences."

3. Deep Dyslexia - Deep dyslexia is an acquired form of dyslexia, meaning it does not typically result from genetic, hereditary (developmental) causes. It represents a loss of existing capacity to read, often because of head trauma or stroke that affects the left side of the brain. It is distinguished by two things: semantic errors and difficulty reading non-words.

C. By Time of Onset

1. Developmental Dyslexia - Developmental dyslexia is not so much a type of dyslexia, it is dyslexia.In fact our definition of it would be the same as ourdefinition of dyslexiagenerally:Extreme difficulty reading caused bya hereditary, brain based, phonologic disability. So why do people use the term instead of just saying dyslexia? The simple answer is they are trying to be more specific, distinguishing 'regular' dyslexia from the other types of dyslexia. In particular, distinguishing it from acquired forms of dyslexia that result from stroke or head trauma for example, which often present very differently.

2. Acquired Dyslexia - This type results from trauma or injury to that part of the brain that controls reading and writing. Late in life this can be the result of a tumor or stroke.

Other Dyslexia Types:

1. Directional Dyslexia - Directional dyslexiais distinguished by left-right confusion and a tendency to become disoriented or lost. The term is also occasionally used to mean confusion with letters such as p and b or d and b, where there is confusion over the 'direction' of the letter. Generally, problems with directions are a symptom of dyslexia more than a sub-type. Not all dyslexics have this problem.

2. Math Dyslexia(dyscalculia) - Math dyslexia or dyscalculia is not, in fact, a type of dyslexia, but we included it here because the term is frequently used. According to the U.S. National Center for Learning Disabilities, math dyslexia, or dyscalculia, refers to a wide range of lifelong learning disabilities involving math, varies from person to person and affects people differently at different stages of life.As with reading, when basic math skills are not mastered early, more advanced math becomes extremely difficult. Approximately half of people with dyslexia also have dyscalculia, though far less research has been conducted regarding testing, assessment and remediation.

Treatment of Dyslexia

While dyslexia is a lifelong problem,there is a range of specialist educational interventions that can help children with dyslexia with their reading and writing. The amount and type of interventionnecessary will depend on the severity of their condition.In some cases,a specific action planfor your child can be drawn up and implemented by their school.

Most children with dyslexia will only need to miss a few hours of their regular classes each week to receive specialist one-to-one teaching, or teaching in small groups. A small number of children with dyslexia may need to be transferred to a specialist school. Many specialist schools charge a fee, although financial support may be available from your Local Educational Authority (LEA).

1. Early educational interventions

Research has found that early educational interventions, ideally before a child reaches seven or eight years old, are the most effective way of achieving long-term improvements in their reading and writing. A wide range of educational interventions and programmes are available, and it can be difficult for parents to find out which would most benefit their child.

However, there is a large body of good quality evidence that interventions focusing on phonological skills (the ability to identify and process sounds) are the most effective way of improving reading and writing. These types of educational interventions are often referred to as phonics. This is a systemwidely used to teach all children to read and write, not just those with dyslexia.

1.a PHONICS: CORE ELEMENTS - Phonics focuses on the six core elements described below.

1.a.1 Phonemic awareness - Phonemic awareness teaches children how to recognise and identify sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. For example, it helps a child to recognise that even very short words such as "hat" are actually made up of three phonemes: "h", "a" and "t". Another important part of phonemic awareness involves understanding that you can manipulate phonemes to change words, such as changing the "h" to a "c" to create the word "cat".

1.a.2. Phonics instruction - Phonics instruction teaches children how to sound out printed words by recognising the written letters that correspond to spoken phonemes. Letters that correspond to phonemes are known as graphemes. Phonics also teaches children how to decode multisyllabic words, such as "crocodile" and apply previous learned rules sothey have a better understanding of new words.

1.a.3. Spelling and writing instructionSpelling and writing instruction encourages children to combine letters and graphemes to create words, and then, over time, to use the words to create more complex sentences.

1.a.4. Fluency instruction - Fluency instruction allows children to practice reading words accurately. The goal is for a child to be able to read with a good level of accuracy and speed. This is important because if a child spends a lot of time trying to focus on reading individual words, it is easy to lose track of the text as a whole, and they may not properly understand what they are reading.

