Watch the Infants: Cognitive Development (2010, Learning Seed) video. The video is housed in the BLCC library Kanopy video database. Follow these directions or use this video to access the video. Complete this handout as you watch the video.
Watch Discoveries in Infancy: Cognitive Development & Learning (Far West Labratory, 1991). Complete this handout while watching the video.
Review this PowerPoint I narrate the Power Point in this video
Read Peterson (2012). Complete this handout as you read the article.
Peterson (2012)Answer the questions below:
Your best friend heard about a new flash card program that claims to improve baby’s cognitive development. The flash card system is expensive and the program requires her to spend 1 hour a day reviewing flash cards with her baby. Use information from the videos and readings to answer the questions below:
- Should your friend purchase and use the flash card system? Why?
- Using information from the videos, reading and Power Point, what are important cognitive skills babies 0 to 18 months to develop?
- How can infant teachers support babies’ cognitive development? List practices that no one has mentioned yet.
Your best friend heard about a new flash card program that claims to improve baby’s cognitive development. The flash card system is expensive and the program requires her to spend 1 hour a day reviewing flash cards with her baby. Use information from the videos and readings to answer the questions below:
1. Should your friend purchase and use the flash card system? Why?
2. Using information from the videos, reading and Power Point, what are important cognitive skills babies 0 to 18 months to develop?
3. How can infant teachers support babies’ cognitive development? List practices that no one has mentioned yet.
1. Answer: I would let my friend know that flashcards won’t actually make your child’s brain bigger or better or brawnier; the human brain develops from birth on a fairly set course influenced by experience-expectant and experience-dependent behaviours. But if she wants to the ranges of the age matter. If her baby is 0-3 months old, you introduce infant Stimulation flashcards. 4-6 months old you can start with math dots, Phonics Reading cards, picture and words cards and lastly alphabets. When teaching her child , you got to be flexible.
2. Answer: Cognitive development is how children think, explore and figure things out. It is the development of knowledge, skills, problem solving and dispositions, which help children to think about and understand the world around them. From 0-18 months I see that while reading and looking at the power point in my own words I do believe that a child begins to explore the environment, touch and manipulate objects. Learn by imitating and observing other people. Show understanding of words for highly familiar objects. Understand about a dozen common phrase
3. Answer: Sing-a-longs. Sing songs with your students and encourage him/her to sing along with you, identify noises if you hear a bird chirping out the window like the child know what sounds it makes and what it is, practice the Alphabet song in the classroom make it fun, practice counting with blocks or classroom sing alongs, practice shapes and colors during school time, visit interesting places such as the zoo, museum, theme parks, etc. Use objects, pictures, text, vary font size, volume, colors, offer tactile, musical, or physical variation, provide Checklists and planning tools, encourage peer learning, etc.
Janate — Thanks for posting your comment. Infants learn from experience and interactions. I wonder, should your friend save her money and focus on interacting with her baby and providing experiences that will support her learning and growth?
1. I would inform my friend that just because it is deemed expensive and it says it would enhance your Childs development doesn’t necessarily mean it would work. Children learn and develop at their own pace and forcing them to know information at a young age could cause them stress. They wouldn’t have to use flashcards until their child is starting pre-kindergarten or kindergarten.
2. With the help of the environment and the world around them, flashcards would just be a booster element for their cognitive development. “Infants gather information about the world by using both observation and their senses to try new ways to use materials (Meltzoff 2007; Pinkham & Jaswal 2011)” (Peterson 2012).
3. What teachers can do to incorporate cognitive development in school is allowing items in the classroom to be accessible to the infants, being aware of you bias, story telling, music, collaborative work, families stories, outside trips, bulletin boards & displays, snacks and meals that incorporate cultural backgrounds.
Tamia — Thanks for posting your comment. Babies learn through relationships — so interactions and experiences that are appropriate for the baby are most important. You list many sensory experiences that are appropriate for babies. If babies learn by experiencing the world through their senses and motor learning; I wonder, how do the flashcards support sensorimotor learning?
