Alison Gopnik's Video What Do Babies Think

The speech, “What Do Babies Think” by Alison Gopnik, is in my opinion a wonderful speech about what babies think about, how they think, and the decision making processes. She is a phycologist who studies the intelligence-gathering and decision-making that babies are really doing when they play. I chose this speech to write about because I have always asked myself the same two popular questions. How do babies think? What do they think about?

Piaget believe that children are active thinkers. He recognized that the mind develops through a series of irreversible stages. He also acknowledged that a child’s maturing brain builds schemas that are constantly assimilating and accommodating to the world around them. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is split into four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The sensorimotor stage occurs from birth to nearly two years of age. At this stage, infants learn about the world around them by sensing it and interacting within it. It is also in this stage that the idea of object permanence develops, that is, the awareness that things continue to exist even when they are not being observed. In my personal life, I am certain that in this stage of development I would have enjoyed peek-a-boo, because if I didn’t see it, to my developing mind, it wasn’t there at all. The second stage, preoperational, lasts from two years of age to seven years of

I learned several things I did not know before this video, for instance the different stages things form in a baby. The first thing that stood out to me was at twenty five days the heart chamber assembles. Another interesting fact about the embryo’s heart is it beats twice as fast as the mothers. However, at thirty two days the embryo grows arms and legs. Additionally, another interesting piece of information was at fifty two days the baby starts developing their retina, nose, and fingers. In all reality the embryo looks like a tiny human at the age of nine weeks inside of the mother’s stomach.

Laura Schulz’s presentation, The Surprisingly Logical Minds of Babies, explores the idea of how babies and young children are able to learn so much in such a short span of time. In Schulz’s presentation, the viewers see multiple video experiments where she introduces babies to different balls and toys that make noises. I choose to explain and break down the first experiment, that she discusses. In the first experiment Schulz has a colleague reach into a bucket with mostly blue balls and a few yellow balls. The colleague pulls out three of the balls and when she takes each ball out she squeaks them. The colleague then pulls out a yellow ball and hands it to the baby. The child copies what Schulz’s colleague has done, but however the

At eight to twelve months, infants can now focus on a goal-oriented task; such as, locating a hidden object after watching someone place it under a blanket. During this stage, infants are using things they have witnessed and past experiences to complete a task. Using goal-centered techniques at this age ensures the development of processing information throughout the stages to come. Tertiary circular reactions stage is number four in Piaget’s sensorimotor stages and includes infants from twelve to eighteen months. On the verge of walking, infants move around and explore how objects work in their environment. Also, they are beginning to develop independence and individual characteristics. Just like in the previous stage, babies enjoy taking objects apart. However, in the tertiary circular reactions stage infants now enjoy using trial-and-error to piece them back together. Trial-and-error techniques and other processes help infants transition into their final stage, mental representation. Eighteen months to two years make up mental representation. For the duration of this stage infants are able to provide immediate answers to problems, participate in make-believe play, and find hidden objects out of their sight. Having a larger grasp on the world, infants are now able to view items that are not there. For example, a mother asks her child would they like ice

Effectively, the stages of infant cognitive development can be viewed and explained simply. According to Piaget there are four stages of cognitive development that range from the ages of birth through adulthood. Today we will only focus on two of these stages as they pertain to the ages of birth through the ages of 24 months or two years old. The first stage is the sensorimotor stage which includes and defines the ages from birth to about 18 months of age. This stage is quickly described and defined by the infant only being aware of what’s immediately in front of them, and only interacting with those people, objects or sounds (http://www.webmd.com/children/piaget-stages-of-development Piaget Stages of Development. ©2005-2015 WebMD, LLC). Looking at Piaget’s studies even at the earliest moments of life an infant utilizes the power of their brains in the forms of basic awareness’s and communication attempts. The second

At birth a baby relies on sight and touch for their intellectual development, they have limited language, and all information is processed visually, as a baby grows they develop intellectually by participating in imaginative play ie a box becomes a car or train or plane. They will also imitate and explore new behaviours and forms of play, their confidence will grow as they near the age of 3 years old, but will still seek reassurance from their parents and carers.

