Resources

Glossary

• Accommodation - this is the creation of a new schema, or the modification of an existing one, when new information cannot be assimilated into the existing schema.

• Animism - attribution of lifelike qualities to inanimate objects.

• Assimilation - is a cognitive process that manages how we take in new information and incorporate that new information into our existing knowledge.

• Centration - tendency of the child to focus on only one aspect of a problem.

• Critical period - like a sensitive period, this is the term used to describe a period in the child’s development where the child is more able and responsive to learning a specific skill and/or ability.

• Egocentrism - "an egocentric child assumes that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same as the child does" Piaget stated that children in the preoperational stage of development think in an egocentric way.

• Equilibrium/equilibration - this is the term Piaget used for the general process of learning which involves a conflict (e,g between what they perceive and what they think) and its resolution by a difernt way of thinking.

• Intuitive thought - Piaget named this is as a sub-stage of the preoperational stage of development because children realise they have a vast amount of knowledge but don’t know how they know it. It occurs between the ages of 4 and 7. Children tend to grow very curious and ask many questions; they begin the use of primitive reasoning.

• Irreversibility - is a stage in early child development in which a child falsely believes that actions cannot be reversed or undone.

• Memory - is the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved.

• Plasticity - plasticity, or neuroplasticity, describes how experiences reorganise neural pathways in the brain. Long lasting functional changes in the brain occur when we learn new things or memorise new information. These changes in neural connections are called neuroplasticity.

• Preconceptual phase – Piaget named this is as a sub-stage of the preoperational stage of development. It occurs between about the ages of 2 and 4. The child is able to formulate designs of objects that are not present. Other examples of mental abilities are language and pretend play.

• Preoperational stage – Piaget thought this occurred between the ages of 2 and 7. Preoperational thought has two subsubstages Preconceptual thought and intuitive thought.

• Receptive speech/language – this is the ability to understand language heard or read.

• Schema - an organized pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them.

• Symbolic play - is the ability of children to use objects, actions or ideas to represent other objects, actions, or ideas during play.

• Synapse - structure at the end of a neuron, or nerve cell, through which an electrical or chemical message is passed to another neuron. All of a person's thinking, movement and feeling depends on the transmission of messages through synapses.

• Telegraphic speech - this is a short sentence usually following a subject verb object rule e.g. What you want?

• Transductive reasoning - with transductive reasoning, a child reasons from case to case, ignoring important, well-established facts they have yet to learn. For example, a child might reason that pizza is triangular in shape rather than round, if they have only seen single slices.

• Trial and Error learning - the process of finding a solution to a problem by trying many possible solutions and learning from mistakes until a way is found.

Books

Bee, H., Boyd, D. (2012) The Developing Child. Pearson
Sheridan, M. revised and updated by Sharma, A., Cockerill, H. (2008) From Birth to Five Years. Routledge

Journals

Intellectual development from two to five years old - Print summary

The development of cognitive skills in children involves the step by step building of skills such as attention, memory and thinking. These help children to process the sensory information from the environment and eventually learn to remember, make comparisons, evaluate and make sense of information. Paiget’s cognitive development theory helps us understand cognitive development in the 2-5 year olds. Children build schemes of the world based on their knowledge and they use these to classify and organise the things around them. As new information is gained or schemes are challenged, children need to amend or extend them to build a more complex understanding of the world. Children’s view of the world is still egocentric, but social interactions and play are increasingly important for their cognitive development. They begin to understand time at around 3-4 years and learn to carry out multi-staged instructions. Their numerical, writing and drawing abilities are increasing very rapidly. Imagination is still a strong component of their thinking and so truth and fiction can become muddled up.

Learning outcomes

By completing this resource you will be able to:

• Discuss changes in thinking that occur between 2 and 5 years of age.

Please type any additional notes and comments you have on this resource in the field below: Print

Learning outcomes

By completing this resource you will be able to:

• Discuss changes in thinking that occur between 2 and 5 years of age.

This resource was developed by:

Name: Mary Y Brown

Role in Project: Content Author

Qualifications: MMSci Ed, PGCertPT, BSc (Hons), RNCB, RNT.

Previous experience: Mary is an Assistant Professor with the School of Health Sciences teaching communication skills, innovation and recognising culture and diversity through experiential learning. She is a Registered Nurse Child Branch with a specialty in Paediatric Oncology and supporting children with complex needs and their families.

Name: Louise Clarke

Role in Project: Content Author

Qualifications: PGCHE, BSc (Hons) Psychology and Sociology, Diploma in Nursing, RN Child, FHEA.

Previous experience: Louise's clinical career involved a variety of medical and surgical settings and a specialisation in paediatric plastics and cleft lip and palate care. She is currently employed as a Child Health Lecturer at the University of Nottingham involved in teaching communication, interpersonal and leadership skills alongside facilitating the development of clinical practical skills in undergraduate children's nurses.

Name: Carol Hall

Role in Project: Content Author

Qualifications: PhD, RSCN, RGN, RNT, PFHEA.

Previous experience: Carol is an experienced nurse teacher and children's nurse, who worked across a range of children's acute healthcare settings before becoming a ward manager on a teenage care ward for young people with both physical and mental health concerns. Carol is currently an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Education within the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham.

Name: Liz Hilton

Role in Project: Technical Developer

Qualifications: BA (Hons) Graphic Design, BSc (Hons) Biology,

Previous experience: Liz has a wide background in design and E-learning in a wide range of sectors, including industry, the NHS and academic.

Name: Laura Holliday

Role in Project: Content Author

Qualifications: MNursSci, RN Child.

