Cognitive And Physical Domains Of Learning In Children

Analysis of the domains

Cognitive domain

While considering the development of a child, it is necessary to look at the several domains of learning or the development areas like cognitive, physical, social, emotional and language of the children (Van Hoorn et al. 2016). In this report we will consider the main two domains of the learning- the cognitive domain and the physical domain of the child.

According to bloom’s taxonomy, cognitive domain consists of knowledge and the development of the intellectual skills (Bloom, 1956), that includes the recognition of the procedural patterns, specific facts and the concepts serving the development of the intellectual abilities and the skills. Six major categories are present in the cognitive process which are- Knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Knowledge is the ability to recall information or data such as recitation of poems or English alphabets. Comprehension is the ability of a child to understand the meaning of what is known for example a teacher discusses a particular theory on her own words (Garvis and Lemon 2015). Application is the ability of a child to use the already gained knowledge in a completely new situation for example application of what has been learnt in classes in real life situations. Analysis is the ability to differentiate between opinions and the facts and the synthesis is the capability to integrate the different elements or the concepts for forming a sound patterning or structure for replacing the old schema and forming a new meaning (Gottfried 2013).  

The information provided in the case study indicated towards certain cognitive domains of learning. For example, it is already evident from the case study that Jack had been found to be inclined towards music where he had expressed interest while banging on the musical interest and it can be seen that Jack has shown cognitive learning by resembling the same patterns of the drum sounds, as her educators makes, which can be related to one of the six categories of the cognitive domains of the Bloom’s taxonomy that is remembering of the previous learned information. Enjoying to simple songs and the stories, observing and imitating the action of the adults are some of the cognitive developmental milestones of children of this age.

The physical or the psychomotor domain involves physical movement, coordination and the use of the areas of the motor skills. Development of these kinds of skills needs practice and can be measured in turns of the distance, speed, precession, flexibility, strength, endurance or the execution of actions. The psychomotor skills consists of manual tasks like washing of a car, dancing (Moore 2017). It is evident from the scenario that Jack had expressed interests in dancing as Jack himself picked up the musical instruments that were provided and started shaking them and dancing without the assistance of the observer. It can also be seen that Caitlin, another child also picked up some musical instrument and started to give company to Jack by shaking her legs to the beat. This action can be related to the category “readiness to act” which involves both physical, mental and the emotional sets that predetermines the response of a person to respond to different situations (Moore 2017). Furthermore, this is the age to learn the complex skills such as dancing and playing of the music instruments. Jack had been found to be jumping up and down wiggling his hips and shaking his hands with joy. Such actions are the measurements of the psychomotor learning. Imitation is also considered to be an important taxonomy of the psychomotor domain, which can be observed in this case scenario, where both Jack and Caitlin, have demonstrated the psychomotor developmental milestones of children.

Cognitive domain

Jack had also displayed some interest towards hoolahoops and had tried to move them around the waist and thus exhibiting psychomotor learning.  Hoolahoops serve as great tools to develop coordination, strength, endurance, flexibility, attention and confidence in children.

Looking at the scenario, it can be seen that Jack had displayed his interest and have indulged in a variety of sensory motor play that will not only improve his psychomotor skills but will also improve his cognitive skills.

1. Learning resources are the ones that helps the children to meet the expectations of the curriculum. The resources used has to be appropriate as per their age, the stages odf development and the emerging abilities (Van Hoorn et al. 2016). One of the important resources that can be used for the children for these two domain of learning are the provision of toy libraries, where children should be able to engage in safe play. Different items can be used in more than one way by the children of different ages. Toys for the library will exclusively be selected with an eye of practicality, developmental, durability, appropriateness and long term usefulness (Drew 2013). The parents can be given access to the toy library by the completion of the age and the stages questionnaire.

The toy libraries should contain tools like wood puzzles, building blocks that snaps together, objects of different shapes and colors. Other objects that can be present are large, non-toxic washable crayons. The toy library might also contain resources for varieties of music including large phonographs, ride on equipment, low climbers, tunnels with soft mat underneath and pounding or hammering toys.

1. Both physical development and cognitive development are important for the overall growth of the child as the process becomes more complex with the growth of a child (Weaver et al. 2013). Within the first two years of life, trillions of the brain cell synapses develop and providing the children with opportunities for exploring and interacting with the world around them with play and toys would encourage those neural synapses to stimulate those neural connections as a child grows (Roskos 2017). There are certain educational toys such as chunky wooden puzzles, musical instruments, foam bathtub numbers and the letters that can be used to increase the vocabulary of the child(Wood 2014).

As a child grow the cognitive skills of the children develops as they become capable of processing information, remember, reason and express emotions. Through play, children can develop their gross motor skills and acquire the critical thinking skills, thus preparing g them for the adulthood (Goldstein 2012). Toys and play sparks their senses and imaginations and encourage them in socialization (Roskos 2017). Certain toys helps in increasing the developmental abilities in children. Safe and stimulating toys with contrasting colors can be stimulating for developing their vision. Toys like blocks can be helpful in developing their motor skills, hand eye coordination, imaginative power and creative skills (Wood 2014).  Building of the new structures by the use of the building blocks can increase their cognition as they can develop more complex structure with the help as those blocks (Roskos 2017). Playing with the activity cards helps to promote cognitive skill, language skills and sensory awareness among the children. Playing with ladders and tunnels also helps in physical development of the child by increasing the muscle strength, endurance and flexibility.

