Early Childhood Development: Perception, Language & Learning
Visual Perception: Colors and Shapes
Recognize colors and shapes.
Auditory Perception: Sounds and Rhythms
Improve listening and recognize sounds and rhythms.
Tactile Perception: Exploring Textures
Explore textures and tactile sensations.
Olfactory Perception: Recognizing Smells
Recognize and differentiate smells.
Gustatory Perception: Distinguishing Flavors
Recognize and distinguish flavors.
Proprioceptive Perception: Body Awareness
Improve coordination and body awareness.
Vestibular Perception: Balance and Movement
Develop balance and movement perception.
Interoceptive Perception: Internal Sensations
Recognize emotions and control internal sensations.
Importance of Learning English Early
Learning English early has many benefits:
Global Communication: English is spoken worldwide, helping you communicate with people from different countries.
Educational Advantage: Knowing English can open up more learning and job opportunities.
Cognitive Development: Learning a new language helps your brain grow and improve problem-solving skills.
Cultural Awareness: Learning English exposes you to new cultures and ways of thinking.
How to Support English Learning
Interactive Games: Use fun games to teach English.
Songs and Stories: Use English songs and stories to make learning fun.
Daily Conversations: Encourage speaking simple English words every day.
Behaviorism (imitation): B.F. Skinner’s theory suggests habit formation through repetition and reinforcement. Language is learned through associating stimuli with appropriate responses, rewarding correct ones, and correcting incorrect ones. This translates into repetitive activities, such as pronunciation drills and memorization exercises.
Innatism (innate): Noam Chomsky argues that humans are born with an innate capacity to acquire languages.
Interactionism: According to Lev Vygotsky, learning occurs through collaboration and communication with others, especially more competent individuals.
Input Hypothesis: Stephen Krashen proposed that second language acquisition occurs when children are exposed to “comprehensible input,” language that is slightly more advanced than their current level, but comprehensible.
Sociocultural Learning Theory: This theory emphasizes the importance of cultural and social context in second language learning. Second language acquisition does not occur in isolation but is influenced by the learner’s cultural and social experiences.
Stages of Second Language Acquisition
Pre-production stage (0-6 months): They do not produce language; they are absorbing information and understanding simple words and phrases. They usually respond through gestures, signals, or actions.
Early production stage (6 months-1 year): Children begin to use short sentences and single words. Although their vocabulary is limited, they understand more than they can express.
Speech emergence stage (1-3 years): Children start to form simple sentences and use basic grammatical structures.
Intermediate fluency stage (3-5 years): They understand the language better, although they may still need support in producing certain types of discourse.
Advanced fluency stage (5-7 years): Children communicate effectively and accurately in most everyday situations.
Strategies
Movement games
Songs and rhymes
Theater and dramatization
Visual arts
Hands-on activities and cooking
Association
Behaviorist Theory: Use of repetition and positive reinforcement in pronunciation activities.
Innatist Theory: Fostering a language-rich environment for natural language acquisition.
Social Interaction Theory: Collaborative work and pair or group activities.
Input Hypothesis: Exposure to a rich and comprehensible language environment.
Activities
Visual perception
Memorize, find the pairs of matching cards. Each card has a picture of an animal and its name (materials: animal cards and animal name cards). The objective of the game is for them to associate the animal with the respective name using their eyesight.
Auditory perception
Let’s discover the sounds of farm animals. Create a story of the farm animals and then tell the story and make the sounds for the children to imitate and recognize the animal. The objective is to recognize the animal by its sound.
Tactile perception
Search for the toy in sand or rice. Hide toys in a container with rice and another with sand so they can feel different textures (materials: small toys, sand, and rice). To get to know different textures through the game of looking for the toy.
1. Why is perception development important in early childhood?
It is important because it allows us to recognize objects, sounds, textures, tastes, and smells, helping us to make sense of everything around us.
2. How does auditory perception contribute to language development? Give an example.
They contribute to recognizing and differentiating words based on the sounds they hear. For example, when they hear animal sounds, they can identify animals.
3. What are the benefits of learning English at an early age?
Keeps the brain active and healthy, improving memory, creativity, and cognitive abilities. Children actively exercise their brain and memory while learning new words and grammatical rules, which strengthens their mental capacity.
4. How can visual perception influence children’s learning?
This perception is influential because it is necessary for reading, writing, and movement. Without it, children may find everyday tasks such as doing homework, solving puzzles, or getting dressed extremely stressful.
5. What role does tactile perception play in cognitive and motor development in children?
Promotes the development of fine motor skills and cognition through the use of movement.
6. What challenges do children face when learning a second language?
Children may have difficulty with pronunciation, new vocabulary, and understanding grammatical rules when learning a second language compared to the first language they are born with.
7. Describe the main difference between the Behaviorist Theory and the Innatist Theory of language acquisition.
Behaviorist theory is based on imitation, and innatist theory is innate.
8. What role does social interaction play in Vygotsky’s theory of language development?
Social interaction is key in Vygotsky’s theory because children learn language by interacting with others, especially adults.
9. What is “comprehensible input” and why is it important for second language learning?
Comprehensible input is language that is slightly above the learner’s current level but still understandable, helping them learn effectively without feeling stressed.
10. How does motivation impact the process of learning a second language?
Motivation encourages children to continue practicing and enjoying the process, making it easier for them to learn and succeed in a second language.
Activity Creation
Show masks of zoo animals that they must choose to follow the movements of the animals in the “Let’s go to the zoo” video. The objective is that they coordinate their movements according to the animal in their mask.
1. What is the “Language Acquisition Device” according to Noam Chomsky?
Chomsky talks about the “language acquisition device” as an innate ability that enables children to understand the grammatical rules of a language almost automatically with extensive exposure.
2. How does the Behaviorist Theory explain language learning in children?
According to Skinner, language is learned by associating stimuli with appropriate responses, rewarding correct responses, and correcting incorrect ones.
3. Why is “comprehensible input” important in Stephen Krashen’s theory of language acquisition?
Krashen says that a second language is acquired when children are exposed to a language slightly more advanced than their current level, but understandably, this is important as a language learner’s emotions can interfere with or aid in language acquisition.
4. How can teachers create a language-rich environment in the classroom?
Being consistent in using the language, incorporating authentic resources, creating an immersive environment, promoting peer interaction, and integrating kinesthetic and artistic activities.
5. What are some practical ways to support children learning a second language?
Creating movement games, songs and rhymes, drama, visual art activities, and hands-on activities and working.
6. How can social interaction enhance language learning in young children?
Through scaffolding, collaboration, and communication with others, learning occurs, especially with more competent individuals, as they help children construct linguistic knowledge through the negotiation of meaning.