1.a.5. Vocabulary instruction - Vocabulary instruction teaches children to recognise words they are reading, while building and understanding new words.

1.a.6. Comprehension instruction - Comprehension instruction teaches children to monitor their own understanding while they read. They are encouraged to ask questions if they notice gaps in their understanding, while also linking what they are reading to information they have previously learned.

1.b. PHONICS- IMPORTANT FEATURES - There is good evidence to indicate that the most effective methods of teaching phonics to children with dyslexia contain the features described below.

1.b.1. Structure - Teaching shouldbe highly structured, with development in small steps, building logically on what has been previously learnt.

1.b.2. Multisensory - Children with dyslexia learn better when they use as many different senses as possible. An example of multisensory teaching is where a child is taught to see the letter "a", say its name and sound, and write it in the air (all at the same time).

1.b.3. Reinforcement - Skills should be reinforced through regular practice, because children with dyslexia often have to "overlearn" skills already mastered. This helps to improve their automatic recognition ofcorrect phonemes, letters and rules in reading and writing.

1.b.4. Skill teaching - Early interventions in children with dyslexia should focus on development of useful skills that can be transferred to other areas, rather thanteaching children to learn and retain big chunks of information thatcould place unnecessarystrain on their memory.

1.b.5. Metacognition - Metacognition means "thinking about the way you think". In practice, metacognition involves encouraging children to recognise that there aredifferent learning methods and approaches available to them, and then thinking about which ones would be best for them to use in different circumstances.

1.b.6 Breaking down emotional barriers - Another important feature of any educational intervention is to recognise that many children with dyslexia can develop emotional barriers that can make learning more difficult, such as anxiety, frustration and low confidence. Therefore, it is important to break down these barriers through encouragement, empathy and fostering the childs self-esteem.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

COGNITION is the process of learning in the broadest sense that includes perception, memory, judgment, and thinking. It is both a mental activity and behavior that provides an understanding of the world from biological, experiential, motivational, and social influences.

THEORIES OF COGNITVE DEVELOPMENT

A. Jean Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development

According to Jean Piaget, children actively seek out information. Such information is in turn adapted to the childrens acquired knowledge and conceptions about the world. It is from their experiences that children construct their understanding of reality, a view held by the constructivists.

Piagets theory of cognitive development focuses on mental processes such as perceiving, remembering, believing, and reasoning. Reasoning is the essence of intelligence, and reasoning is what Piaget studied in order to discover how we come to know (Singer & Revenson, 1997, p. 13). Piaget believed that cognitive development is cumulative; that is, understanding a new experience grows out of a previous learning experience.

Main Elements of Piagets Cognitive Development Theory

There are three elements to Piagets theory:1. Schema2. The four processes that enable the transition from one stage to another3. The four stages of cognitive development

I. Schema

Is an organized unit of knowledge. The child uses this to be able to understand a situation or an experience and which will serve as basis for organizing actions to respond to the environment.

A schema is the mental framework that is created as children interact with their physical and social environments. A schema can be thought of as a unit of knowledge, relating to one aspect of the world including objects, actions, and abstract (theoretical) concepts.

We use schemas to understand and to respond to situations. We store them and apply them when needed. A child is considered to be in a state of equilibrium or in a state of cognitive balance when she or he is capable of explaining what he or she is perceiving (schema) at the time.

For example, my schema for Christmasincludes: Christmas trees, presents, giving, money, green, red, gold, winter, Santa Claus etc. Someone else may have an entirely different schema, such as Jesus, birth, Church, holiday, Christianity etc. Of course, there are schemata for all kinds of things yourself (self schemata), other people (people schemata), events/situations (event schemata) and roles/occupations (role schemata). With regards to Piagets theory, a child might have a pre-conceived schema for a dog. If the household has a small West Highland White Terrier as a dog, the schema might be small, furry, four legs, white. When the child interacts with a new dog perhaps aLabrador, it will change to incorporate the new information, such as big, golden, smooth etc.

