How do students' language acquisition and thinking skills change throughout adolescence?
L: What you learned
(Answered in respect to my inquiry question and the knowledge I gained in trying to answer it)
Physical- Physical changes during puberty cause changes in how one views themselves, which leads to a change in speech and thoughts.
Cognitive- Age affects cognitive ability because as a person gets older, they gain more knowledge and acquire new thinking and language skills. They are also more capable of learning new things.
Emotional- Changes that occur in a persons life, especially during adolescence, lead to varying emotions and effect emotional stability for the rest of a person's life. As emotions change, thinking and language skills change as well.
Social- Social interactions have a major impact on thinking and language acquisition in all people, but especially adolescents. Who a person hangs out with, affects how they view the world, view themselves, and view people around them. Friends and family also impact speech because you tend to pick up certain language from who you are around the most. Social relationships are perhaps the most important factor in understanding how a person's thinking and language acquisition skills change as they get older.
1. Physical
Nutrition R (Review):
Chilren need a well-balanced diet in order to have the energy they need to play and, more importantly, learn.
Eating dinner as a family decreases at ages 9-14.
Poverty can cause an inability to have a sufficient diet, which can lead to malnutrition, which in turn, leads to permanent physical and menual damage.
A (Apply):
If all children had a well-balanced diet all of the time, would there be a change in their learning process for the better?
R (Reflect):
If all schools provided students with at least one well-balaned meal, would they be able to better learn and focus?
I believe that if all students had well-balanced, sufficient meals all the time, they would be able to reach their full potential earlier and easier.
It is good that a lot of schools already have free and reduced lunch, because it shows that schools are starting to understand the importance of making sure their students' are eating well, no matter what their home life situation is.
2. Cognitive
Chapters 9 and 12 in Exploring Lifespan Development, discuss the ideas of cognitive development throughout adolescence. During this time, children are starting to gain new fine motor skills, engaging in "rough-and-tumble play" and starting to understand the concept of rules (230). All of these aspects are related to the changes that their mind and body are going through as a result of puberty and the transition into adolescence. Piaget's concrete operational stage is also discussed in this chapter. The concrete operational stage is the idea that during ages 7-11, children are quickly gaining new cognitive abilities (232). This relates to my inquiry question because it is discussing the idea that children are able to comprehend and learn new things, only when their mind and bodies are ready, at a specific age. My question focuses on why adolescent's thinking and language skills change as they get older, and Piaget's theory seems to answer this pretty clearly. During this time, adolescents are also gaining a greater attention span, and they are able to think and process information more quickly than before. Once again, this helps to answer my inquiry question because the children's brains are growing and can now comprehend more, and think more efficiently, which leads to a change in their thinking and language skills. There are also many other factors that influence cognitive development such as the idea of nature versus nurture, cultural influences stereotypes, and many other worldly influences (243). All of these are factors that influence a person's cognitive development, and all need to be considered when making a judgement about a students thinking and language skills.
Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
3. Emotional
Chapter 12 in Exploring Lifespan Development, focuses on emotional and social development. Something that caught my eye as I was reading was the idea of how children's ideas and problem solving skills change as their emotional development changes. This pertains to my inquiry question in that I ask, how children's thinking processes change as they get older. As pertaining to the "Heinz dilemma," it seems that when kids are young, they always follow "the rules of the authority figures" and base their thoughts of what is right and wrong solely off of that (319). But, as they get older and their moral and emotional thinking processes grow, they are more likely to think for themselves about what is right and wrong according to their personal belief system. At this point they take into account the authority figures and the law, but at the same time balance the extent of the situation with that and their beliefs. The "Heinz dilemma" example really helped to start answering my question on how and why children's thinking processes change as they get older. I have learned that this is partly based on their emotional and moral development as well as their ability to balance what is right and wrong. It also seems that all of the emotions such as "empathy, sympathy, and guilt" have a big effect on a young persons ability to reason about a certain situations, and depending on what emotion they are feeling at the time, their solution to a problem may be different.
Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
4. Social
The social aspect in Chapter 12 of, Exploring Lifespan Development, is also very relevant with my inquiry question. According to the chapter, it seems that young people's language and thinking processes change due to the social relationships they form with their parents, siblings, teachers, and also friends and peers. One of the most important of these social interactions, it seems, are that of friends. Forming close friendships with people your age helps to develop "self-concept, perspective talking, and identity" (328). These are all key components in helping to answer my inquiry question on why children's language acquisition and thinking processes change. Young people's thinking processes change due to emotional development, as I discussed above, but also due to the social influences of the people around them. As adolescents get older, they start to hang out with people that share similar belief systems as them and begin to base their own beliefs off of each other's. Parents, teachers, and siblings are also key in social development because they play a huge role in the confidence of a young person. These people help shape how children will feel about themselves as they get older. It seems that if they have positive feedback and relationships with these people, they will be more likely to be confident in themselves and their belief system as they get older. This relates to my question because it helps me understand that social influences are a big part in the development of language and thinking processes.
Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
Observation Site Information
I would like to observe my cousins. They are all boys ages 9, 6 and 3. I babysat them all summer long this past summer and they were a handful, but I think it would be interesting to actually take the time to observe them and formulate questions and answers about why they do the things they do.
A. Site details:
Name of site: My cousin's house
B. Describe your setting
I will be observing my three little cousins at their house. I will observe how they interact with each other, how they act when they are by themselves and how they act around adults. My focus, however, will mostly be on their language and how they talk with each other, myself, and their parents and how their thinking processes may differ because of their age. Since I am with them a lot, they will not have any suspicion that I am observing how they talk, so the results will not be altered.