Previous experience: Laura's clinical experience includes children's cardiology, medicine and respiratory. She has previously led a hospital wide preceptorship programme, working within a practice development team. She is currently employed as a Teaching Associate in Child Health at the University of Nottingham.

Name: Lydia Jones

Role in Project: Technical Support and audio manager

Qualifications: BA (Hons) Media Production.

Previous experience: Lydia has worked in the HELM team at the University of Nottingham for 7 years and is currently the e-learning and project development officer. She has many years' experience in project management and audio and video production.

Name: Gill Langmack

Role in Project: Lead Content Author

Qualifications: MSc, PGCHE, BSc (Hons) Nursing, RSCN, RGN, FHEA.

Previous experience: As an experienced Children's Nurse and educator, Gill has extensive experience of nursing children and their families in both acute and critical care areas. Gill is currently lecturing as an Assistant Professor within the University of Nottingham, School of Health Sciences.

Name: Helen Laverty

Role in Project: Principal Content Reviewer

Qualifications: MSc. (Human Development), Cert Ed (FE), RNLD, SFHEA

Previous experience: Helen is an Assistant Professor with the School of Health Sciences & Professional Lead for learning Disability Nursing. Her teaching specialities relate to the concept of ordinariness, human development, and person centred philosophies. She has extensive experience in the development of RLOs. She is a Registered Nurse Learning Disabilities specialising in promoting an ordinary life for children and young people and leadership.

Name: Andrew Lee

Role in Project: Technical Developer

Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Economics.

Previous experience: Andrew has 5 years web development experience working with small businesses, consultancy and app. creation. Twelve years game design experience as senior designer and design lead with oversight of design scripting, level design, scheduling and game mechanics.

Name: Liz Maslen

Role in Project: Project Lead (NCC)

Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Psychology, CMI PGDip.

Previous experience: Liz currently works as the Children's Workforce Development Manager at Nottinghamshire County Council. She has 17 years' experience within the childcare sector, and during this time has worked within voluntary, statutory and private organisations. She has also been involved with the management and delivery of regional and national training programmes aimed at multi-agency frontline practitioners and parent groups.

Name: Roz McCormick

Role in Project: Content Initiator

Qualifications: BA (Hons)

Previous experience: Roz is a qualified probation officer. She has worked in education, criminal justice and training since 1995, and has initiated, developed and delivered a variety of developmental projects with the intention of enabling professionals to work in partnership with service users. She initiated contact with University of Nottingham in pursuit of a rock solid knowledge base upon which to create a robust child development learning platform.

Name: Sally Melling

Role in Project: Content Author

Qualifications: EdD, MPhil, BA (Hons) Nursing, RN (Adult), RN Child, RNT

Previous experience: Sally is an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham. She has over 30 years' experience as a children's nurse and educator. She is currently the Professional Lead for children's nursing.

Name: Elisabeth O'Brien

Role in Project: Lead Content Author

Qualifications: MEd, PGCHE, BSc (Hons), RGN, RHV, Obs Cert, FHEA.

Previous experience: Elisabeth worked in neonatal intensive care and a Bone Marrow Transplant unit . After working as Health Visitor in the U.K and abroad she joined the Child Health Team at the University of Nottingham.

Name: Cherry Poussa

Role in Project: Technical team manager

Qualifications: MSc, BSc.

Previous experience: Cherry is Head of Digital Learning Support Services in the School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham with responsibility for IT systems, e-learning and online services and managing the integration of technical platforms to support the processes within these areas. She plays a key part in implementing the HELM strategy and supporting the technical and budgetary aspects of e-learning and digital media research projects.

Name: Mike Taylor

Role in Project: Technical Lead

Qualifications: MSc in Information Technology, PGC in Multi-Media design, BA (Hons) Media and cultural studies.

Previous experience: Mike has worked as a learning technologist for over 10 years at the University of Nottingham. He is currently the Project Development Lead for the HELM team and is working on the development of reusable learning objects (RLOs) both for the school of health sciences and for external projects.

Name: Richard Warr

Role in Project: Technical Implementer

Qualifications: MCIPD.

Previous experience: Originally an Optician, Richard moved into training, initially clinical support and then as a professional examiner. Over the next 25 years he became CIPD qualified and a member of the British Psychological Society. He has supported learners in: personal development, leadership and management, psychometric profiling, customer service and bespoke systems training amongst others. Over the last 4 years Richard has focussed on eLearning design and learning systems management within Nottinghamshire County Council.

Name: Richard Windle

Role in Project: Project Lead and Instructional Designer

Qualifications: PhD, PGCAP, BSc (Hon), PFHEA

Previous experience: Richard is an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham. He is currently co-academic lead for the HELM team. As well as leading online curriculum development, his research and development interests include open multimedia learning content pedagogy and reuse, stakeholder involvement in content development and student generated content.

With thanks to the following who reviewed the content of the resources:

University of Nottingham Nursing students (Child field):

Ryan Clarke, Clare Cribdon, Aoife Fehilly, Rosanna Jones, Ruth Jones, Kelly Parker, Simone Portman and Molly Wright

University of Nottingham Lecturers in Health Sciences:

Paula Dawson, Damion McCormick, Alexandra Lewandowska-Smith and Heather Wharrad

Nottingham County Council Family Workers:

Helen Bingley, Susan Bird, Debbie Jesson, Meena Sharma, Dina Vitelli and Sharon Warman

With Thanks to:

The young people their families and colleagues who have provided audio and visual resources.

James Henderson, Thomas Stackpoole and Stathis Konstantinidis who provided additional audio narration for these resources.

Kirstie Coolin, Simon Riley and Nicholas Whiting for additional technical support.

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