At any age, children rely on their current cognitive structures to understand the world around them. Moreover, younger and older children may often interpret and respond to the same objects and events in very different ways because cognitive structures take different forms at different ages.

Different schemata change as the children develop. Piaget opined that schemata are modified by organization and adaptation.

Organization is the predisposition to combine simple physical or psychological structures into more complex systems. Structures are viewed from larger dimensions and not on limited parameters.

Adaptation is adjusting ones thinking according to environmental demands. Assimilation and accommodation are the two parts of adaptation which is simply what it says adapting our schemata to make an accurate (enough) model of the world we live in.

II. The Four Processes:

The four processes that enable the transition from one cognitive stage to another areassimilation, accommodation,disequilibrium,andequilibration.

Assimilation is the process of taking in new information and fitting it into a preconceived notion about objects or the world; it is making use of an existing schema to a new experience.

Accommodation is the process of adjusting to new experiences or objects by revising the old plan to fit new information; it is modifying an existing schema to make it work in a new experience.

Disequilibrium is a state of confusion, dissonance, or discomfort when new information does not integrate within existing structures. This confusion motivates us to achieve the new challenge and to restore balance between assimilation and accommodation, which when achieved, is equilibrium.

Equilibration is the balance between the processes of assimilation and accommodation. It is the force that drives the learning process to restore balance by mastering the new challenge (information) presented.

Educators generally view these processes as an explanation of cognitive learning processes, not just those that lead to major shifts in cognitive ability (Piaget, 1973, p. 36).

Together, assimilation and accommodation are processes of adjustment to changes in the environment and are defined as adaptation, the continuous process of using the environment to learn. And, according to Piaget, adaptation is the most important principle of human functioning.

In summary, children haveschemata(cognitive structures that contain pre-existing ideas of the world), which are constantly changing. Schemata constantly undergoadaptation, through the processes ofassimilationand accommodation. When seeing new objects there is a state of tension, and a child will attempt to assimilate the information to see if it fits into prior schemata. If this fails, the information must be accommodated by either adding new schemata or modifying the existing ones to accommodate the information. By balancing the use of assimilation and accommodation, anequilibriumis created, reducing cognitive tension (equilibration).

III. The Four Stages of Cognitive Development:

Piaget identified the following four stages in development of cognition: Sensory-Motor (Ages Birth Through Two) Preoperational (Ages Two Through Seven) Concrete Operations (Ages Seven Through Eleven) Formal Operations (Ages Eleven Through Sixteen)

1. Sensory-Motor Stage: Ages Birth to Approximately Two Years Old

During this stage, information is received through all the senses. The child tries to make sense of the world during this stage, and as the name suggests, only senses and motor abilities are used to do so. The child utilizes innate behaviors to enhance this learning process, such as sucking, looking, grasping, crying and listening.

To make this even more complex, there are 6 sub-stages of this one stage. To begin, the child uses only reflexes and innate behaviour. Towards the end of this stage, the child uses a range of complex sensorimotor skills. The sub-stages are as follows:

1.a. Reflexes (0-1 month): The child uses only innate reflexes. For example, if a nipple or dummy is put into a babys mouth, they will reflexively suck on it. If an object is placed in their palm, the hand will automatically grab it. These reflexes have the sole function of keeping the child alive.

1. b Primary Circular Actions (1-4 months): The child now has a fixation with its own body with regards to behavior (what Piaget refers to asprimary behaviour); they will perform actions repeatedly on themselves (like sucking their own hand). They also begin to refine reflexes here to form more complex versions of them.

1. c Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months): At around 4 months, the child begins to take an interest in theirenvironment(their behavior issecondary). They notice that they can actually influence events in their world, for example they can drop a teddy which bashes a ball on the floor. Although this occurs, the infant will not make conscious connections between what they do and the consequences, they merely observe that their actions have interesting effects.

