Piaget and Vygotsky
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Select two theories that you believe best explain cognitive development in infancy and early childhood. Prepare a 3-4 page paper in which you describe the cognitive changes that occur in these two stages of development and then use the selected theories to explain these changes. Be sure that you address the following questions in your paper:
a. What cognitive skills are developed during these stages? How are they developed?
b. What behaviors do these cognitive skills support? And how are these behaviors explained by your selected theory?
c. What are the similarities and differences between your selected theories?
Ideas are demonstrated to begin the paper.
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Solution Summary
The theories of Piagest and Vygotsky are compared and contrasted.
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I would set the paper up with the following outline:
I. Introduction
A. Two theories - Piaget and Vygotsky
B. Thesis: Both Piaget and Vygotsky have valid theories concerning child development in infancy and early childhood.
II. Cognitive skills and how they are developed (a)
III. Behaviors developed and how the theories explain them (b)
IV. Similarities and differences between the theories (c)
V. Conclusion
Here is some information you could use for the body of your paper:
A - Cognitive skills and how they are developed
- Cognition begins with alertness, recognition, awareness, and interest in stimuli (visual, auditory, and tactile). Motor development continues to improve and the infant develops schema (mental images) of various objects, etc. around them.
- I would also recommend discussing object permanence here, which is acquired during this phase, or stage. Object permanence is the understanding that an object exists, even if you can't see it. Games like "peek-a-boo" are popular with infants because of this cognitive development.
- Assimilation and accommodation are both important parts of Piaget's cognitive theory. Assimiliation is the process of how all people, not just children, acquire new information and fit it into their pre-existing schema. Accommodation, on the other hand, ...
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