Cognitive processes are complex and entangled, involving a multiplicity of elements and factors, which still makes it a remaining mystery for many researchers and scholars. The greatest questions concern how the system of cognitive processes function and how it is developed. The latter one will be further analyzed in the essay, with a special attention paid to the differences in the children's and adults' cognitive processes, and the aim to trace certain stages or tendencies in their development, as well as trying to define the ways of their performance improvement. The essay will primarily focus on the cognitive process of language as one of the crucial one's in child's development specifically and life activities in general.
The differences between the language of a child ad an adult is apparent This may be explained by the number of knowledge being accumulated with the age, as well as with the experience in social interactions and communication which help the adults master their language. The most visible differences may be foremost observed by the vocabulary choice and the complexity of syntactic structures. The topics of conversation, as well as situational and social context and environment, differ for the adult and the child, as well. The usage of figurative language and stylistic devices, such as the allegory, metaphors and rhetoric devices, as well as irony and satire, are also uncommon for children while frequently used by the adults. Therefore during the interactions between a child and an adult, the latter one tend to adapt one's language to the linguistic abilities of the former – by designing shorter sentences and simplifying their lexis and syntax (Dijk et. al., 2013). As the scholars claim, “this child-directed speech (CDS) becomes more complex as the child grows into a more competent speaker”. Thereby a proper choice of language builds the bridges between different age groups and helps to communicate effectively, regardless of differences in communication styles and language use.
Generalizing certain age groups, however, may not be absolutely right – due to the mere fact that even people from the same age group are widely diverse in their characteristics, learning capacities, and environment: as Charles William Twyford claims, “among people of the same age, differences in attitudes, aptitudes, knowledge, and skills make sweeping generalizations about learners elusive” (Twyford, 1987). Therefore personal abilities in child's cognitive development should be considered above all while aiming to distinguish certain stage of development or progress. Besides, according Twyford, “there is no uniform pattern of development that everyone follows” (Twyford, 1987), therefore each and every individual constructs an extremely personalized map of one's own skills and knowledge (Twyford, 1987). It therefore leads to the conclusion that there is a multiplicity of factors influencing cognitive development and the development of language in particular, with the age factor being only one of them.
One of the ways to distinguish the stages of child's development of language is suggested by Piaget. He identified the following stages of language cognitive development: preoperational stage of cognitive development, the category which preschool and early school children fall under, then, concrete operational stage for middle childhood and, finally, “formal operations" stage, peculiar to the teenagers. Preoperational stage is commonly characterized by child's egocentric speeches and “collective monologues” (a child speaking to himself/herself), while concrete operational stage traces a shift to the socio-centric language, together with consideration of communication as a bridge to relationships with others. At this stage, children also undergo a general cognitive "decentering” as they start to be more focused on the thoughts and motifs of others, thereby developing a conscious awareness of the way they speak which helps them to analyze and manipulate their language just as adults do (Twyford, 1987). At the "formal operations" stage of cognitive development, as Twyford argues, “new concepts normally derive from verbal rather than concrete experience” (Twyford, 1987), meaning that the interaction is raised to the new value level.
The studies on how to support and boost the language skills of young children's revealed that “shared-reading activities present a salient opportunity to systematically and explicitly boost children's skills in a variety of language and literacy domains, including vocabulary and print awareness” (Hogan et. al., 2011). Therefore reading practices are considered a great way to develop child's language capacities, which can be vastly supported by the parents and their post-reading strategies: “parents and teachers can embed conversational routines into shared-reading activities that explicitly teach children speciftc concepts” (Hogan et. al., 2011), thereby encouraging their development.
The enhancement of language skills and reading comprehension at the young age may be empowered with the following techniques of parental instructional support: inferencing, comprehension monitoring, and text structure knowledge. Inferencing implies asking the questions inferential nature which are embedded to the reading plot line. This technique is a highly successful method of language performance improvement: the study results illustrated that those children who participated in special reading sessions showed significant improvements in their vocabulary and common comprehension (Hogan et. al., 2011). Comprehension monitoring commonly involves error detection task, and helps to assess the child's understanding of the material, while text structure knowledge includes reconstructing the narration and thereby improving the comprehension of expository text (Hogan et. al., 2011).
At the same time, the means of no-verbal communication should also be considered as an inherent part of communication process and cognition development: “gesture not only reflects a child’s understanding but can play a role in eliciting input that could shape that understanding. – claims Goldin-Meadow. - As such, it may be part of the mechanism of cognitive change” (Goldin-Meadow et al., 2003).
In conclusion, cognition development is by far multi-lateral process which requires a close consideration of a great number of factors influencing it. The differences in language at the different stages of cognitive development and at the different age reflect not only children's language skills, but also their perception of the world and interaction with it. Thereby it is of a great importance to encourage the language cognitive development and provide the child with both adult instruction support and common interaction.
References
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Goldin-Meadow, S., Singer, M. A. (2003). From Children’s Hands to Adults’ Ears: Gesture’s
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Hogan, F. T., Bridges, M. S., Justice, M., L., Cain, K. (2011).Focus On Exceptional Children:
Increasing Higher Level Language Skills to Improve Reading Comprehension. Love
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Twyford, C. W. (1987). Age-Related Factors in Second Language Acquisition. "New Focus,"
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