1. d Co-ordination of Secondary Circular Reactions (8-12 months): At this point, the child begins to engage ingoal-directedbehaviour; they begin to develop cause-effect relationships. So rather than crawl over to a teddy in a cart to pick it up, they might instead pull the cart over with the teddy in to acquire it. The child effectivelyknowsthat their behaviour will have a certain consequence. At this stage,object permanenceisacquired. 1. e Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months): At this stage, children like to use creativity and flexibility with their previous behaviours, and the result of theirexperimentationoften leads to different outcomes. So rather than grabbing a box, they might instead try to tilt or manipulate it.

1. f Symbolic/Mental Representation (18-24 months): At this stage, the child developssymbolic thoughtand the ability to mentally represent objects in their head. Normally, the child would need to resort to trial-and-error to achieve a desired effect. Now, however, the child can plan to some extent and mentally construct the consequences of an action in their head. Of course, predictions are not always accurate, but it is a step up from trial-and-error.

There are two key examples of mental representation developed in children: objectpermanenceanddeferred imitation.

Objectpermanenceis when objects exist even when out of sight. In the first three sub-stages, children will not attempt to search for an object which is hidden from their view; in their mind, the object simply ceases to exist as they cannot see it. At sub-stage four, however, they show this characteristic of object permanence. If an object is hidden from them, they will attempt to find it, but will repeatedly look in the same place even if the object is moved (the so calledA-not-B error). However, by sub-stage 6, the child is able to mentally represent the object in their mind, leading to exploration for an object even if it is moved. They will continue to look for an object until they find it, as they understand objects exist regardless of where they are.

Deferred imitationis simply the imitation of behaviour a child has seen before. As a child can mentally represent behaviour they have seen, they are able to enact it through playing and in other situations. So a child might talk down a toy telephone or steer a toy car around the room.

2. The Pre-operational Stage: 2-7 years of age. Now that the child has mental representations and is able to pretend, it is a short step to the use ofsymbols. 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 thing. The use of language is, of course, the prime example, but another good example of symbol use iscreative play, wherein checkers are cookies, papers are dishes, a box is the table, and so on. By manipulating symbols, we are essentially thinking, in a way the infant could not: in the absence of the actual objects involved! Along with symbolization, there is a clear understanding of past and future. For example, if a child is crying for its mother, and you say Mommy will be home soon, it will now tend to stop crying. Or if you ask him, Remember when you fell down? he will respond by making a sad face. On the other hand, the child is quiteegocentricduring this stage, that is, he sees things pretty much from one point of view: his own! She may hold up a picture so only she can see it and expect you to see it too. Or she may explain that grass grows so she wont get hurt when she falls. Piaget did a study to investigate this phenomenon: He would put children in front of a simple plaster mountain range and seat himself to the side, then ask them to pick from four pictures the view that he, Piaget, would see. Younger children would pick the picture of the view they themselves saw; older kids picked correctly.

Similarly, younger childrencenteron one aspect of any problem or communication at a time. for example, they may not understand you when you tell them Your father is my husband. Or they may say things like I dont live in the USA; I live in Pennsylvania! Or, if you show them five black and three white marbles and ask them Are there more marbles or more black marbles? they will respond More black ones! Perhaps the most famous example of the preoperational childs centrism is what Piaget refers to as their inability to conserve. Children struggle to understand the difference in quantity and measurements in different situations. For example, suppose a child is shown a short, fat beaker full of water. When that water is transferred entirely to a tall, thin beaker we would know the level of water is identical only the beaker has changed. However, a child in this stage will conclude there is more water in the tall beaker, just because the level of water looks higher. Children in this stage also lack the required cognition to applyreversibilityto situations; they cannot imagine objects or numbers reversed to their previous form. This will be explored in the next stage (where reversibility is present).

When a child has the ability to decenter, they are said to progress to the next stage.

3. The Concrete Operational Stage: 7-11 years of age.

This stage sees another shift in childrens cognitive thinking. It is aptly named concrete because children struggle to apply concepts to anything which cannot physically be manipulated or seen. Nevertheless, the child continues to improve their conservation skills, and by the age of 11 they can conserve numbers, weight and volume (acquired in that order). The wordoperationsrefers to logical operations or principles we use when solving problems. In this stage, the child not only uses symbols representationally, but can manipulate those symbols logically. Quite an accomplishment! But, at this point, they must still perform these operations within the context of concrete situations. The stage begins with progressive decentering. By six or seven, most children develop the ability toconservenumber, length, and liquid volume.Conservationrefers to the idea that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance. If you show a child four marbles in a row, then spread them out, the preoperational child will focus on the spread, and tend to believe that there are now more marbles than before.