My cousins are 9, 6, and 3 and the 9 year old has Down Syndrome. He is very high functioning, but it will be interesting to compare his language and thinking skills with his brothers and vise versa. Since they will be at home surrounded by family, I believe that they will feel comfortable and natural and, therefore, I will get the best gage of their language acquisition skills.
C. Describe what you did at the site (free-write/journal formatting)
1st visit: (2 hours)
I went and observed my cousins over the weekend and it was very interesting to watch "behind the scenes". My youngest cousin, Brendan, is three. I noticed that Brendan imitates his older brothers, Ryan and Cooper, who are nine and seven years old. Ryan and Cooper love to use words like, “doodoo head” and “baby guts” (also known as bad words!) and soon after that, Brendan would start saying those words back. Although their mom did intervene and tell them to stop saying mean words, when they were alone they kept at it. This made me think of how much peers and siblings has an effect on kids. Even though the authority figure told them to stop, they kept doing it because it seems that, how they think they appear towards their siblings/peers, is more important to them than how they appear toward the authority figure, or their mom.
This also relates to my inquiry question because it has to do with the development of language. Brendan imitated his brothers, which is how he learned to use certain words and phrases. I believe that Brendan views and will view certain situations in a certain way, due to what he has learned from his brothers. It is interesting to think that Ryan, since he is the oldest, at first probably imitated his parents because he did not have any brothers to watch and learn from. When I am teaching I plan on observing how students act towards one another based on how many siblings they have, and where they lie in age, compared to them.
2nd visit: (2 hours)
This visit, I focused on the emotional aspect of my younger cousins development. I've noticed that all of the boys can be a bit emotional, especially when it comes to playing games. Cooper tends to get really into any game we play. When he wins it's like he's on top of the world and he couldn't be happier, but when he loses he throws a really big fit. I really don't know the exact cause of his extreme emotions toward winning and losing games, but it is something I am interested in finding out. I've always noticed that Cooper has reacted more strongly to these types of things so I decided to also see how Ryan and Brendan react to winning and losing. It seems to me that Ry is happy when he wins and upset when he loses, but not to the extent that Cooper is. Ryan gets over the game super quickly and is ready to play something else (but warning: never turn off Ryan's wii game or there will be trouble). (Side note: Ryan is more into games on the Wii and Coop is into more physical games, but also Wii games. I wonder if the type of and how strongly the boys like the game has anything to do with how they react). As for Brendan, I think he is too young to care a whole lot about these things, but I have noticed that he is beginning to care more and more each time I am with them. I wonder if their reactions are something that is genetic, something that they learned, or something that has to do with age. It seems that is could be a combination of all three. Brendan could have easily learned to react in the way he does due to watching how his brothers react to certain situations.
This all relates to my inquiry question because it focuses on the emotional side of thinking and language skills. The boys seem to react to certain situations based on their age and birth order. It seems that the boy's reactions differ as they get older, but it is hard to tell exactly why. Based off of some readings from the text though, I would have to say that the social interactions they encounter, genetics, and age all play a factor in how they react and think about winning and losing games they play.
3rd visit: (2 hours)
This visit my cousins had their friends over to play. There was one boy about age 9 and a girl about 7. It was interesting to see the boys interacting with people other than each other. They were all playing together at first, but then I put a movie in and the girl and my youngest cousin, Brendan sat and watched the movie, while the other three boys ran around. They were playing a game that I remember playing a lot when I was younger. It goes like this; two of the boys ran away from the last one and hid. Once they were found they would run away and hide somewhere else, and it continues like this, usually leaving the chaser sad and upset that he/she doesn’t have anyone to play with because their friends are being mean and running away. In this case, Cooper and his friend were running away from Ryan. Of course I remember playing this game and I remember how I felt when I was the one that had to chase after my friends… it’s not fun, so I pointed Ryan in the right direction every time! It’s interesting to try and understand the fascination behind this game that generation after generation seems to play. Why is it so fun to hide from someone, when they are clearing getting upset that they are not being included? I think that the answer is peer relationships and peer pressure. Cooper probably felt cool that his older friend was laughing and having fun, and therefore Cooper thought that it was fun.
My inquiry question focuses on how thinking and language change as people get older, and although this is not directly related, I think that this observation helps play a role in my answering it. Peer pressure and peer relationships seem to have a great influence over how people act, which I think correlates with how they think. Peers also have an influence over our language because we tend to speak, think, and act based on whom we hang out with. Overall, this observation taught me that peers have a great influence over the way we think, speak, and act because it seems that people, especially those in adolescence are easily impacted by those around them.
D. Summarize and describe your experience in relation to the concepts in our textbook
Cognitive
Chapters 9 and 12 in Exploring Lifespan Development, discuss the ideas of cognitive development throughout adolescence. During this time, children are starting to gain new fine motor skills, engaging in "rough-and-tumble play" and starting to understand the concept of rules (230). All of these aspects are related to the changes that their mind and body are going through as a result of puberty and the transition into adolescence. Piaget's concrete operational stage is also discussed in this chapter. The concrete operational stage is the idea that during ages 7-11, children are quickly gaining new cognitive abilities (232). This relates to my inquiry question because it is discussing the idea that children are able to comprehend and learn new things, only when their mind and bodies are ready, at a specific age. My question focuses on why adolescent's thinking and language skills change as they get older, and Piaget's theory seems to answer this pretty clearly. During this time, adolescents are also gaining a greater attention span, and they are able to think and process information more quickly than before. Once again, this helps to answer my inquiry question because the children's brains are growing and can now comprehend more, and think more efficiently, which leads to a change in their thinking and language skills. There are also many other factors that influence cognitive development such as the idea of nature versus nurture, cultural influences stereotypes, and many other worldly influences (243). All of these are factors that influence a person's cognitive development, and all need to be considered when making a judgement about a students thinking and language skills.
Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
Emotional
Chapter 12 in Exploring Lifespan Development, focuses on emotional and social development. Something that caught my eye as I was reading was the idea of how children's ideas and problem solving skills change as their emotional development changes. This pertains to my inquiry question in that I ask, how children's thinking processes change as they get older. As pertaining to the "Heinz dilemma," it seems that when kids are young, they always follow "the rules of the authority figures" and base their thoughts of what is right and wrong solely off of that (319). But, as they get older and their moral and emotional thinking processes grow, they are more likely to think for themselves about what is right and wrong according to their personal belief system. At this point they take into account the authority figures and the law, but at the same time balance the extent of the situation with that and their beliefs. The "Heinz dilemma" example really helped to start answering my question on how and why children's thinking processes change as they get older. I have learned that this is partly based on their emotional and moral development as well as their ability to balance what is right and wrong. It also seems that all of the emotions such as "empathy, sympathy, and guilt" have a big effect on a young persons ability to reason about a certain situations, and depending on what emotion they are feeling at the time, their solution to a problem may be different.
Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
Social
The social aspect in Chapter 12 of, Exploring Lifespan Development, is also very relevant with my inquiry question. According to the chapter, it seems that young people's language and thinking processes change due to the social relationships they form with their parents, siblings, teachers, and also friends and peers. One of the most important of these social interactions, it seems, are that of friends. Forming close friendships with people your age helps to develop "self-concept, perspective talking, and identity" (328). These are all key components in helping to answer my inquiry question on why children's language acquisition and thinking processes change. Young people's thinking processes change due to emotional development, as I discussed above, but also due to the social influences of the people around them. As adolescents get older, they start to hang out with people that share similar belief systems as them and begin to base their own beliefs off of each other's. Parents, teachers, and siblings are also key in social development because they play a huge role in the confidence of a young person. These people help shape how children will feel about themselves as they get older. It seems that if they have positive feedback and relationships with these people, they will be more likely to be confident in themselves and their belief system as they get older. This relates to my question because it helps me understand that social influences are a big part in the development of language and thinking processes.
Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
Revisiting Your Curiosities
W: What you want to know (curiosities) 1. How do student's thinking and language acquisition skills change as they get older?
Through my observations and research, I have concluded that thinking and language acquisition skills change as a person gets older due to many different factors. Puberty is a huge factor that influences how a person views themselves and the people around them, which in turn changes how they think and speak, for the rest of their lives. I also concluded that age and sex have a huge impact on how someone thinks and talks. As a person gets older, they become more mature and their vocabulary and language acquisition increases, which is a major factor in understanding these changes. Also siblings, parents, peers, and birth order all seem to affect how a person views themselves, which in turn impacts their thought process and how they communicate with others. Many changes occur during adolescence because this is the time that children are transitioning into adulthood, and puberty begins causing many physical, mental and emotional changes.
Connecting to the book:
Chapter 11: Physical and Cognitive Development
p. 283: Puberty
p.283: Adolescence
p. 286: Sex differences and maturity
p. 290: Body image- how one views him/herself (especially during adolescence) impacts how they think and speak throughout their lives.
4. What new questions emerge for you as a future teacher? -How can I connect with all of my students even if we come from completely different backgrounds?
This is something that I have wondered for quite a while now. I want to be able to connect with my students so they feel comfortable with me and therefore have a comfortable, safe learning environment. I think that my inquiry question helped me to answer this question because it made me realize that even if my students and I come from completely different backgrounds, there is always something we can form a connection through. Whether that be that we are both girls, we are both the youngest sibling, we play soccer... Whatever it may be there is always a way to connect with your students. My job is to try and understand where they are coming from and what stage of development they are in (which my inquiry question helped me to figure out).
Articles
Article 1) Cognitive effects of variations in pubertal timing: Is puberty a period of brain organization for human sex-typed cognition? Summary:
This article describes what effects puberty and sex hormones can have on adolescents. This time in a teenager’s life, can cause certain things to happen as they get older. For example, if an adolescent is “exposed to stress,” as they enter adulthood, they are more aggressive and show “more disturbed sexual behavior” as they enter adulthood (823). The article also discusses the theory that the timing of puberty should be related to behavior. This means that if a person starts puberty early, he/she should have a more stereotypical appearance and behavior for their gender compared to those who start puberty later on. That theory proves to be true as they found out that girls who started puberty early or on time, feel depressed, and boys who started puberty on time, are at greater risk for substance abuse. Puberty also seems to have an effect on cognitive abilities, where a person who reaches puberty earlier, has greater spatial abilities, compared to their peers who started puberty later on.
Response:
My inquiry question is about how and why children’s thinking and language acquisition skills change, as they get older. This article relates to my question because it discusses how puberty impacts thinking skills and behavior, as a person transitions from adolescents to adulthood. This article gave me an answer to my question that is, puberty and hormones can cause a person’s thinking and language skills to differ as they reach adulthood. I did not realize all of the effects that puberty has on cognition, behavior, and thinking skills, in a person. It is interesting to see that, depending on when a person starts puberty, they will be more/less mature, have different cognitive abilities, and have different behavior. This information will allow me to analyze my students and understand their behavior a bit more, which will in turn, allow me to be more understanding towards them.
