Developmental Trends: Basic Information Processing Abilities at Different Age Levels
Infancy (Birth–2)
What You Might Observe:
- Some ability to learn evident from birth
- Adultlike hearing acuity within hours after birth
- Considerable improvement in visual acuity over the first year
- Preference for moderately complex stimuli
- Attention easily drawn to intense or novel stimuli
- Some ability to integrate information (e.g., learning that certain kinds of toys are stored in certain places in the playroom)
Diversity:
- Attention spans are partly due to differences in temperament, but persistent inability to focus on any one object may signal a cognitive disability.
- Exploration tendencies vary considerably: Some children may constantly seek new experiences, whereas others may be more comfortable with familiar objects.
Implications:
- Change some toys and materials regularly to capture infants’ interests and provide new experiences.
- Provide objects that can be easily categorized (e.g., colored blocks, plastic farm animals).
- Allow for differences in interest, attention span, and exploratory behavior; offer choices of toys and activities.
Early Childhood (2–6)
What You Might Observe:
- Short attention span
- Distractibility
- Some understanding and use of symbols
- Limited knowledge base with which to interpret new experiences
Diversity:
- Pronounced disabilities in information processing (e.g., ADHD, dyslexia) begin to reveal themselves in children’s behavior.
- Children’s prior knowledge differs markedly depending on their cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Implications:
- Change activities often.
- Keep unnecessary distractions to a minimum.
- Provide a variety of experiences (field trips to the library, fire department, etc.) that enrich children’s knowledge base.
Middle Childhood (6–10)
What You Might Observe:
- Increasing ability to attend to important stimuli and ignore irrelevant stimuli
- Increasingly symbolic nature of thought and knowledge
- Gradual automatization of basic skills
- Increasing exposure to environments beyond the home and family, leading to an expanding knowledge base
- Knowledge of academic subject matter relatively unintegrated, especially in science and social studies
Diversity:
- Many children with learning disabilities or ADHD have short attention spans and are easily distracted.
- Some children with learning disabilities have a smaller working memory capacity than their peers.
- Mild cognitive disabilities may not become evident until the middle or upper elementary grades.
Implications:
- Intersperse sedentary activities with physically more active ones to help children maintain attention.
- Provide many opportunities to practice basic knowledge and skills (e.g., number facts, word recognition), often through authentic, motivating, and challenging tasks.
- Begin to explore hierarchies, cause and effect, and other interrelationships among ideas in various disciplines.
- Consult experts when learning or behavior problems might reflect a cognitive disability.
Early Adolescence (10–14)
What You Might Observe:
- Ability to attend to a single task for an hour or more
- Basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics (e.g., word identification, common word spellings, basic math facts) largely automatized
- Growing (although not necessarily well integrated) knowledge base related to various topics and academic disciplines
Diversity:
- Many adolescents with information processing difficulties have trouble paying attention for a typical class period.
- Many adolescents with sensory or physical disabilities (e.g., those who are blind or in a wheelchair) have a more limited knowledge base than their peers, due to fewer opportunities to explore the world around them.
Implications:
- Provide variety in learning tasks as a way of keeping young adolescents’ attention.
- Frequently point out how concepts and ideas are related to one another, both within and across content domains.
- Provide extra guidance and support for those with diagnosed or suspected information processing difficulties.
Late Adolescence (14–18)
What You Might Observe:
- Ability to attend to a single task for lengthy periods
- Extensive and somewhat integrated knowledge in some content domains
Diversity:
- High school students have choices in course selection, leading to differences in the extent of their knowledge base in various content areas.
Implications:
- Occasionally give assignments that require adolescents to focus on a particular task for a long period.
- Consistently encourage adolescents to think about the “hows” and “whys” of what they are learning.
- Assess learning in ways that require adolescents to depict relationships among ideas.
Excerpt from Child Development and Education, by T. M McDevitt & J. E. Ormrod, 2007 edition, p. 247.
© 2007, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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