Cognitive Development in Toddlerhood and Middle Childhood Essay

This essay examines cognitive development from toddlerhood to middle childhood, focusing on Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It traces the progression through Piaget's stages, including sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages, highlighting how toddlers interact with the environment and develop cognitive skills. The essay discusses the stages of cognitive development in infancy, including reflexive activity, primary circular reactions, secondary circular reactions, coordination of secondary schemes, tertiary circular reactions, and the representational thought stage. It also emphasizes the crucial role of cultural context in shaping cognitive development, noting variations in how intelligence is perceived and valued across different cultures. The essay concludes by underscoring the importance of understanding how toddlers think, explore, and solve problems, and how this understanding helps them navigate their environment. The paper references Arnett et al. (2020), Liew et al. (2018), Lloyd (2020), Meadows (2017), Perone, Palanisamy, and Carlson (2018), and Siegler (2016) to support its claims.

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COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
Toddlers are not only developing physically and emotionally during the 1st two years, but
they also grow mentally. When toddlers interact with as well as learn about the environment,
they are generating new pathways as well as connections between nerve cells within the brains,
as well as bodies. Whereas physical change, as well as growth, is easily witnessed as well as
determined in precise terms for example in pounds as well as inches, cognitive change and
development remain a bit difficult to find out. So, cognitive development in toddlers can be
described through the observation of different development theories (Siegler 14). This paper will
use Piaget’s theory of mental development to trace the patterns of development from toddlerhood
thru middle childhood.
Piaget argued that babies interact with the environment fully via reflexive behaviors
(Meadows 15). Newborns failed to think about things that they are doing, but instead use their
involuntary reactions as well as instincts to obtain what they need: attention, air, as well as food.
Piaget alleged that as toddlers start to grow as well as learn about the environment via their
senses, they start using goal-oriented behaviors.
Piaget divided infancy into 6 stages. The stages include secondary circular reactions
(SRC), tertiary circular reactions, reflexive activity, primary secular reactions, representational
thought, as well as coordination of secondary schemes (Lloyd 25).

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The 1st stage remains reflective activity. It lasts from the birth of a child to approximately
one month. Piaget argues that in this stage, Toddlers engage in reflexive actions like sucking
when provided the breast. In this stage, toddlers begin to learn about the environment as well as
how they may interact with it.
The 2nd stage is called primary circular reactions (PCR). This stage starts from the ages of
one to four months. At this stage, Toddlers deliberately repeat actions which bring them a
pleasure as well as the desired outcome. During this period, babies do most of the things on
purpose since it feels good and it enables them obtains things they want. Piaget argues that
Toddlers at this stage can develop expectancy about the effect as well as cause situations
(Perone, Jeeva and Stephanie 12). Babies shall start to see that a pattern of activities is
connected, and start to expect the 2nd activity immediately after they encounter the first activity.
The 3rd stage is where babies start to demonstrate SCR. This stage indeed lasts from
approximate age four to eight months. At this stage, kids learn mostly via feelings things out.
During this stage, they use their hands and mouths to feel things out. At this start, the memory of
the babies continues to grow stronger.
The 4th stage is the coordination of secondary schemes. This stage is between eight to 12
months. During this stage, children begin to put various events together to attain a goal since
they have mastered how effect and cause work. The other key development that occurs in this
stage remains that of object performance. This is the understanding that particular things still
exist even if that thing cannot be seen.
The 5th stage is called the tertiary circular reactions. This stage is between the ages of
twelve to eighteen months. At this stage, toddlers continue to create experiments and explore the
environment to witness how different things work. At this stage, they shall play with anything

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around them; nevertheless, they do not yet know that some things such as electrical outlets as
well as knives can hurt them.
Lastly, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four months, children join the
commencement of the representational thought stage. At this stage, children begin to be symbol-
oriented. Children start to generate a general image of different things in their mind (Liew et al.
897). Around age twenty-one months, children learn routines about how some things remain
done.
Cultural context is indeed essential to the cognitive development of young children.
There is significant variation in how intelligence remains described within various cultures. As a
result, multiple facets of cognitive performance or cognitive functioning can be more highly
valued in culture as compared to the other culture (Arnett et al. 35). For example, whereas
processing speed is a trait of intelligence that remains highly valued within the western
conceptualizations of intelligence, most of the Ugandan villages link intelligence with adjectives
like careful, active, and slow. Features of intelligence that are associated with social competence
seem to be seen as essential as compared to speed in numerous non-western contexts. Therefore,
early childhood experts need to consider the role that cultural context performs in setting and
defining the stage for healthy cognitive functioning of children.
In conclusion, cognitive development indeed refers to how toddlers think, explore as well
as figure things out. Also, it represents the development of skills, knowledge, and problem
solving that help toddler to think about as well as understand their environments.

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Works Cited
Arnett, Jeffrey, et al. Child development a cultural approach. Pearson Australia, 2020.
Liew, Jeffrey, et al. "Parenting beliefs and practices in toddlerhood as precursors to self‐
regulatory, psychosocial, and academic outcomes in early and middle childhood in
ethnically diverse low‐income families." Social Development 27.4 (2018): 891-909.
Lloyd, Huw. "A Study of Active Orientation, Part 1: A Perspective-Based Theory of Cognitive
Development." Draft paper (2020).
Meadows, Sara. "An assessment of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development." Developing
Thinking. Routledge, 2017. 7-25.
Perone, Sammy, Jeeva Palanisamy, and Stephanie M. Carlson. "Age‐related change in brain
rhythms from early to middle childhood: Links to executive function." Developmental
science 21.6 (2018): e12691.
Siegler, Robert S. "Continuity and change in the field of cognitive development and in the
perspectives of one cognitive developmentalist." Child Development Perspectives 10.2
(2016): 128-133.