References Beltz, A. M., & Berenbaum, S. A. (2013). Cognitive effects of variations in pubertal timing: Is puberty a period of brain organization for human sex-typed cognition?. Hormones & Behavior, 63(5), 823-828. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2013.04.002
Article 2) Other-Sex Relationship Stress and Sex Differences in the Contribution of Puberty to Depression Summary:
This article focuses on the effects of puberty on depression in girls and boys. It states that girls who start puberty early and boys that start puberty late are more likely to develop depression. Some of the changes that adolescents go through during puberty such as “physical, psychological, and social” changes can have an effect on how adolescents feel about themselves, compared to the rest of their peers (825). It also talks about how girls, in general, are more likely to have depression than boys, because early puberty causes “more advanced status” for boys, but not for girls (825). The fact that girls have menstrual cycles also can cause mental and physical changes, such as gaining weight and having physical discomfort. These changes can lead to stress, which in turn, can cause depression. This is completely opposite in boys who start puberty early because these changes are viewed as positive, and therefore reduce stress. All of these physical and emotional changes relate to how adolescents will be treated by their peers, and where they will fit in socially. How kids treat each other based on appearance can have an effect on how children view themselves, whether that is positive or negative. Girls who start puberty early are more likely to be made fun of, and therefore view themselves negatively, which can cause depression.
Response:
This article relates to my inquiry question because it has to do with how children view themselves based on their appearance, and how their peers treat them. This has a direct impact on why an adolescent’s thinking processes change, as they get older. If a girl starts puberty early, it can cause her to be made fun of, which leads to her thinking that she is not as good as other girls. The same thing can happen with a boy if he starts puberty late. This knowledge will give me a better understanding of my students and why they might think and feel they way they do about themselves. It is interesting to learn that puberty (something a person has no control over) can be the cause of success or downfall in a person’s life. In this case, puberty and peer relationships are the cause of how adolescents view themselves, and how this can negatively or positively impact their thinking processes as they reach adulthood.
References
Llewellyn, Nicole, Karen D. Rudolph, and Glenn I. Roisman. "Other-Sex Relationship Stress and Sex Differences in the Contribution of Puberty to Depression." Journal of Early Adolescence 32.6 (2012), 824-850.
Article 3) Cognitive Sex Differences Are Not Magnified as a Function of Age, Sex Hormones, or Puberty Development During Early Adolescence. Summary:
This article discusses how sex hormones and puberty do not have an effect on a person’s cognitive ability. The study tested 12 to 14 year old boys and girls on their ability to assess and complete tasks, recognize faces, as well as tested their mental and verbal ability. They found that there were sex differences in all of the areas, but it did not correspond to age. Therefore, hormones did not seem to have a different effect on male and female cognitive ability.
Response:
I thought this article was very interesting because it went against the ideas that the previous two articles talked about. The first article stated that puberty has an effect on cognitive ability, but in this study, that was not the case. This still relates to my inquiry question because it has to do with cognitive ability, which relates to language acquisition and the change in how a child thinks, as they get older. It is interesting to balance these articles and take away information from both, in order for me to formulate my own ideas of how puberty and sex can affect language acquisition and thinking processes. I believe that once I think about these issues, it will help me to fully answer my inquiry question.
References
Herlitz, Agneta, et al. "Cognitive Sex Differences Are Not Magnified as a Function of Age, Sex Hormones, or Puberty Development During Early Adolescence." Developmental Neuropsychology 38.3 (2013), 167-179.
Article 4) Physical-Verbal Aggression and Depression in Adolescents: The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies Summary:
This article discusses the affect that “physical transformations, emotional challenges and changes in social relationships” have on cognitive emotion and development in adolescents (1246). The purpose of the study was to discover what different emotional coping strategies are most effective in adolescents in order to teach these strategies to adolescents. If these strategies are taught to people around the time of adolescence, they will be more likely to have the ability to cope with problems they face, and they are less likely to become depressed because of a situation. Gender differences seem to have a direct correlation with coping strategies and how individuals react to certain difficulties they have. For example, men tend to react more aggressively compared to women who react by focusing their energy on something more positive or talking about their problems with others. They also found that women are more likely to become depressed about a situation, where boys are more verbally aggressive and seem to put more blame on others. They believe that by teaching successful coping strategies such as turning a negative experience or negative energy into a positive will cause less depression in adolescence and adulthood.
Response:
This article helps to answer my inquiry question because it helps me, as a future teacher, understand that every student has their own way of coping based on their gender, age, and sometimes genetics. As students transition from youth to adulthood, there are many changes that they face including how they cope. If I am able to help my students learn effective coping strategies that can help them for the rest of their life, I think that is something worth understanding and learning more about. This will also help me relate to my students better by knowing how each of them reacts to situations and being able to better adapt to their needs. Overall, puberty and gender seem to have the most impact over how adolescents think, perceive, react, and then cope with situations, which answers part of my inquiry question.
References PEÑA, L., & EXTREMERA PACHECO, N. (2012). Physical-Verbal Aggression and Depression in Adolescents: The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies. Universitas Psychologica, 11(4), 1245-1254.