Or if you have two five inch sticks laid parallel to each other, then move one of them a little, she may believe that the moved stick is now longer than the other.

The concrete operations child, on the other hand, will know that there are still four marbles, and that the stick doesnt change length even though it now extends beyond the other. And he will know that you have to look at more than just the height of the milk in the glass: If you pour the milk from the short, fat glass into the tall, skinny glass, he will tell you that there is the same amount of milk as before, despite the dramatic increase in milk-level!

By seven or eight years old, children develop conservation of substance: If I take a ball of clay and roll it into a long thin rod, or even split it into ten little pieces, the child knows that there is still the same amount of clay. And he will know that, if you rolled it all back into a single ball, it would look quite the same as it did - a feature known asreversibility.

By nine or ten, the last of the conservation tests is mastered: conservation of area. If you take four one-inch square blocks ("houses"), and lay them on a six-by-six cloth together in the center, the child who conserves will know that they take up just as much room as the same blocks spread out in the corners, or, for that matter, anywhere at all.

If all this sounds too easy to be such a big deal, note that many adults do not conserve area. Or test your friends on conservation of mass: Which is heavier: a million tons of stone, or a million tons of feathers? Many will focus on the words "stone" and "feathers", and ignore the fact that they both weigh a million tons. In addition, a child learnsclassificationandseriationduring this stage. Classification refers back to the question of whether there are more marbles or more black marbles. Now the child begins to get the idea that one set can include another. However, as this stage is concrete, Piaget suggests children will struggle to apply any prior knowledge to abstract situations. For example, when askedseriation (putting things in order) taskssuch as John is taller than Pete. John is shorter than Simon. Who is tallest?, concrete children often fail to provide a correct answer as the situation is too abstract. However, when dolls are used to represent Pete, Simon and John, the children are able to answer as the situation is bought back to a concrete one with physical representations.

4. The Formal Operational Stage: from age 11 onwards. Children at this stage acquire the ability to think hypothetically and outside the box. Logical conclusions can be inferred from verbal information, and concrete, physical objects are no longer necessary. When presented with a problem, children at this stage can consider solutions to the problem in a logical manner. The child becomes increasingly adult-like with regards to their cognitive abilities.This involves using logical operations, and using them in the abstract, rather than the concrete. We often call this hypothetical thinking. Scientific or abstract reasoning is apparent in this stage, and is indicated by Piaget and Inhelders Pendulum Task (1958). When asked to determine the effect different weights and rope length have on the speed of a swinging pendulum, formal operational children came to consistent and logical conclusions.

It is the formal operations stage that allows one to investigate a problem in a careful and systematic fashion. Ask a 16 year old to tell you the rules for making pendulums swing quickly or slowly, and he may proceed like this:

A long string with a light weight - lets see how fast that swings.A long string with a heavy weight - lets try that.Now, a short string with a light weight.And finally, a short string with a heavy weight.His experiment - and it is a true experiment - would tell him that a short string leads to a fast swing, and a long string to a slow swing, and that the weight of the pendulum makes no difference at all!

Educational Implications of Piagets Theory Piagets theory had a major impact on the theory and practice of education (Case, 1998). First, the theory focused attention on the idea of developmentally appropriate educationan education with environments, curriculum, materials, and instruction that are suitable for students in terms of their physical and cognitive abilities and their social and emotional needs (Elkind, 1989). In addition, several major approaches to curriculum and instruction are explicitly based on Piagetian theory (Berrueta-Clement, Schweinhart, Barnett, Epstein, & Weikart, 1984), and this theory has been influential in constructivist models of learning, which will be described in Chapter 8. Berk (2001) summarizes the main teaching implications drawn from Piaget as follows:

1. A focus on the process of childrens thinking, not just its products. In addition to checking the correctness of childrens answers, teachers must understand the processes children use to get to the answer. Appropriate learning experiences build on childrens current level of cognitive functioning, and only when teachers appreciate childrens methods of arriving at particular conclusions are they in a position to provide such experiences.2. Recognition of the crucial role of childrens self-initiated, active involvement in learning activities. In a Piagetian classroom the presentation of ready-made knowledge is deemphasized, and children are encouraged to discover for themselves through spontaneous interaction with the environment. Therefore, instead of teaching didactically, teachers provide a rich variety of activities that permit children to act directly on the physical world.3. A deemphasis on practices aimed at making children adultlike in their thinking. Piaget referred to the question How can we speed up development? as the American question. Among the many countries he visited, psychologists and educators in the United States seemed most interested in what techniques could be used to accelerate childrens progress through the stages. Piagetian-based educational programs accept his firm belief that premature teaching could be worse than no teaching at all, because it leads to superficial acceptance of adult formulas rather than true cognitive understanding (May & Kundert, 1997).4. Acceptance of individual differences in developmental progress. Piagets theory assumes that all children go through the same developmental sequence but that they do so at different rates. Therefore, teachers must make a special effort to arrange classroom activities for individuals and small groups of children rather than for the total class group. In addition, because individual differences are expected, assessment of childrens educational progress should be made in terms of each childs own previous course of development, not in terms of normative standards provided by the performances of same-age peers.B. Lev Vygotskys Socio-Cultural Theory of Cognitive Development

Vygotskys theory emphasizes the crucial influence that social interactions and language, embedded within a cultural context, have on cognitive development. He asserts that complex forms of thinking have their origins in social interactions rather than in childs private explorations.

Vygotsky emphasized that effective learning happens through participation in social activities. He believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning." He also suggested that language is the most important tool for gaining this social knowledge; the child can be taught this from other people via language. He defined intelligence as the capacity to learn from instruction, which emphasises the fact there is a requirement for a more knowledgable other person or teacher. He referred to them as just that: theMore Knowledgable Other(MKO). MKOs can be parents, adults, teachers, coaches, experts/professionals but also things you might not first expect, such as children, friends and computers. Parents, teachers and other adults in the learners environment all contribute to the process. They explain, model, assist, give directions and provide feedback. Peers, on the other hand, cooperate and collaborate and enrich the learning experience.

He described something known as theZone of Proximal Development(ZPD), which is a key feature of his theory. Zone of Proximal Development refers to the difference between what the child accomplish alone and what he/she can accomplish with guidance of another. There are two levels of attainment for the ZPD: Level 1 the present level of development. This describes what the child is capable of doing without any help from others. Level 2 the potential level of development. This means what the child could potentially be capable of with help from other people or teachers.

The gap between level 1 and 2 (the present and potential development) is what Vygotsky described as this zone of proximal development. He believed that through help from other, more knowledgeable people, the child can potentially gain knowledge already held by them. However, the knowledge must be appropriate for the childs level of comprehension. Anything that is too complicated for the child to learn that isnt in their ZPD cannot be learnt at all until there is a shift in the ZPD. When a child does attain their potential, this shift occurs and the child can continue learning more complex, higher level material.

Another important feature of this theory isscaffolding. Scaffolding refers to the support or assistance that lets the child accomplish a task he/she cannot accomplish independently. When an adult provides support for a child, they will adjust the amount of help they give depending on their progress. For example, a child learning to walk might at first have both their hands held and pulled upwards. As they learn to support their own weight, the mother might hold both their hands loosely. Then she might just hold one hand, then eventually nothing. This progression of different levels of help is scaffolding. It draws parallels from real scaffolding for buildings; it is used as a support for construction of new material (the skill/information to be learnt) and then removed once the building is complete (the skill/information has been learnt).

According to Vygotsky, there are two central factors in cognitive development:

1. Social Interaction Vygotsky emphasized that effective learning happens through participation in social activities. Parents, teachers and other adults in the learners environment all contribute to the process. They explain, model, assist, give directions and provide feedback. Peers, on the other hand, cooperate and collaborate and enrich the learning experience.

