VYGOTSKY THEORY OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Psychologist Lev Vygotsky proposed that children learn through interactions with their
surrounding culture. This theory, known as the socio-cultural perspective, states that the
cognitive development of children and adolescents is enhanced when they work in their
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD for short). To reach the ZPD, children need the
help of adults or more competent individuals to support or scaffold them as they are
learning new things.

According to Vygotsky’s theory, children can do more with the help and guidance of an
adult or other person more experienced person than they can do by themselves. The Zone
of Proximal Development defines skills and abilities that are in the process of developing.
The ZPD is the range of tasks that one cannot yet perform independently, but can
accomplish with the help of a more competent individual. For example, a child might not
be able to walk across a balance beam on her own, but she can do so while holding her
mother’s hand. Since children are always learning new things, the ZPD changes as new
skills are acquired.

In the example above, the child’s mother provided assistance to the child. The mother
acted as a scaffold in that situation. Scaffolding is the structure or guidance of a more
experienced person. There are many different ways of scaffolding, including breaking the
task down into smaller steps, providing motivation, and providing feedback about
progress as the person progresses.

As time goes by, the adult will continually adjust the amount of support they give in
response to the child’s level of performance. For example, as the child becomes more
confident in her balance, her mother can go from holding both hands, to eventually
holding one hand, and eventually she can stop holding her hand. The child will soon be
able to walk unassisted. Therefore, scaffolding instills the skills necessary for
independent problem solving in the future.

April 2008 14:43

Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development

Written by Keiron Walsh
Vygotsky criticised Piaget’s emphasis on the child’s interaction with the environment,
claiming that Piaget ignores the role of social interaction. Vygotsky, in contrast, sees the
child as an apprentice who learns through interacting with others rather than as a scientist
acting alone.Vygotsky claims that children experience abrupt changes in their ability to solve
problems. This is the result of being taught culturally specific mediators by others which then
allow them to think at a higher level

Reference - Vol 2
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Cognitive Development - Implications Of Cognitive

Development For Schooling And Parenting

Research in cognitive development prompted by information-processing

theories, Piaget's stage theory, and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory have not only
informed the work of developmental psychologists but also proved useful in
schools and to parents. For example, teacher and student understanding of the
workings of memory can affect student performance in school, and teachers can
use developmental research to help students become more aware of strategies
that may help them improve their memory. In turn, students can enhance their
"meta-memory" skills by becoming more aware of the limitations of their
memory and the activities that may enhance it. For example, students can learn
that repeatedly reading over their class notes does not ensure later recall of that
material. Instead, mental strategies called "mnemonics" may be used to
successfully learn information in a manner that promotes later recall. For
example, one technique, called elaboration, involves relating the material to be
learned to already known information in memory. This process, by associating
new information with old information, not only helps prevent forgetting, but also
increases the number of cues that may lead to later retrieval of that information.

Parents can also benefit from the knowledge gained from current and past
research in cognitive development. For example, Vygotsky described parental
roles as being critical in a child's development. Early on parents can provide the
help that children need to develop certain culturally relevant skills. Parents'
sensitivity to their child's skill level and their ability to allow the child to gradually
take on more and more responsibility in a task provides an excellent way for
children to learn.

Researchers in the field of cognitive development strive to describe and

understand changes in children's thinking over the course of development. The
work of Piaget and his stage theory of cognitive development guided much of the
early work in that field. More recent investigations, however, attempt to
understand the continuity of development. Researchers investigate interactions
between biological and environmental variables, and thus focus on the ways in
which culture, the family, the peer group, and the developing brain make
complex contributions to a child's development

Vygotsky's theory emphasized the influence of culture, peers, and adults on the
developing child. To understand this influence, Vygotsky proposed the "zone of
proximal development." This zone refers to the difference in a child's
performance when she attempts a problem on her own compared with when an
adult or older child provides assistance. Imagine that a child is having difficulty
with writing letters, and with the help of an adult who writes out sample letters or
helps the child trace over letters, this same child is able to make progress. The
help from the adult is called scaffolding. Just as the scaffolding of a building
helps to support it, assistance from adults and peers in a child's environment
helps support the child's development.

