Cognitive Development and Language Skills Development :: language and communication

Cognitive Development and Language Skills Development â€Å"Cognitive development underpins all the other aspects of development as children start to explore and make sense of the world around them. It is closely linked to the development of language and communication skills as children interact with the people around them.† There are many theories written on the subjects of cognitive development and language and communication. These theories vary in several ways, but they all seem to make the link between the too subjects. Childcare settings put these theories into practise in a lot of ways, sometimes without even realising it, just through conversation. Cognitive development ===================== Piaget’s theories of cognitive development are that children learn through exploration of their environment. An adult’s role in this is to provide children with appropriate experiences. He said that cognitive development happens in four stages. 1. Sensory – motor  · Babies and young children learn through their senses, activity and interaction with their environment.  · They understand the world in terms of actions. 2. Pre – operations  · Young children learn through their experiences with real objects in their immediate environment.  · They use symbols e.g. words and images to make sense of their world. 3. Concrete operations  · Children continue to learn through their experiences with real objects.  · They access information (using language) to make sense of their immediate and wider environment. 4. Formal operations  · Children and adults learn to make use of abstract thinking. Piaget also believed that children would only learn when they are ready. Children's use of language represents their stage in cognitive development, but he didn’t see language as a ‘central’ to children's development, as cognitive development begins at birth and is required for language development. He also states that children are egocentric – they can’t understand another person’s point of view. Criticisms of Piaget’s work =========================== Margaret Donaldson suggests that Piaget underestimated young