2. Language Language can be viewed as a verbal expression of culture. Every culture has the words it needs for its lifestyle. It opens the door for learners to acquire knowledge that others already have. It is use to know and understand the world and solve problems. It serves a social function but it also has an important individual function. It helps the learner to regulate and reflect on his own thinking.

Educational Implications of Vygotskys Theory Vygotskys concept of the zone of proximal development is based on the idea that development is defined both by what a child can do independently and by what the child can do when assisted by an adult or more competent peer (Daniels, 1995; Wertsch, 1991). Knowing both levels of Vygotskys zone is useful for teachers, for these levels indicate where the child is at a given moment as well as where the child is going. The zone of proximal development has several implications for teaching in the classroom.

According to Vygotsky, for the curriculum to be developmentally appropriate, the teacher must plan activities that encompass not only what children are capable of doing on their own but what they can learn with the help of others (Karpov & Haywood, 1998).

Vygotskys theory does not mean that anything can be taught to any child. Only instruction and activities that fall within the zone promote development. For example, if a child cannot identify the sounds in a word even after many prompts, the child may not benefit immediately from instruction in this skill. Practice of previously known skills and introduction of concepts that are too difficult and complex have little positive impact. Teachers can use information about both levels of Vygotskys zone of proximal development in organizing classroom activities in the following ways:

1. Instruction can be planned to provide practice in the zone of proximal development for individual children or for groups of children. For example, hints and prompts that helped children during the assessment could form the basis of instructional activities.2. Cooperative learning activities can be planned with groups of children at different levels who can help each other learn.3. Scaffolding (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976) is a tactic for helping the child in his or her zone of proximal development in which the adult provides hints and prompts at different levels. In scaffolding, the adult does not simplify the task, but the role of the learner is simplified through the graduated intervention of the teacher (Greenfield, 1984, p. 119).

C. Information-Processing Theories

The information-processing approach takes the human mind as a system that processes information. This is similar to computer programming where the processes involved are subject to limitations and observance of logical rules.

Several basic assumptions of information-processing approaches are:

1. Thinking is information processing. Mental activity or thinking is putting into the mind whatever information there is to process in ways or means that can render the information understandable, functional, and usable. There are underlying questions about how the processes such as perceiving, encoding, representing, and storing information, change as children get older and have more experiences with the world.2. Mechanisms of change are important to describe. Mechanisms like encoding, strategy construction, automatization, and generalization all together help in instituting change in the childrens cognitive skills. 3. The cognitive system is self-modifying. Child is able to modify his responses to new situations or problems by using the acquired knowledge and strategies from solving earlier problems. With a powerful knowledge base new and better ways of responding to situations are developed. Thus children play an active role in their own cognitive development.4. Careful task analysis is crucial. Childs cognitive performance is dependent on the problem or situation and the ability to handle such according to his level of development. A careful task analysis is needed to appraise the childs actual performance and how the performance vary according to age. Most likely, the analysis will reveal how children of different ages understand, approach and solve a problem.

(see attached handout for additional INFORMATION)

D. BIO-CULTURAL THEORIES

One of the most current trends in developmental psychology is the established link between physiological processes and development explained through universal changes and individual differences.

D.1 Nativism views human as endowed with genetic traits seen in all members of the species, regardless of differences in their environments. Developmentalists who adhere to the nativist theory hold that peculiarities in behavior can be identified early in life, developed in all individuals in every culture but do not exist in other species. Example: a child learns to speak the language in the absence of formal instructions from adults at home, he learns by imitating and by hearing.

D.2 Ethology points to genetically survival behaviors assumed to have evolved through natural selection. Ethologists say that nature has equipped birds with nest-building genes which is imperative for survival. Likewise, as claimed by exponents of ethology even emotional relationships are important for infants survival. Emotional bonding is achieved between the infant and the mother everytime she attends to the needs of the infant. As ethologists say, even infants crying is genetically programmed to a babys crying needs. The interaction between the infant and the adult increases the prospect of infants survival. Major influences in the field of Ethology are Konrad Lorenz and John Bowlby, who studied the adaptive nature of human behaviour.