Vygotsky also discussed the importance of cultural tools to the sociocultural

approach. These are items in the culture such as computers, books, and traditions
that teach children about the expectations of the group. By participating in the
cultural events and using the tools of the society, the child learns what is
important in his culture. For example, in the United States a child attends school
from about six years of age until eighteen years of age, and thus it is in school that
children learn important skills such as mathematics. In some countries, such as
in Brazil, however, children learn mathematics via buying and selling candy in
the streets of the city.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study

of systematic psychological changes that occur in human beings over the course of their
life span. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to
include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire life span. This field
examines change across a broad range of topics including motor skills and other psycho-
physiological processes; cognitive development involving areas such as problem solving,
moral understanding, and conceptual understanding; language acquisition; social,
personality, and emotional development; and self-concept and identity formation.

Developmental psychology includes issues such as the extent to which development

occurs through the gradual accumulation of knowledge versus stage-like development, or
the extent to which children are born with innate mental structures versus learning
through experience. Many researchers are interested in the interaction between personal
characteristics, the individual's behavior, and environmental factors including social
context, and their impact on development; others take a more narrowly focused approach.
 Cognitive development
Main articles: Cognitive development, Theory of cognitive development, and Neo-
Piagetian theories of cognitive development

Cognitive development is primarily concerned with the ways in which infants and
children acquire, develop, and use internal mental capabilities such as problem solving,
memory, and language. Major topics in cognitive development are the study of language
acquisition and the development of perceptual and motor skills. Piaget was one of the
influential early psychologists to study the development of cognitive abilities. His theory
suggests that development proceeds through a set of stages from infancy to adulthood and
that there is an end point or goal. Other accounts, such as that of Lev Vygotsky, have
suggested that development does not progress through stages, but rather that the
developmental process that begins at birth and continues until death is too complex for
such structure and finality. Rather, from this viewpoint, developmental processes proceed
more continuously, thus development should be analyzed, instead of treated as a product
to be obtained.

Modern cognitive development has integrated the considerations of cognitive psychology

and the psychology of individual differences into the interpretation and modeling of
development.[8] Specifically, the neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development showed
that the successive levels or stages of cognitive development are associated with
increasing processing efficiency and working memory capacity. These increases explain
progression to higher stages, and individual differences in such increases by same-age
persons explain differences in cognitive performance. Other theories have moved away
from Piagetian stage theories, and are influenced by accounts of domain-specific
information processing, which posit that development is guided by innate evolutionarily
specified and content-specific information processing mechanisms.

Social and emotional development

Main article: Social psychology (psychology)

Developmental psychologists who are interested in social development examine how

individuals develop social and emotional competencies. For example, they study how
children form friendships, how they understand and deal with emotions, and how identity
develops. Research in this area may involve study of the relationship between cognition
or cognitive development and social behavior.
 Stages of Social-Emotional Development In
Children and Teenagers
This page presents an overview of the developmental tasks involved in the social and
emotional development of children and teenagers which continues into adulthood.
The presentation is based on the Eight Stages of Development developed by
psychiatrist, Erik Erikson in 1956.

According to Erikson, the socialization process consists of eight phases - the "eight
stages of man." His eight stages of man were formulated, not through experimental
work, but through wide - ranging experience in psychotherapy, including extensive
experience with children and adolescents from low - as well as upper - and middle -
social classes. Each stage is regarded by Erikson as a "psychosocial crisis," which
arises and demands resolution before the next stage can be satisfactorily negotiated.
These stages are conceived in an almost architectural sense: satisfactory learning
and resolution of each crisis is necessary if the child is to manage the next and
subsequent ones satisfactorily, just as the foundation of a house is essential to the
first floor, which in turn must be structurally sound to support and the second story,
and so on.

Erikson's Eight Stages of Development

1. Learning Basic Trust Versus Basic Mistrust (Hope)

Chronologically, this is the period of infancy through the first one or two years of life. The child, well -
handled, nurtured, and loved, develops trust and security and a basic optimism. Badly handled, he becomes
insecure and mistrustful.

2. Learning Autonomy Versus Shame (Will)

The second psychosocial crisis, Erikson believes, occurs during early childhood, probably between about
18 months or 2 years and 3½ to 4 years of age. The "well - parented" child emerges from this stage sure of
himself, elated with his new found control, and proud rather than ashamed. Autonomy is not, however,
entirely synonymous with assured self - possession, initiative, and independence but, at least for children in
the early part of this psychosocial crisis, includes stormy self - will, tantrums, stubbornness, and
negativism. For example, one sees may 2 year olds resolutely folding their arms to prevent their mothers
from holding their hands as they cross the street. Also, the sound of "NO" rings through the house or the
grocery store.

