The Theory of Cognitive Development

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The theory of Cognitive development by Bruner can benefit greatly to overall development of the children when applied in an early years setting and in the home too. Children’s cognitive development has been viewed by different theorists, and they have found how they can help parents in their child’s development. The cognitive theory is divided in three Modes of representation which are Enactive Mode, Iconic mode and Symbolic mode. The Enactive mode; a baby experiments about the word through actions and senses and knowledge is stored through muscle memory, meaning that a baby will shake his hands when he has toy in his hand, if the toy is taken away the baby would still shake his hand. Here the child is developing his physical skills, exercising the little fingers, strengthen the palms and wrist. Hand eye coordination is essential to be able to grab and be able to hold objects. This does not stop with a rattle but moves on to feeding themselves and holding a pencil. This skill starts when the child starts to recognise and follow objects and their movements. Sensory development is also developed in this theory, this sensory is improve through vision, hearing and touching so when the child shakes the rattle she is going to here a sound and therefore connects the sound with rattle. In the enactive mode children are having the opportunities to perceive sights and sounds to be able and make sense of the world and eventually understand it. By shaking the rattle the baby can perceive sound and relate it to the object. The child will experience different textures and sounds by presenting the baby with different types of rattles (soft rattles to plastic ones). You can help the child explore these textures by sliding it to his/her body but... ... middle of paper ... ...re during free play, you use different children using the same objects for different reasons, for example one child used a pushchair to carry groceries like they do at a supermarket and another child used the pushchair to take a doll for a walk. Adult intervention comes in a lot in Scaffolding, as it is the adult’s child to slowly scaffold on already knows information. The Adult will simplify the task for the child, encourage the child not to give up and do better, emphasize certain words or parts o the task and act in ways which can model positively. Parents and primary care givers are very important in a child’s development as he/she can model and teach the child positive teachings. An adult interaction is very important as she/he will provide a safe environment where the child can learn; provide rich resources for the children for them to develop full potential.

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