Cognitive and Moral Development in Early Childhood

This article discusses the significance of cognitive and moral development in early childhood and how it influences a child's overall development. It explores Kohlberg's theory of moral development and Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development. The article emphasizes the role of social interactions and moral reasoning in student learning.

Running Head: EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
Cognitive development in early childhood refers to the child’s mental capacity to
solve the problems. Cognitive skills are important in children as it helps them to understand
better about the world around them. On the other hand, moral development is the procedure
by which the children develop proper attitude towards other people in the society. Cognitive
development is enhanced by the surrounding space of a child like greenness outside the
classroom. This affects the cognitive development in school children (Dadvand et al., 2015).
Moral development in school children is necessary to make them understand about the social
skills and also to develop the sense of right and wrong among them. Thus, for the proper
development of a child in their early childhood it is necessary for the parents to inculcate a
sense of morale in the mind of the child and also to find out ways to develop their motor
skills.
Kohlberg’s theory can be explained by the story of Heinz whose wife was suffering
from cancer and Heinz had to steal the drug as he was not able to buy the drug due to lack of
money. The students reacted differently to this story according to their age and level of moral
development (Thoma & Dong, 2014). Vygotsky’s theory can be applied by the teachers in the
classroom for early childhood education as the classroom education is much more dependent
on the zone of proximal development as the students learn through the assistance from a more
knowledgeable person. The students are assigned to classroom as per their developmental
demands and age. Thus, schools have classroom with a multi-age order to provide quality
education to every child (Blake, 2015). It becomes very important to understand the
development in young children because it is clearly linked to their mental as well as physical
health. The poor health of a neonate affect the cognitive development of the child at different
stages (Figlio et al., 2014). According to Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development a child
follows an adult and gradually gains the capability to perform some tasks without any kind of
help or guidance. This process of the overall development of the child can be encouraged by

2EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
education and assistance (Blake, 2015). On the other hand, Kohlberg’s theory demonstrates
that moral development in a child is very much necessary. There are several levels in
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development that includes conventional morality, pre and post
conventional morality (Mcleod, 2019). These moralities are classified on the basis of age
bands like the kids in the age group of nine years or younger fall under the category of pre-
conventional morality where the morality structure is framed by the standards followed by
the adults and the consequences that arise by either following the rule or by breaking them.
The children at this age are governed by external authority and their reasoning ability is based
on the physical consequences of the actions performed by them. The next level includes the
children who are at their adolescence. At this stage there is internalization of moral values
along with the power of authority. In the stage of post- conventional morality the judgement
over the actions is based on the principles that are self-chosen and the choices of the
individual determine moral reasoning (Mcleod, 2019).
There are six stages in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development that fall under each of
the abovementioned levels of morality. The first level of pre-conventional morality includes
two stages out of which the first stage is the orientation of obedience. In this stage the child
behaves good in order to avoid punishment. The second stage that falls under this category is
the exchange and individualism which means that the children at this stage realise that there
is not just one right perspective that is being handed by the authorities. The conventional
level of morality includes the third and fourth stages that focus on good interpersonal
relations and the maintenance of social order respectively. The stage three of good inter-
personal relations means that the child behaves in a good manner so as to be seen as a good
person by other people. At the fourth stage the child has an awareness of the rules and
obligations of the society and also tries to follow the same to maintain the law and also to
avoid guilt. At the post-conventional level of morality the fifth stage describes the value of

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social agreement and individual rights. At this time the child starts to be aware of the facts
that even though the laws are made for the good of a greater mass but at certain times they
have to work against them. The sixth and the final stage includes universal principles which
means that the children at this age group have developes a specific set of moral laws that
might not fit along with the laws made by the society (Mcleod, 2019).
The differences between the Vygotsky’s theory and Kohlberg’s theory highlights that
Kohlberg’s theory is focussed more towards the development of moral conscience in a child
while, Vygotsky’s theory emphasizes the need of education and guidance for the
development of proper mental growth as well as cognitive growth of a child as these aspects
affect the overall development of child and also their adulthood. However, the number of
similarities between the two theories is that both the theories focus on child development
right from the early childhood as it affects the adulthood of the children. The other similarity
is that both the theories are applicable in the field of education. Both the theories also
emphasized that the process of learning leads to the development of high order thinking skills
(Blake, 2015).
It is concluded that cognitive and moral development play a very important role in the
early childhood development. Social interactions as well as moral reasoning play important
for role in student learning. Despite the differences between the Vygotsky and Kohlberg’s
theory of development the two theories are so much correlated to each other as they both
emphasize on the process of learning as a tool for development of better thinking and
cognitive skills.

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References
Blake, B. (2015). Developmental psychology: Incorporating Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories
in classrooms.
Dadvand, P., Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J., Esnaola, M., Forns, J., Basagaña, X., Alvarez-Pedrerol,
M., ... & Jerrett, M. (2015). Green spaces and cognitive development in primary
schoolchildren. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(26), 7937-
7942.
Figlio, D., Guryan, J., Karbownik, K., & Roth, J. (2014). The effects of poor neonatal health
on children's cognitive development. American Economic Review, 104(12), 3921-55.
Thoma, S. J., & Dong, Y. (2014). The Defining Issues Test of moral judgment
development. Behavioral Development Bulletin, 19(3), 55.
Mcleod, S. (2019). Kohlberg - Moral Development | Simply Psychology. Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/kohlberg.html