1. The three videos have displayed many examples of pre-operational children's abilities and inabilities. Children enter the preoperational stage of cognitive development during the pre-school years. They now have the capacity to think symbolically. Symbolic play is one example of a cognitive function that preoperational children can engage in that younger children cannot. They can use blocks to represent something else (a building), as shown in the video "Preoperational Stage." They can also engage in pretend play, where they imagine different scenarios that represent different objects/people. The "theory of mind" states that children's views of how minds work are very different than the view that you or I would have. In the mind of the 3-year-old, everyone sees the world the same way. But once you turn five, an understanding develops that is much similar to ours. They think that the 'false belief' test is almost silly, because the answer is so obvious (have a view of the mind much similar to ours; things aren't always the way they seem).

One example of physical development I observed from this video is how adults involved the babies in activities that involved movement. This let's the baby's body feels a moving sensation. This helps them to understand how their body can move through space. Adults help develop the baby's understand of this by holding, rocking, walking, and dancing with the

There are multiple theories explaining how cognitive development occurs. Piaget’s stage theory, for example, focuses on whether children progress qualitatively through stages of development (Diener 2017). A theory based in nature vs. nurture, Piaget believed a child’s cognition develops biologically as they grow, based on their interactions with the environment. Sociocultural theory, on the other hand, believes children are influenced by the beliefs, values, perceptions, and opinions of those around them. Finally, information processing theories suggest that children process the information they receive and do not merely react to stimulus.

During this stage, infants are discover the relationships between their bodies and the environment. One important part of this stage is object permanence. This when a child is beginning to understand objects that cannot be seen or heard (Berk, 2014). An example of this, is the game peek-a-boo. Older infants will understand that the person is still even though they cannot see them, while younger infants will think that the person disappeared. Some researchers refute Piaget’s findings. One perspective, the core knowledge perspective argues that babies are born with an innate knowledge. This means that infants are able to understand the world around them because they are prewired at

As children grow, they change in different stages in the development process. Some of the changes reflected in milestones are: the way they think, interact, and behave. This article of interest, explains the various aspects of children’s concepts, language, perception and memory, and how they are effectively applied. It also emphasizes the cognitive elements of perception and attention that enable children to develop conscious thought and how it processes information. With detailed and analytical evidence, this article can be used as a guide for parents, and those who are interested in child development; particularly, the stages between infancy and youth. Once you have read this article, you will have a better understanding of the platform and stages of child

Three physical changes the infant undergoes includes (1) going from using basic reflexes to learning complex motor skills (e.g. how to crawl and walk); (textbook p. 142; Chapter 4), (2) developing fine motor skills (e.g. precisely reaching and grasping for a toy); (p. 185; Chapter 5), and (3) developing vision, specifically depth perception and pattern perception (e.g. developing the ability to recognize); (pp. 189-193, Chapter 5). These are examples of the dynamic systems theory of motor development as the infant progresses in a sequence.

In the first, or sensorimotor, stage (birth to two years), knowledge is gained primarily through sensory impressions and motor activity. Through these two modes of learning, experienced both separately and in combination, infants gradually learn to control their own bodies and objects in the external world. Toward the end of Piaget¡¦s career, he brought about the idea that action is actually the primary source of knowledge and that perception and language are more secondary roles. He claimed that action is not random, but has organization, as well as logic. Infants from birth to four months however, are incapable of thought and are unable to differentiate themselves from others or from the environment. To infants, objects only exist when they are insight

Sub-stage 5-twelve to eighteen months, this stage is characterized by a child’s ability to conceptualize the idea that an object that cannot be seen still exists. The sixth and final sub-stage of the Sensorimotor Period is eighteen to twenty-four months, this stage is characterized by a child’s ability to understand through reasoning and express themselves creatively (Lefmann & Combs-Orme, 2013). Stage 2-Pre-operational Thought (i.e., 2 - 7 years old); the Pre-operational Thought period is defined by a child's ability to create their own form of communication. Sub-stages of the Pre-operational Thought are characterized by a child’s ability to identify characteristics of photographs and their use of an intuitive thought process (Powell & Kalina, 2009). Concrete Operations (i.e., 7 – 12 years old); the Concrete Operational period is defined by a child's ability to reason logically. Formal Operations (i.e., 12 years old - Adulthood); the Formal Operational period is defined by a child's ability to use critical thinking and analytical reasoning to approach new challenges. Children initially enter into action-based (sensorimotor) and progress into a mental (operational) level as they grow older (Powell & Kalina, 2009). A comparison of the theories of Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson is important to gain a holistic point of view of a child’s developmental progress.