a. Discuss the cognitive level of the five year old child. (The Young Child in context p 17 – 19
1. The semiotic function of the child’s cognitive development gives rise to the use of 2 mental
representations namely symbols and signs.
Which can be observed when a child imitates behaviour of a model who is no longer
present,
symbolic play,
the child begins to draw,
mental representation,
verbal recall, language and
the child is egocentric.
2. The child is concerned with his immediate surroundings.
He has difficulty in judging and comparing the importance of objectives and
situations that are remote in time and space.
3. Cannot mentally compare different relationships, e.g. Bigger and smaller.
4. Child’s view of casuality has short comings
Finalism – children attached to questions such as “why questions”. They are unable
to distinguish between cause-and-effect.
Artificialism – belief that all physical phenomena in the world were produced by
people or God created them, e.g. when a child says that the sun was created when
God threw away a burning match.
Participation - belief that natural phenomena are the result of the relationship
between people’s actions and natural process. E.g. a child may believe that the sun
and the moon grow because children grow.
5. Realism - term used by Piaget for the preschool child’s inability to distinguish between
psychological and physical occurrences and which is internal and which is external e.g.
children see things as a act of speaking, and confuse the name of something with what it
represents.
6. The child’s thinking is animistic.
7. A child’s reasoning can be explained by
Syncretism – tendency to group different non related ideas or facts together in a
confusing whole .e.g. a preschooler states that a certain little girl does not have a
name because she cannot talk.
Juxtaposition – means that facts that are connected cannot be related to each other.
Cause and effect are confused with each other e.g. when a child say he is ill because
he did not go to school.
Transductive – child cannot see relationships that actually do exist.
8. Classification and grouping things together, using blocks to make a snake.
9. They don’t understand the concept of length, volume, quantity and mass.
10. The child cannot arrange different objects according to size.
11. They don’t have the concept of number even though they can count to ten.
1. The semiotic function of the child’s cognitive development gives rise to the use of 2 mental
representations namely symbols and signs.
Which can be observed when a child imitates behaviour of a model who is no longer
present,
symbolic play,
the child begins to draw,
mental representation,
verbal recall, language and
the child is egocentric.
2. The child is concerned with his immediate surroundings.
He has difficulty in judging and comparing the importance of objectives and
situations that are remote in time and space.
3. Cannot mentally compare different relationships, e.g. Bigger and smaller.
4. Child’s view of casuality has short comings
Finalism – children attached to questions such as “why questions”. They are unable
to distinguish between cause-and-effect.
Artificialism – belief that all physical phenomena in the world were produced by
people or God created them, e.g. when a child says that the sun was created when
God threw away a burning match.
Participation - belief that natural phenomena are the result of the relationship
between people’s actions and natural process. E.g. a child may believe that the sun
and the moon grow because children grow.
5. Realism - term used by Piaget for the preschool child’s inability to distinguish between
psychological and physical occurrences and which is internal and which is external e.g.
children see things as a act of speaking, and confuse the name of something with what it
represents.
6. The child’s thinking is animistic.
7. A child’s reasoning can be explained by
Syncretism – tendency to group different non related ideas or facts together in a
confusing whole .e.g. a preschooler states that a certain little girl does not have a
name because she cannot talk.
Juxtaposition – means that facts that are connected cannot be related to each other.
Cause and effect are confused with each other e.g. when a child say he is ill because
he did not go to school.
Transductive – child cannot see relationships that actually do exist.
8. Classification and grouping things together, using blocks to make a snake.
9. They don’t understand the concept of length, volume, quantity and mass.
10. The child cannot arrange different objects according to size.
11. They don’t have the concept of number even though they can count to ten.
