chapter 16 children, the early years. enduring understandings unit six preschoolers learn through...

Chapter 16

Children, the Early Years

Enduring UnderstandingsUnit Six

• Preschoolers learn through play.

Enduring UnderstandingsUnit Six

• Preschoolers think differently than do adolescents and adults. Understanding how they think, and why, helps you respond appropriately to their intellectual needs.

Enduring UnderstandingsUnit Six

• Brain building activities for preschoolers need not be expensive, just interactive with a knowledgeable care- giver.

Enduring UnderstandingsUnit Six

• Television must be used appropriately in order to avoid a negative effect on the intellectual development of preschoolers.

Preschoolers use different

thought processes.

“Daddy, your sideburns are nice and neat, but your backburn is getting long.”

Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist studied the ways in which children of different ages think.

Piaget called logical mental actions:

The process of combining ideas in

order.

A preconceptual stage where

the child forms mental images that are often incomplete or

illogical.

Preconceptual Child – ages 2-4

IntuitiveChild – ages 4-7

A child in the intuitive substage tries to

solve problems by how they feel about

it, rather than through logic.

Preconceptual Child – ages 2-4

IntuitiveChild – ages 4-7

Due to the obstacles of logically thinking during this stage, we

cannot expect preschoolers to think logically, but we can provide

experiences that help them explore the areas that lag behind.

Obstacles to logical thinking:# 1- They are egocentric

Egocentrism is the term for the preschooler’s belief that

everyone thinks in the same way and has the same ideas

as he or she does.

Egocentrism

“What I see is what she sees.”Pg 267, figure 16-1

Egocentrism

Obstacles to logical thinking:

# 2- Preschoolers only focus their attention on one part of the object or event.

“Do I Focus on Height or Width?”

• Preschool children know that the amount of liquid in the two equal-sized glasses is the same (A). When the liquid of one container is poured into a tall tube (B) or a wide bowl ( C) , preschool children incorrectly say the amount of liquid has changed.

C

Pg 269, figure 16-3

You will not convince a preschooler of this logic.

Which set has more squares?

Obstacles to logical thinking:# 3- Preschoolers focus

on single steps or events- not the order of changes.

Preschoolers focus on single steps or events- not the order of changes

+ =

“How can we get blue again?” The preschooler will not say, “Remove the yellow.”

16-4

If a preschooler watches the stick fall, and you ask him or her To draw the three stages of the falling, he or she will not draw the stage in-between.

Obstacles to logical thinking:# 4- Preschoolers

cannot retrace the steps to undo the task. (subtraction)

Obstacles to logical thinking:# 5- Preschoolers link

illogical events, “Coffee brings Daddy home.”

Worksheet – Intellectual Development

- Symbolic play

- drawing

- Mental images

- language

While the obstacles may interfere with logic, the new abilities that preschoolers (preoperational

children) have opens many new doors to learning and

understanding.

Because children makeup their own symbols, such as

pretending a leaf is a plate, pretend-play is a

mental step beyond imitation.

Symbolic play

Mental Images

• Mental images are symbols of objects and past experiences stored in the mind. Such as memories and new ideas.

Mental Images

Preschoolers intend their drawings to be realistic.

They often draw first, and then decide what their

pictures represent.

Spoken words are symbols used to represent something. Words are abstract. Language helps

the thinking process

CAR =

Learning is exciting and stimulating.

Preoperational children are working

on specific concepts.

Worksheet – “Concepts”

Concept A: Physical qualities i.e. size, shape, color, and texture.

Physical qualities

Their understanding is limited because they

don’t know which feature is most

important and they often don’t “see” the

whole.

16-9

Concept B: Logical thinking concepts

• Classification (grouping by qualities)

Concept B: Logical thinking concepts

• Arranging by size, number concepts (not just counting)

• Count to 5

• Show me 5 apples

Concept B: Logical thinking concepts

• Space – Understand words like up,

down, but– Have trouble knowing what

is on the other side of the wall in the house.

• time (time is linked to events)– What is “yesterday?”– One of the last concepts to

understand

16-10 A preschool child often drawstrees and other objects at right anglesto the slope of a hill.

Concept C: Cause and effect concepts

• Often learned by asking questions

• “Because I am staying in bed, I am sick.”

• “What is rain?”

Language Abilities Increase

Preschoolers are egocentric in their speech- they talk but not necessarily communicate.

This includes telling a story without the beginning, or using pronouns without the name or repeating words or monologues.

In the English language, children master (use properly in all positions of the word) sounds between ages 3 to 8

and in a predictable order.

3 years M,n,p,h.w

4 years B,k,g,f

5 years Y,ng,d

Language Abilities Increase

Language Abilities Increase

• Age 3 = 900 words

• Age 4 = 1400 words

• Age 5 = 2000 words

• Apple is an easier word to grasp than angry

Language Abilities Increase

• Use of grammar matures a great deal between 3 and 5.

– At 3, “Give doll the mommy.” = “Give Mommy the doll.”

Language Abilities Increase

• Grammar rules are applied to the exceptions.

– At 3, “I waited and I eated.” This shows an awareness of grammar, and in time he or she will learn the exceptions.

Language Abilities Increase

• Questions are difficult to form because the word order is switched.

– A 3 year old will use question words like, when and why, but will not switch the order.

• “When Mary will come?” instead of

• “When will Mary come?”

Language Abilities Increase

• There is a tendency to use too many negatives.

– “I don’t never want no more spinach.”

Language Abilities Increase

• 4 and 5 year olds speak in longer sentences by using clauses, conjunctions, and prepositions. (“I had fun because we played games.”)

• They can form questions correctly.– Instead of “What the dog is eating?” – “What is the dog eating?”

Language Abilities Increase

• 4 and 5 year olds may form tag questions

– “The baby is small, yes?”

Language Abilities Increase

• Older preschoolers have trouble using the correct pronouns and continue to apply grammar rules to every case.

– “Him and me went to town,” instead of “He and I went to town.”

– “May I go barefeeted?”