On page 292, the text highlights a variety of eating disorders that have been known to impact adolescents. "Girls who reach puberty early, who are very dissatisfied with their body image, and who grow up in homes where concern with weight and thinness is high are risk for serious eating problems" (pg. 292). This ties in nicely with the point that you made throughout your wiki, that girls who mature at a young age are less satisfied with themselves, and the people you surround yourself with can either help or hinder that self image.
On page 284, the text talks about body growth and growth spurts. This is around the time that sex differences amongst males and females starts to become more apparent. According to the text, the "cephalocaudal" growth trend of infants and early childhood reverses, thus hands, legs, and feet accelerate first. This could is why some adolescents go through an "awkward" phase which would be easy to tie to your inquiry question about the progression through stages of childhood to adolescence.
On page 287 there is a table (Table 11.1) titled Pubertal Development in North American Girls and Boys. This table would be good to look through and possibly add to the Physical portion of your Wiki. It details that rough ages of each developmental growth and the average age range. This will come in handy when considering puberty and young adolescents.
On page 330, the text talks about the sex differences amongst boys and girls in regards to problems with development. For example: girls are more prone to depression than boys are. Why is that? It is something to consider because your inquiry question is about stages and how developing happens, changing between boys and girls. Adolescents are very prone to problems in development and I think it is important to look into discussing maybe just a few sentences regarding the difference between boys and girls and these problems.
Name of Student: Paige Smigelski
Table of Contents
Pre-Adolescence
W: What you want to know (curiosities)
How do students' language acquisition and thinking skills change throughout adolescence?L: What you learned
(Answered in respect to my inquiry question and the knowledge I gained in trying to answer it)1. Physical
NutritionR (Review):
A (Apply):
R (Reflect):
2. Cognitive
Chapters 9 and 12 in Exploring Lifespan Development, discuss the ideas of cognitive development throughout adolescence. During this time, children are starting to gain new fine motor skills, engaging in "rough-and-tumble play" and starting to understand the concept of rules (230). All of these aspects are related to the changes that their mind and body are going through as a result of puberty and the transition into adolescence. Piaget's concrete operational stage is also discussed in this chapter. The concrete operational stage is the idea that during ages 7-11, children are quickly gaining new cognitive abilities (232). This relates to my inquiry question because it is discussing the idea that children are able to comprehend and learn new things, only when their mind and bodies are ready, at a specific age. My question focuses on why adolescent's thinking and language skills change as they get older, and Piaget's theory seems to answer this pretty clearly. During this time, adolescents are also gaining a greater attention span, and they are able to think and process information more quickly than before. Once again, this helps to answer my inquiry question because the children's brains are growing and can now comprehend more, and think more efficiently, which leads to a change in their thinking and language skills. There are also many other factors that influence cognitive development such as the idea of nature versus nurture, cultural influences stereotypes, and many other worldly influences (243). All of these are factors that influence a person's cognitive development, and all need to be considered when making a judgement about a students thinking and language skills.
Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
3. Emotional
Chapter 12 in Exploring Lifespan Development, focuses on emotional and social development. Something that caught my eye as I was reading was the idea of how children's ideas and problem solving skills change as their emotional development changes. This pertains to my inquiry question in that I ask, how children's thinking processes change as they get older. As pertaining to the "Heinz dilemma," it seems that when kids are young, they always follow "the rules of the authority figures" and base their thoughts of what is right and wrong solely off of that (319). But, as they get older and their moral and emotional thinking processes grow, they are more likely to think for themselves about what is right and wrong according to their personal belief system. At this point they take into account the authority figures and the law, but at the same time balance the extent of the situation with that and their beliefs. The "Heinz dilemma" example really helped to start answering my question on how and why children's thinking processes change as they get older. I have learned that this is partly based on their emotional and moral development as well as their ability to balance what is right and wrong. It also seems that all of the emotions such as "empathy, sympathy, and guilt" have a big effect on a young persons ability to reason about a certain situations, and depending on what emotion they are feeling at the time, their solution to a problem may be different.Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
4. Social
The social aspect in Chapter 12 of, Exploring Lifespan Development, is also very relevant with my inquiry question. According to the chapter, it seems that young people's language and thinking processes change due to the social relationships they form with their parents, siblings, teachers, and also friends and peers. One of the most important of these social interactions, it seems, are that of friends. Forming close friendships with people your age helps to develop "self-concept, perspective talking, and identity" (328). These are all key components in helping to answer my inquiry question on why children's language acquisition and thinking processes change. Young people's thinking processes change due to emotional development, as I discussed above, but also due to the social influences of the people around them. As adolescents get older, they start to hang out with people that share similar belief systems as them and begin to base their own beliefs off of each other's. Parents, teachers, and siblings are also key in social development because they play a huge role in the confidence of a young person. These people help shape how children will feel about themselves as they get older. It seems that if they have positive feedback and relationships with these people, they will be more likely to be confident in themselves and their belief system as they get older. This relates to my question because it helps me understand that social influences are a big part in the development of language and thinking processes.Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
Observation Site Information
I would like to observe my cousins. They are all boys ages 9, 6 and 3. I babysat them all summer long this past summer and they were a handful, but I think it would be interesting to actually take the time to observe them and formulate questions and answers about why they do the things they do.A. Site details:
B. Describe your setting
I will be observing my three little cousins at their house. I will observe how they interact with each other, how they act when they are by themselves and how they act around adults. My focus, however, will mostly be on their language and how they talk with each other, myself, and their parents and how their thinking processes may differ because of their age. Since I am with them a lot, they will not have any suspicion that I am observing how they talk, so the results will not be altered.