3. Learning Initiative Versus Guilt (Purpose)

Erikson believes that this third psychosocial crisis occurs during what he calls the "play age," or the later
preschool years (from about 3½ to, in the United States culture, entry into formal school). During it, the
healthily developing child learns: (1) to imagine, to broaden his skills through active play of all sorts,
including fantasy (2) to cooperate with others (3) to lead as well as to follow. Immobilized by guilt, he is:
(1) fearful (2) hangs on the fringes of groups (3) continues to depend unduly on adults and (4) is restricted
both in the development of play skills and in imagination.
4. Industry Versus Inferiority (Competence)
Erikson believes that the fourth psychosocial crisis is handled, for better or worse, during what he calls the
"school age," presumably up to and possibly including some of junior high school. Here the child learns to
master the more formal skills of life: (1) relating with peers according to rules (2) progressing from free
play to play that may be elaborately structured by rules and may demand formal teamwork, such as
baseball and (3) mastering social studies, reading, arithmetic. Homework is a necessity, and the need for
self-discipline increases yearly. The child who, because of his successive and successful resolutions of
earlier psychosocial crisis, is trusting, autonomous, and full of initiative will learn easily enough to be
industrious. However, the mistrusting child will doubt the future. The shame - and guilt-filled child will
experience defeat and inferiority.

5. Learning Identity Versus Identity Diffusion (Fidelity)

During the fifth psychosocial crisis (adolescence, from about 13 or 14 to about 20) the child, now an
adolescent, learns how to answer satisfactorily and happily the question of "Who am I?" But even the best -
adjusted of adolescents experiences some role identity diffusion: most boys and probably most girls
experiment with minor delinquency; rebellion flourishes; self - doubts flood the youngster, and so on.

Erikson believes that during successful early adolescence, mature time perspective is developed; the young
person acquires self-certainty as opposed to self-consciousness and self-doubt. He comes to experiment
with different - usually constructive - roles rather than adopting a "negative identity" (such as delinquency).
He actually anticipates achievement, and achieves, rather than being "paralyzed" by feelings of inferiority
or by an inadequate time perspective. In later adolescence, clear sexual identity - manhood or womanhood -
is established. The adolescent seeks leadership (someone to inspire him), and gradually develops a set of
ideals (socially congruent and desirable, in the case of the successful adolescent). Erikson believes that, in
our culture, adolescence affords a "psychosocial moratorium," particularly for middle - and upper-class
American children. They do not yet have to "play for keeps," but can experiment, trying various roles, and
thus hopefully find the one most suitable for them.

6. Learning Intimacy Versus Isolation (Love)

The successful young adult, for the first time, can experience true intimacy - the sort of intimacy that makes
possible good marriage or a genuine and enduring friendship.

7. Learning Generativity Versus Self-Absorption (Care)

In adulthood, the psychosocial crisis demands generativity, both in the sense of marriage and parenthood,
and in the sense of working productively and creatively.

8. Integrity Versus Despair (Wisdom)

If the other seven psychosocial crisis have been successfully resolved, the mature adult develops the peak
of adjustment; integrity. He trusts, he is independent and dares the new. He works hard, has found a well -
defined role in life, and has developed a self-concept with which he is happy. He can be intimate without
strain, guilt, regret, or lack of realism; and he is proud of what he creates - his children, his work, or his
hobbies. If one or more of the earlier psychosocial crises have not been resolved, he may view himself and
his life with disgust and despair.
These eight stages of man, or the psychosocial crises, are plausible and insightful descriptions of how
personality develops but at present they are descriptions only. We possess at best rudimentary and tentative
knowledge of just what sort of environment will result, for example, in traits of trust versus distrust, or
clear personal identity versus diffusion. Helping the child through the various stages and the positive
learning that should accompany them is a complex and difficult task, as any worried parent or teacher
knows. Search for the best ways of accomplishing this task accounts for much of the research in the field of
child development.

Socialization, then is a learning - teaching process that, when successful, results in the human organism's
moving from its infant state of helpless but total egocentricity to its ideal adult state of sensible conformity
coupled with independent creativity.