Your best friend heard about a new flash card program that claims to improve baby’s cognitive development. The flash card system is expensive and the program requires her to spend 1 hour a day reviewing flash cards with her baby. Use information from the videos and readings to answer the questions below:
-Should your friend purchase and use the flash card system? Why?
1) I will let her know that the flashcards can be a waste of money because it may not work. Babies learn at their own pace and the baby is born with billions of neurons that connect with one another to strengthen their brain. To help promote neuron connections she should engage in sensory rich activities, variety of books and toys, and use repetition.
-Using information from the videos, reading and Power Point, what are important cognitive skills babies 0 to 18 months to develop?
2) At 0-3 months babies begin to explore the basic senses and learning about the environment and body, 3-6 months they begin to develop a stronger sense of perception.
-How can infant teachers support babies’ cognitive development? List practices that no one has mentioned yet.
3) Infant teachers can support babies cognitive development by reading books, sing along, allowing them to crawl and move, and repetition ( repeating words and phrases).
Tamaris — Thanks for your comment. Babies learn from sensorimotor experiences that support facilitate brain growth and development. Providing sensory experiences where babies can explore the world with their bodies promotes brain development — flashcards will not. I wonder, what other type of sensory activities should infant teachers create for babies to support their cognitive development?
Should your friend purchase and use the flash card system? Why?
I don’t think my friend should purchase the flash card system because I think there are more activities you can do with a infant besides show them flashcards. To improve cognitive development it is more successful to interact with the child. This may or may not work with every child.
Using information from the videos, reading and Power Point, what are important cognitive skills babies 0 to 18 months to develop? According the reading the important cognitive skills babies –18 develop are that they are very curious and eager to learn.
How can infant teachers support babies’ cognitive development? List practices that no one has mentioned yet.
Infant teachers can support cognitive development by reading to the infants and talking to them about what is going on. They can even sing to them a song every day, maybe the same song so that their memory improves.
Cindy — Thanks for your comment. Relationships and interactions are the foundation of infant learning and development. Opportunities to engage in sensorimotor experiences support brain growth and cognition. I wonder, what are some other activities that infant teachers can set up that facilitate sensorimotor learning and growth?
1. Should your friend purchase and use the flash card system? Why?
Answer: i would tell my friend not to purchase and use the flash card system because it wouldn’t really help her child to learn and its would be best for her to do activities, read books, sing songs,speak with babies not at them.
2.Using information from the videos, reading and Power Point, what are important cognitive skills babies 0 to 18 months to develop?
Answer: important cognitive skills babies 0 to 18 months to develop is to allow the child to think, explore and figure things out. According to the reading infants are curious and was born to explore and learn, create home and caregiving environments where adults doesnt say no! but offer a safe setting and encouragement (Peterson 2012). And by creating such environment and giving them the freedom to explore they will learn about their surroundings and more.
3.How can infant teachers support babies’ cognitive development? List practices that no one has mentioned yet.
Answer: infant teachers can support babies’ cognitive development by making eye contact with them, talk to them about you doing, model correct language, and speak to babies not at them .
Lacoya — Thanks for creating a thread in this module. Babies learn through relationships, based on interactions with people and the environment. Sensorimotor experiences facilitate learning and development. The flashcards are a waste of money. I wonder, what other sensorimotor activities can infant teachers develop for babies that promote cognitive development?
Your best friend heard about a new flash card program that claims to improve baby’s cognitive development. The flash card system is expensive and the program requires her to spend 1 hour a day reviewing flash cards with her baby. Use information from the videos and readings to answer the questions below:
1)Should your friend purchase and use the flash card system? Why?
I believe that the flash card system would be helpful if my friend is going to be using it constantly. I do not think that my friend should purchase the flash card system if she is only going to be using it once and leave it in a corner collecting dust.
2)Using information from the videos, reading and Power Point, what are important cognitive skills babies 0 to 18 months to develop?