My cousins are 9, 6, and 3 and the 9 year old has Down Syndrome. He is very high functioning, but it will be interesting to compare his language and thinking skills with his brothers and vise versa. Since they will be at home surrounded by family, I believe that they will feel comfortable and natural and, therefore, I will get the best gage of their language acquisition skills.
C. Describe what you did at the site (free-write/journal formatting)
1st visit: (2 hours)I went and observed my cousins over the weekend and it was very interesting to watch "behind the scenes". My youngest cousin, Brendan, is three. I noticed that Brendan imitates his older brothers, Ryan and Cooper, who are nine and seven years old. Ryan and Cooper love to use words like, “doodoo head” and “baby guts” (also known as bad words!) and soon after that, Brendan would start saying those words back. Although their mom did intervene and tell them to stop saying mean words, when they were alone they kept at it. This made me think of how much peers and siblings has an effect on kids. Even though the authority figure told them to stop, they kept doing it because it seems that, how they think they appear towards their siblings/peers, is more important to them than how they appear toward the authority figure, or their mom.
This also relates to my inquiry question because it has to do with the development of language. Brendan imitated his brothers, which is how he learned to use certain words and phrases. I believe that Brendan views and will view certain situations in a certain way, due to what he has learned from his brothers. It is interesting to think that Ryan, since he is the oldest, at first probably imitated his parents because he did not have any brothers to watch and learn from. When I am teaching I plan on observing how students act towards one another based on how many siblings they have, and where they lie in age, compared to them.
2nd visit: (2 hours)
This visit, I focused on the emotional aspect of my younger cousins development. I've noticed that all of the boys can be a bit emotional, especially when it comes to playing games. Cooper tends to get really into any game we play. When he wins it's like he's on top of the world and he couldn't be happier, but when he loses he throws a really big fit. I really don't know the exact cause of his extreme emotions toward winning and losing games, but it is something I am interested in finding out. I've always noticed that Cooper has reacted more strongly to these types of things so I decided to also see how Ryan and Brendan react to winning and losing. It seems to me that Ry is happy when he wins and upset when he loses, but not to the extent that Cooper is. Ryan gets over the game super quickly and is ready to play something else (but warning: never turn off Ryan's wii game or there will be trouble). (Side note: Ryan is more into games on the Wii and Coop is into more physical games, but also Wii games. I wonder if the type of and how strongly the boys like the game has anything to do with how they react). As for Brendan, I think he is too young to care a whole lot about these things, but I have noticed that he is beginning to care more and more each time I am with them. I wonder if their reactions are something that is genetic, something that they learned, or something that has to do with age. It seems that is could be a combination of all three. Brendan could have easily learned to react in the way he does due to watching how his brothers react to certain situations.
This all relates to my inquiry question because it focuses on the emotional side of thinking and language skills. The boys seem to react to certain situations based on their age and birth order. It seems that the boy's reactions differ as they get older, but it is hard to tell exactly why. Based off of some readings from the text though, I would have to say that the social interactions they encounter, genetics, and age all play a factor in how they react and think about winning and losing games they play.
3rd visit: (2 hours)
This visit my cousins had their friends over to play. There was one boy about age 9 and a girl about 7. It was interesting to see the boys interacting with people other than each other. They were all playing together at first, but then I put a movie in and the girl and my youngest cousin, Brendan sat and watched the movie, while the other three boys ran around. They were playing a game that I remember playing a lot when I was younger. It goes like this; two of the boys ran away from the last one and hid. Once they were found they would run away and hide somewhere else, and it continues like this, usually leaving the chaser sad and upset that he/she doesn’t have anyone to play with because their friends are being mean and running away. In this case, Cooper and his friend were running away from Ryan. Of course I remember playing this game and I remember how I felt when I was the one that had to chase after my friends… it’s not fun, so I pointed Ryan in the right direction every time! It’s interesting to try and understand the fascination behind this game that generation after generation seems to play. Why is it so fun to hide from someone, when they are clearing getting upset that they are not being included? I think that the answer is peer relationships and peer pressure. Cooper probably felt cool that his older friend was laughing and having fun, and therefore Cooper thought that it was fun.
My inquiry question focuses on how thinking and language change as people get older, and although this is not directly related, I think that this observation helps play a role in my answering it. Peer pressure and peer relationships seem to have a great influence over how people act, which I think correlates with how they think. Peers also have an influence over our language because we tend to speak, think, and act based on whom we hang out with. Overall, this observation taught me that peers have a great influence over the way we think, speak, and act because it seems that people, especially those in adolescence are easily impacted by those around them.
D. Summarize and describe your experience in relation to the concepts in our textbook
Cognitive
Chapters 9 and 12 in Exploring Lifespan Development, discuss the ideas of cognitive development throughout adolescence. During this time, children are starting to gain new fine motor skills, engaging in "rough-and-tumble play" and starting to understand the concept of rules (230). All of these aspects are related to the changes that their mind and body are going through as a result of puberty and the transition into adolescence. Piaget's concrete operational stage is also discussed in this chapter. The concrete operational stage is the idea that during ages 7-11, children are quickly gaining new cognitive abilities (232). This relates to my inquiry question because it is discussing the idea that children are able to comprehend and learn new things, only when their mind and bodies are ready, at a specific age. My question focuses on why adolescent's thinking and language skills change as they get older, and Piaget's theory seems to answer this pretty clearly. During this time, adolescents are also gaining a greater attention span, and they are able to think and process information more quickly than before. Once again, this helps to answer my inquiry question because the children's brains are growing and can now comprehend more, and think more efficiently, which leads to a change in their thinking and language skills. There are also many other factors that influence cognitive development such as the idea of nature versus nurture, cultural influences stereotypes, and many other worldly influences (243). All of these are factors that influence a person's cognitive development, and all need to be considered when making a judgement about a students thinking and language skills.
Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
Emotional
Chapter 12 in Exploring Lifespan Development, focuses on emotional and social development. Something that caught my eye as I was reading was the idea of how children's ideas and problem solving skills change as their emotional development changes. This pertains to my inquiry question in that I ask, how children's thinking processes change as they get older. As pertaining to the "Heinz dilemma," it seems that when kids are young, they always follow "the rules of the authority figures" and base their thoughts of what is right and wrong solely off of that (319). But, as they get older and their moral and emotional thinking processes grow, they are more likely to think for themselves about what is right and wrong according to their personal belief system. At this point they take into account the authority figures and the law, but at the same time balance the extent of the situation with that and their beliefs. The "Heinz dilemma" example really helped to start answering my question on how and why children's thinking processes change as they get older. I have learned that this is partly based on their emotional and moral development as well as their ability to balance what is right and wrong. It also seems that all of the emotions such as "empathy, sympathy, and guilt" have a big effect on a young persons ability to reason about a certain situations, and depending on what emotion they are feeling at the time, their solution to a problem may be different.Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
Social
The social aspect in Chapter 12 of, Exploring Lifespan Development, is also very relevant with my inquiry question. According to the chapter, it seems that young people's language and thinking processes change due to the social relationships they form with their parents, siblings, teachers, and also friends and peers. One of the most important of these social interactions, it seems, are that of friends. Forming close friendships with people your age helps to develop "self-concept, perspective talking, and identity" (328). These are all key components in helping to answer my inquiry question on why children's language acquisition and thinking processes change. Young people's thinking processes change due to emotional development, as I discussed above, but also due to the social influences of the people around them. As adolescents get older, they start to hang out with people that share similar belief systems as them and begin to base their own beliefs off of each other's. Parents, teachers, and siblings are also key in social development because they play a huge role in the confidence of a young person. These people help shape how children will feel about themselves as they get older. It seems that if they have positive feedback and relationships with these people, they will be more likely to be confident in themselves and their belief system as they get older. This relates to my question because it helps me understand that social influences are a big part in the development of language and thinking processes.Berk, Laura E.. Exploring lifespan development. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Print.
Revisiting Your Curiosities
W: What you want to know (curiosities)1. How do student's thinking and language acquisition skills change as they get older?
Through my observations and research, I have concluded that thinking and language acquisition skills change as a person gets older due to many different factors. Puberty is a huge factor that influences how a person views themselves and the people around them, which in turn changes how they think and speak, for the rest of their lives. I also concluded that age and sex have a huge impact on how someone thinks and talks. As a person gets older, they become more mature and their vocabulary and language acquisition increases, which is a major factor in understanding these changes. Also siblings, parents, peers, and birth order all seem to affect how a person views themselves, which in turn impacts their thought process and how they communicate with others. Many changes occur during adolescence because this is the time that children are transitioning into adulthood, and puberty begins causing many physical, mental and emotional changes.
Connecting to the book:
Chapter 11: Physical and Cognitive Development
p. 283: Puberty
p.283: Adolescence
p. 286: Sex differences and maturity
p. 290: Body image- how one views him/herself (especially during adolescence) impacts how they think and speak throughout their lives.
4. What new questions emerge for you as a future teacher?
-How can I connect with all of my students even if we come from completely different backgrounds?
This is something that I have wondered for quite a while now. I want to be able to connect with my students so they feel comfortable with me and therefore have a comfortable, safe learning environment. I think that my inquiry question helped me to answer this question because it made me realize that even if my students and I come from completely different backgrounds, there is always something we can form a connection through. Whether that be that we are both girls, we are both the youngest sibling, we play soccer... Whatever it may be there is always a way to connect with your students. My job is to try and understand where they are coming from and what stage of development they are in (which my inquiry question helped me to figure out).
Articles
Article 1) Cognitive effects of variations in pubertal timing: Is puberty a period of brain organization for human sex-typed cognition?
Summary:
This article describes what effects puberty and sex hormones can have on adolescents. This time in a teenager’s life, can cause certain things to happen as they get older. For example, if an adolescent is “exposed to stress,” as they enter adulthood, they are more aggressive and show “more disturbed sexual behavior” as they enter adulthood (823). The article also discusses the theory that the timing of puberty should be related to behavior. This means that if a person starts puberty early, he/she should have a more stereotypical appearance and behavior for their gender compared to those who start puberty later on. That theory proves to be true as they found out that girls who started puberty early or on time, feel depressed, and boys who started puberty on time, are at greater risk for substance abuse. Puberty also seems to have an effect on cognitive abilities, where a person who reaches puberty earlier, has greater spatial abilities, compared to their peers who started puberty later on.
Response:
My inquiry question is about how and why children’s thinking and language acquisition skills change, as they get older. This article relates to my question because it discusses how puberty impacts thinking skills and behavior, as a person transitions from adolescents to adulthood. This article gave me an answer to my question that is, puberty and hormones can cause a person’s thinking and language skills to differ as they reach adulthood. I did not realize all of the effects that puberty has on cognition, behavior, and thinking skills, in a person. It is interesting to see that, depending on when a person starts puberty, they will be more/less mature, have different cognitive abilities, and have different behavior. This information will allow me to analyze my students and understand their behavior a bit more, which will in turn, allow me to be more understanding towards them.
