Child Development Case Study

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Introduction The Campbell Child and Family Center (CCFC)is a high-quality early childhood education program in Durango, Colorado. The CCFC uses the Creative Curriculum for Early Childhood, which incorporates Jean Piaget’s work on cognitive development to establish developmentally appropriate learning programs for preschool children. I observed N for approximately 20 hours at the CCFC where he has been a student since November 2012. N is almost four years old and lives with his mom, dad, and older brother. N attends the Lightning Bugs structured preschool program with 14 other students. The adult-child ratio of the Lightning Bugs room is 1:8. Literature Review During early childhood or the preschool years, cognitive skills develop rapidly, enabling children to emerge from total dependence on caregivers to become part of the expansive world outside the family (Rathus, 2011). Cognitive development refers to the continuous growth of perception, memory, imagination, conception, judgment, and reason. Cognitive development involves the mental activities of comprehending information and the processes of acquiring, organizing, remembering, and using knowledge (Rathus, 2011). According to Piaget’s (1964) stage theory, the development of knowledge is a spontaneous process linked to the development of the body, nervous system and mental functions. To comprehend the development of knowledge, we begin with the idea of operation, which is to incorporate a concept, value, or scheme into part of ones mental structure. In other words, the developing child builds cognitive structures or networked concepts for understanding and responding to physical objects and experiences within his or her environment. The interaction between the child and his or... ... middle of paper ... ...opment in children: Piaget development and learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2(3), 176-186. doi:10.1002/tea.3660020306 Piaget, J. (1977). The development of thought: Equilibration of cognitive structures. Oxford England: Viking. Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1969). The psychology of the child. New York: Basic Books. Rathus, S. A. (2011). HDEV. California: Cengage Learning. Schultz, T.R., & Mendelson, R. (1975). The use of covariation as a principle of causal analysis. Child Development, 46, 394-399. doi:10.2307/1128133 Walker, C. M., & Gopnik, A. (2013). Pretense and possibility—A theoretical proposal about the effects of pretend play on development: Comment on Lillard et al. (2013). Psychological Bulletin, 139(1), 40-44. doi:10.1037/a0030151 Vygotsky, L.S. (1967). Play and its role in the mental development of the child. Soviet Psychology, 5(3), 6-18.

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