week 5 post

In chapter 9 Piaget and Vygotsky stressed a couple of things such as egocentric and illogical aspects of thoughts during the play years. Egocentric children contemplate the world through their eyes and not others. Piaget thought that egocentrism limits understanding as young children only focus on one thing only. Vygostsky emphasized the social and cultural aspects of children’s cognition. He believed that children are guided as apprentices. Others around them are their mentors, within their zones of proximal development. Which leads to the use of scaffolding that helps children master various skills and concepts. Scaffolding is temporary support that is tailored to learner’s needs and abilities and aimed at helping the learner master the next task in a given learning process or to help them in their development zone. A perfect example of this teaching children to look both ways when crossing the street while holding their hand. Scaffolding is used everywhere such as teach children how to explore. Language develops rapidly during early childhood which is a sensitive period but it is not a critical one for learning language. Vocabulary use increase rapidly the average child at age 2 knows about 500 words. Children learn vocabulary rapidly by what is known as fast-mapping. Fast- mapping is the speedy and sometimes imprecise way in which children learn new words by tentatively placing them in mental categories according to their perceived meaning. Early childhood education is very important for children development. There are many different types of programs that children can participate in, one is child-centered programs; which focus and stress children’s development and growth. They emphasize children’s need to follow their own interest instead of the adults around them interest. After doing the discussion post I was amazed on how different the U.S. views on early child education is different than other countries. In other countries assistance are given to parents to help pay for their child’s education. When a child becomes sixteen and stays in school he or she is eligible for allowance that will help pay for their education; here in the U.S. parents and students struggle to pay for good education.