Question

The middle childhood years of ages 7-12 are known as the “school years.” During this time children begin to incorporate their cognitive abilities into advanced motor abilities. These abilities include writing in cursive, operating a computer, or knowing how to affectively strategize in a game. (Feldman, 2015.)                 Jean Piaget accurately categorizes middle childhood years into four periods. One is the concrete operational stage. This stage is the period when children begin to use critical thinking and rely on their own intuition in solving a problem. One example is a child’s ability to distinguish the connection between speed and time. A child will realize a car going faster than another car will reach its destination faster. (Feldman, 2015.) Children will also develop the concept of reversibility, “the notion that transformations to a stimulus can be reversed. Grasping this, children realize that a ball of clay squeezed into a long, thin rope can become a ball again.” (Feldman, 2015.)                 Vygotsky’s approach to cognitive development during the middle childhood years are made up from a child’s zone of proximal development, known as ZPD, which is when a child can understand a problem partially but not able to fully comprehend it. (Feldman, 2015.) His cognitive approach suggests that a child’s cognitive development best develops in a group of peers. Suggesting that one child’s perspective that does not fully comprehend the solution can be corrected by another peer’s finding. The best example of this type of cognitive development is the form of education through the classroom setting. Psychologists predict disability through IQ scores. These IQ scores range from 25-40, even more severe disability will have scores that go below 25. Those with such severe disability will most likely have very little motor skills and will probably need 24-hour care. (Feldman, 2015.) IN 6-7 LINES, WHAT DO YOU AGREE ON THIS PAGE OR HOW WOULD COMMENT?

Answer 1

Both perspectives have strong points in terms of the cognitive development in middle childhood. Vygotsky's theory, however, takes into account varying cognitive abilities among children of the same age. Children who are the in middle childhood stage are normally in classroom settings and concepts like scaffolding and ZPD help better understand the varying levels of cognitive abilities among children of the same age. In addition, observations that are made based on these two concepts can help teachers decide how best to help students whose cognitive skills differ from those of their peers.