Cognitive Development
Our views of intelligence, thinking, and understanding of neurological functions are changing as a result of significant research conducted over recent decades. We know that the brain receives, processes, and stores different kinds of information in specific locations. Neural connections, the development of hard and soft “wiring,” and brain density increase dramatically from the neonatal period throughout early childhood. Children’s thinking skills shift in focus from processing stimuli through their senses, to learning how to pay attention, understand and process information, and construct memory (Hull, Goldhaber, & Capone, 2002). Children learn to speak and develop language in predictable patterns that culminate in the ability to read, write, speak, and comprehend the nuances of language. Bilingual or multilingual children develop the ability to code switch back and forth between languages.
Learning theories describe these mental processes differently but not necessarily in ways that are mutually exclusive. Constructivists believe that children acquire mental constructs or concepts through reciprocal processes of responding and adapting to experiences. Behaviorists believe that learning across the life span is represented by a continual process of operant conditioning based on positive and negative reinforcement (Charlesworth, 2004; Levine & Munsch, 2011).