D.3 Sociobiology focuses on the study of society using the methods and concepts of biological science. Like the ethologists, sociobiology emphasizes genes that aid group survival. Living in groups affords humans better chances of survival.

BRONFENBRENNERS ECOLOGICAL THEORY

This theory views an individuals development within the context of the system of relationships that form her environment.

Bronfenbrenners theory has been historically applied to child development. By defining complex layers of environment, each having an effect on a childs development, this theory emphasizes that a childs interaction between factors in the childs maturing biology, his immediate family/community environment, and the societal landscape fuels and steers his development. Furthermore, changes or conflict in any one layer will ripple throughout other layers. To study a childs development then, we must look not only at the child and her immediate environment, but also at the interaction of the larger environment as well.

LEVELS:

1. Microsystem - this is the layer closest to the individual and contains the structures with which the individual has direct contact. Structures in the microsystem include family, school, neighborhood, or childcare environments. At this level, relationships have impact in two directions - both away from the individual and toward the individual. For example, a childs parents may affect his beliefs and behavior; however, the child also affects the behavior and beliefs of the parent. Bronfenbrenner calls these bi-directional influences, and he shows how they occur among all levels of environment.

2. Mesosystem - This layer provides the connection between the structures of the individuals microsystem (Berk, 2000). Examples: the connection between the childs teacher and his parents, between his church and his neighborhood, etc.

3. Exosystem - this layer defines the larger social system in which the individual does not function directly. The structures in this layer impact the childs development by interacting with some structure in her microsystem (Berk, 2000). Parent workplace schedules or community-based family resources are examples. The child may not be directly involved at this level, but he does feel the positive or negative force involved with the interaction with his own system.

4. Macrosystem: This layer may be considered the outermost layer in the individuals environment. While not being a specific framework, this layer is comprised of cultural values, customs, and laws (Berk, 2000). The effects of larger principles defined by the macrosystem have a cascading influence throughout the interactions of all other layers. For example, if it is the belief of the culture that parents should be solely responsible for raising their children, that culture is less likely to provide resources to help parents. This, in turn, affects the structures in which the parents function.

5. Chronosystem: This system encompasses the dimension of time as it relates to an individuals environments. Elements within this system can be either external, such as the timing of a parents death, or internal, such as the physiological changes that occur with the aging of a child. As children get older, they may react differently to environmental changes and may be more able to determine more how that change will influence them.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence is the capacity to think and understand. It includes the combination of various separate abilities that includes verbal communication, abstract thinking, logical reasoning and use of common sense.

A. Robert Sternbergs Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Psychologist Robert Sternberg (1985) has constructed a threepronged, or triarchic theory of intelligence. The Three types are:

1. Analytical Intelligenceis what we generally think of as academic ability. It enables us to solve problems and to acquire new knowledge. Problemsolving skill includes encoding information, combining and comparing pieces of information and generating a solution. 2. Creative Intelligenceis defined by the abilities to cope with novel situations and to profit from experience. The ability to quickly relate novel situations to familiar situations (that is, to perceive similarities and differences) fosters adaptation. Moreover, as a result of experience, we also become able to solve problems more rapidly. 3. Practical Intelligenceor street smarts, enable people to adapt to the demands of their environment. It involves the use of tacit knowledge or common sense. For example, keeping a job by adapting ones behavior to the employers requirements is adaptive. But if the employer is making unreasonable demands, reshaping the environment (by changing the employers attitudes) or selecting an alternate environment (by finding a more suitable job) is also adaptive.

B. Howard Gardners Theory of Multiple Intelligences

1. Verbal-linguistic intelligence - well-developed verbal skills and sensitivity to the sounds, meanings and rhythms of words. 2. Logical-mathematical intelligence - ability to think conceptually and abstractly, and capacity to discern logical and numerical patterns 3. Visual-Spatial intelligence - capacity to think in images and pictures, to visualize accurately and abstractly 4. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence - ability to control ones body movements and to handle objects skillfully 5. Musical intelligences - ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch and timber.6. Interpersonal intell