My Development
As children move from the sensorimotor to the preoperational stage, which spans the ears 2-7, the most obvious change is an extraordinary increase in representational or symbolic activities. During early childhood, representational capacities blossom.
(Berk, 2013, p. 175)
Through my mother's biography of myself at a young age, I elicited many behaviors of children in the preoperational stage. I often engaged in make-believe play (playing house) and understood that objects as both a symbol and an object.
From videos I've seen of myself in early childhood, I engaged in both private speech and make-believe play while my father engaged in scaffolding to help me during times he was trying to teach me.
Video: The video below is of my father and I in "Claire's Kitchen". This video showcases my engaging in make-believe play.
During early childhood, rapid growth of language broadens preschoolers' participation in social dialogues with more knowledgeable individuals, who encourage them to master culturally important tasks. According to Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, children start to communicate with themselves in much the same way they converse with others.
Private speech (Piaget's Ego-centric speech): When engaging in tasks, children often talk out loud to themselves. Children utilize private speech more when tasks are appropriately challenging, after they make errors, or when they are confused about how to proceed.
Make-believe play: Viewed as ideal social context for fostering cognitive development in early childhood.
(Berk, 2013, p. 182-183).
Vygotsky's Sociocultural
Theory
Cognitive Development
Language Development
My Development
Language is intimately related to virtually all cognitive changes. Between the ages of 2-6, children make momentous advances. Children go from known about 250 works at age 2 to 10,000 at age 6.
Research shows that children can connect new words with the underlying concepts after only a brief encounter, a process called fast mapping.
(Berk, 2013, p. 193).
My mother and father worked to engaged in conversations with me throughout my childhood to help foster my language development. They did this through engaging in conversations with me, engaging in make-believe-play , and by reading to me.
When I was 3 years ol I started taking Suzuki piano lessons. The Suzuki pedagogy operates under the assumptions that children learn language at a very young age, and the same can be done for music. To me, playing and reading music is just a part of who I am, just like the English language, and may parents also worked to engage my musical language through lessons, and playing music with me. I believe that their efforts have helped to make me the musician I am today.
My Development