Some important cognitive skills babies 0-18 months develop the learning schemes which is when a child is trying to understand the world around them by using materials around them. For example, banging a toy and finding out that if the bang it on the table makes a different sound if they bang the toy with another toy. Infants are also developing their skills on Cause & Effect. Babies are doing sets of trail and error with their bodies and other materials. For example, finding out that if step on the block with their foot, the block will squeaky loud or soft depending how they are stepping on it .
3)How can infant teachers support babies’ cognitive development? List practices that no one has mentioned yet.
Infants teachers can support babies cognitive development by making sure we are communicating everything that is going on with frequent repetition. This repetition will help form words and eventually having communication. Teachers need to make sure even our tone of voice is appropriate when supporting infants, always making sure we are using a high pitch tone and short, simple sentences that they are able to understand what is asked of them.
Patty — Thanks for your comment. Communicating with babies supports their cognitive development. I wonder, how frequently should you friend use the flashcards? How does Peterson’s (2012) concepts or the ideas from the video connect to your response? In addition to communicating with babies, I wonder, what else else should infant teachers do to support infant cognitive development?
Your best friend heard about a new flash card program that claims to improve baby’s cognitive development. The flash card system is expensive and the program requires her to spend 1 hour a day reviewing flash cards with her baby. Use information from the videos and readings to answer the questions below:
1) Should your friend purchase and use the flash card system? Why?
I would highly recommend that my friend does purchase and use the flash card system. Being that a part of babies development comes with curiosity (Peterson, 10). Flash cards would really benefit the baby to build cognitive development because their curiosity keeps them interested which will assist in focusing. Flash cards is a great tool as well for cognitive development because the first two years in infants are very crucial and they learn to master and understand spatial relationships (Peterson, 10). At this stage kids easily follow people and objects with their eyes.
How can infant teachers support babies’ cognitive development? List practices that no one has mentioned yet.
Infant teachers can support babies cognitive development by using tools that are visual to them. This will be helpful because as explained above, infants in their early years are very alert and experts at focusing. Teachers can use tools or objects such as 3D shapes or stuffed animals as well when it comes to teaching the names of animals.
Eunice — Thanks for your comment. You connected content from the reading to your post. Three-dimensional objects are important to learning. Curiosity is also crucial to learning. I wonder, what sparks curiosity? If I started using flashcards in class, would that engage your curiosity? Why?
My friend should purchase and use the flash card system. It is a good strategy for children to improve their cognitive skills. Using flash cards help children memorize what’s on them. They can also explore their curiosities.
The important cognitive skills for babies from 0 to 18 months to learn are thinking, processing information, problem solving and memory. Children that age learn quick and most of the time are eager to keep exploring and learning.
Infant teachers can help babies with cognitive development by having them do puzzles, build blocks and read books with big, bright and colorful pictures so they’ll be and stay focused on learning.
Grace — Thanks for your comment. Exploring is critical to learning — babies learn when they feel safe & secure to explore the environment they are in. I wonder, how will the flashcard promote babies to explore their environment?
1. Should your friend purchase and use the flash card system? Why?
I think it would be a good thing for her to purchase and use the flash cards with her infant. As adults doing what we can to nurture and support our children’s learning through implementing appropriate practices, flash cards, would be a step towards creating a healthy brain (Peterson 2012). But I would also suggest and make my friend aware of other alternative that she can use with her infant that are more inexpensive and/or free.
2. Using information from the videos, reading and Power Point, what are important cognitive skills babies 0 to 18 months to develop?
Based on both resources, the important cognitive skills babies have from 0-18 months are desire to explore, problem-solving, memory building, and information gathering.
3. How can infant teachers support babies’ cognitive development? List practices that no one has mentioned yet.
Ways that infant teachers can support babies’ cognitive skills is through:
• Incorporating hands on activities that challenge their problem-solving skills.
• Being patient and understanding by helping them regulate their reactions.
• Providing infants with predictable and consistent routines.
Xitlaly — Thanks for your comment. Babies 0-18 months learn by exploring, problem solving and using their senses to learn about the environment. This happens through hands-on learning activities and relationships where babies trust the adults around them. I wonder, how would the flashcards support a baby’s learning, growth & development?