References
Beltz, A. M., & Berenbaum, S. A. (2013). Cognitive effects of variations in pubertal timing: Is puberty a period of brain organization for human sex-typed cognition?. Hormones & Behavior, 63(5), 823-828. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2013.04.002
Article 2) Other-Sex Relationship Stress and Sex Differences in the Contribution of Puberty to Depression
Summary:
This article focuses on the effects of puberty on depression in girls and boys. It states that girls who start puberty early and boys that start puberty late are more likely to develop depression. Some of the changes that adolescents go through during puberty such as “physical, psychological, and social” changes can have an effect on how adolescents feel about themselves, compared to the rest of their peers (825). It also talks about how girls, in general, are more likely to have depression than boys, because early puberty causes “more advanced status” for boys, but not for girls (825). The fact that girls have menstrual cycles also can cause mental and physical changes, such as gaining weight and having physical discomfort. These changes can lead to stress, which in turn, can cause depression. This is completely opposite in boys who start puberty early because these changes are viewed as positive, and therefore reduce stress. All of these physical and emotional changes relate to how adolescents will be treated by their peers, and where they will fit in socially. How kids treat each other based on appearance can have an effect on how children view themselves, whether that is positive or negative. Girls who start puberty early are more likely to be made fun of, and therefore view themselves negatively, which can cause depression.
Response:
This article relates to my inquiry question because it has to do with how children view themselves based on their appearance, and how their peers treat them. This has a direct impact on why an adolescent’s thinking processes change, as they get older. If a girl starts puberty early, it can cause her to be made fun of, which leads to her thinking that she is not as good as other girls. The same thing can happen with a boy if he starts puberty late. This knowledge will give me a better understanding of my students and why they might think and feel they way they do about themselves. It is interesting to learn that puberty (something a person has no control over) can be the cause of success or downfall in a person’s life. In this case, puberty and peer relationships are the cause of how adolescents view themselves, and how this can negatively or positively impact their thinking processes as they reach adulthood.
References
Llewellyn, Nicole, Karen D. Rudolph, and Glenn I. Roisman. "Other-Sex Relationship Stress and Sex Differences in the Contribution of Puberty to Depression." Journal of Early Adolescence 32.6 (2012), 824-850.
Article 3) Cognitive Sex Differences Are Not Magnified as a Function of Age, Sex Hormones, or Puberty Development During Early Adolescence.
Summary:
This article discusses how sex hormones and puberty do not have an effect on a person’s cognitive ability. The study tested 12 to 14 year old boys and girls on their ability to assess and complete tasks, recognize faces, as well as tested their mental and verbal ability. They found that there were sex differences in all of the areas, but it did not correspond to age. Therefore, hormones did not seem to have a different effect on male and female cognitive ability.
Response:
I thought this article was very interesting because it went against the ideas that the previous two articles talked about. The first article stated that puberty has an effect on cognitive ability, but in this study, that was not the case. This still relates to my inquiry question because it has to do with cognitive ability, which relates to language acquisition and the change in how a child thinks, as they get older. It is interesting to balance these articles and take away information from both, in order for me to formulate my own ideas of how puberty and sex can affect language acquisition and thinking processes. I believe that once I think about these issues, it will help me to fully answer my inquiry question.
References
Herlitz, Agneta, et al. "Cognitive Sex Differences Are Not Magnified as a Function of Age, Sex Hormones, or Puberty Development During Early Adolescence." Developmental Neuropsychology 38.3 (2013), 167-179.
Article 4) Physical-Verbal Aggression and Depression in Adolescents: The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies
Summary:
This article discusses the affect that “physical transformations, emotional challenges and changes in social relationships” have on cognitive emotion and development in adolescents (1246). The purpose of the study was to discover what different emotional coping strategies are most effective in adolescents in order to teach these strategies to adolescents. If these strategies are taught to people around the time of adolescence, they will be more likely to have the ability to cope with problems they face, and they are less likely to become depressed because of a situation. Gender differences seem to have a direct correlation with coping strategies and how individuals react to certain difficulties they have. For example, men tend to react more aggressively compared to women who react by focusing their energy on something more positive or talking about their problems with others. They also found that women are more likely to become depressed about a situation, where boys are more verbally aggressive and seem to put more blame on others. They believe that by teaching successful coping strategies such as turning a negative experience or negative energy into a positive will cause less depression in adolescence and adulthood.
Response:
This article helps to answer my inquiry question because it helps me, as a future teacher, understand that every student has their own way of coping based on their gender, age, and sometimes genetics. As students transition from youth to adulthood, there are many changes that they face including how they cope. If I am able to help my students learn effective coping strategies that can help them for the rest of their life, I think that is something worth understanding and learning more about. This will also help me relate to my students better by knowing how each of them reacts to situations and being able to better adapt to their needs. Overall, puberty and gender seem to have the most impact over how adolescents think, perceive, react, and then cope with situations, which answers part of my inquiry question.
References
PEÑA, L., & EXTREMERA PACHECO, N. (2012). Physical-Verbal Aggression and Depression in Adolescents: The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies. Universitas Psychologica, 11(4), 1245-1254.
Power Point
Partner Review
by Megan Korengel