Reflection: Based on this case study, answer the questions below. Use Microsoft Word to create a separate file for your answers and when you are finished send your answers through SafeAssign.
1. Discuss how the concepts of schemes, assimilation, and accommodation play a role in the cognitive development you see in the children mentioned above.
2. Create a table and list the substages of Piaget’s Sensorimotor Period. List the child, the sensorimotor substage the child is in, and why you think the child falls in that substage.
3. Describe what types of cognitive abilities these children might be developing from an information processing approach.
“Ms. Patty’s Preschool”
- Discuss how the concepts of schemes, assimilation, and accommodation play a role in the cognitive development you see in the children mentioned above.
From the case study provided, the concept of schemes, assimilation and accommodation are evidence in the children. Schemes are manifest through the actions of the children at various levels (Anonymous, 2014). For instance, between the months of 8 and 13 the children can grab balls and throw them. Therefore, assimilation is evident through how the children perceive and adapt to new information. When the children are taken to the other class, they learn to socialize and to cope up with the new environment and exposures. They also learn to fit in the new environment-accommodation by taking new information in the new environment and altering the pre-existing schemes to fit in the new environment and the new information.
- Create a table and list the sub stages of Piaget’s Sensorimotor Period. List the child, the sensorimotor substage the child is in, and why you think the child falls in that substage.
| Child name | Substages of Piaget’s Sensorimotor Period | Stage the child is in | Reason |
| Sam | Reflexive schemes | Reflexive schemes | He is sucking, can grasp |
| Keisha | Primary circular reactions | Primary circular reactions | Has developed motor skills and has adjusted behaviors in response to the environment. She pulls a doll in a baby crib, pull a blanket and kiss a doll |
| Jackson | Secondary circular reactions | Secondary circular reactions | Repeats action and imitates actions that he has practiced earlier. Makes the duck quack |
| Emma | Coordination of secondary circular reaction | Coordination of secondary circular reaction | Makes coordination of behaviors in solving a problem. She crawls, push a ball out of the ay and picks a red plastic block to place it in her mouth. |
| Patrick’s | Tertiary circular reactions | Tertiary circular reactions | The child discovers new things through active experimentation. After discovering how tasty his thumb is he refuses to use a pacifier |
| Williams | Mental representation | Mental representation | Solves problems through symbolic means as opposed to trial-and-error. He is able to aim and throw the cup over the chair in a consistent manner and asks questions. |
- Describe what types of cognitive abilities these children might be developing from an information processing approach.
From an information processing approach, these children are developing various types of cognitive abilities. These include attention, memory, categorization skills and problem solving skills (Anonymous. (2014). As information enters the sensory register the sights and sounds are briefed before they are transferred to short term memory then to the long term memory. The infants gradually become efficient in maintaining their attention by taking information more quickly. They also develop memory as they can recognize and recall things. They also categorize things.
Reference Anonymous. (2014). Cognitive development in infancy and toddlerhood