Schema can be determined as the patterns determined biologically in the ways the young children act or behavior or that strengthen their conceptual learnings. According to Atherton and Nutbrown (2013) schema are inbuilt devices that helps the children with the ways of constructing the understanding. Schemas are extremely important parts in the overall development of a child. Knowing about the schemas heps us to understand about the behavioral patterns of each and every child. For example, children having special interest in building blocks and educational toys can help the educator to understand that the child has interest towards creative work and solving complex problems (Atherton and Nutbrown 2013). Again, a child showing less responsive plays that involve physical strength might indicate red flag in the physical development of the child. Some of the common schemas of the child that can be identified through play are orientation (the urge  to get view from under the table or to hang upside down), Positioning schema ( alignment of different objects), Connection schema (joining things like building blocks, joining of the train tracks or running the string from one end to the other, trajectory schema ( the urge for throwing or dropping of the things), transporting ( the urge to carry many things together in baskets) and the several more (Atherton and Nutbrown 2013).

The resources should be as per the interest of the child. Music is a good learning tool for teaching children. In the following case scenarios it could be easily seen that Jack was very fond of music and hence availability of the toy musical instruments available in the toy library could be helpful. The educator can sing the kids songs, while the child can be allowed to play the music (Yawkey and Pellegrini 2018). Again those displaying interest in sensory play like sand play or play dough should be provided with the appropriate play resources.

Child’s name	Jack	Date
Learning goal
What learning objectives are you setting for the children? · The child will demonstrate increasing interest in music · The cognitive skills of the child will increase VEYLDF Outcomes: · Children are connected with and contribute to their world · Children are confident and involved learners (State of Victoria ,Department of Education and Training, 2016) Development outcomes: For child/children to : Develop the cognitive skills in child.
Rationale: I have set this goal for this child as I have observed that the child has expressed interest in music demonstrated by a running record activity where the child had used musical instrument without any assistance from the caregiver.
Description of the experience
Procedure: · A separate class will be conducted where all the children will be taken to the toy library. · Child showing interests in children will be allowed to pick up a musical instrument. · The educator would assist the child, how to use the instruments. · Children will be encouraged and appreciated on being successful to use the toys.
Materials and resources: · Colorful  toy musical instruments · An audio-visual demonstration to use the toy musical instruments
Teaching strategies
Pedagogical approach: · Piaget’s active play- According to Piaget, play is the effort of a child to construct the environmental stimuli match their own concepts. · Vygostkian theory of play on the other hand states that play facilitates cognitive development as children not only gets to practice what they already know, but also get to learn new things (Holzman 2016).
Reflection of the child’s learning
· By visiting the toy library and using the resources, the children can expand their creativity skills. · Expand their talent and interest in the field of music and it also helps in stimulating the sensory skills.
Reflection on teaching
Some of the teaching strategies adopted by the educators are : · Multisensory instructions · Modelling · Graphic organizers (Van Oers and Duijkers 2013) · Question and answering. · Demonstration method

Child’s name	Caithlin	Date
Learning goal: Gross motor skill development
What learning objectives are you setting for the children? · To facilitate the physical domain of the learning · To increase the gross motor skill in the child · To improve the hand-eye coordination in the child. VEYLDF Outcomes: · Children are confident and involved learners (State of Victoria ,Department of Education and Training, 2016) · Children are effective communicators Development outcomes: For child/children to : facilitate physical domains of learning
Rationale: The goal has been set as it has been recorded that the child exhibits interest in activities that involves physical strength like jumping, running ad climbing the sand pits.
Description of the experience
Procedure: · Students will be segregated into groups and will be given chance to engage in play. · The session will take place for 45 minutes. · The educator will demonstrate the play · The children will be accompanied by an educator who will evaluate how the children are doing.
Materials and resources: ·  Toys like ladders, tunnels and low climbers
Teaching strategies · Demonstration technique · Use of audiovisual aids for demonstrating the play
Pedagogical approach As per the Piaget’s theory of play, play is the process of assimilation that a child makes to make the environment matched to its own concept.
Reflection of the child’s learning
· With the completion of the play the child demonstrated an increase in the hand eye coordination · Developed gross motor skills · Developed inquisitiveness
Reflection on teaching
The different teaching strategies that can be used for the play are:- · Multisensory instructions · Modelling · Graphic organizers · Question and answering. · Demonstration method

References

Atherton, F. and Nutbrown, C., 2013. Understanding schemas and young children: From birth to three. Sage.

Atiles, J.T., Jones, J.L. and Anderson, J.A., 2013. More than a read-aloud: Preparing and inspiring early childhood teachers to develop our future scientists. Teacher Education and Practice, 26(2), pp.285-300.

Bodrova, E., Germeroth, C. and Leong, D.J., 2013. Play and Self-Regulation: Lessons from Vygotsky. American Journal of Play, 6(1), pp.111-123.

Drew, W.F., 2013. From Play to Practice-Connecting Teachers Play to Childrens Learning. National Association For The E.

Garvis, S. and Lemon, N., 2015. Enhancing the Australian early childhood teacher education curriculum about very young children. Early child development and care, 185(4), pp.547-561.

Goldstein, J., 2012. Play in children’s development, health and well-being. Brussels: Toy Industries of Europe.

Gottfried, A.W. ed., 2013. Home environment and early cognitive development: Longitudinal research. Academic Press.

Holzman, L., 2016. Vygotsky at work and play. Routledge.

Moore, R.C., 2017. Childhood’s domain: Play and place in child development. Routledge.

Roskos, K.A. ed., 2017. Play and literacy in early childhood: Research from multiple perspectives. Routledge.

State of Victoria (Department of Education and Training) 2016. Victorian early years learning and development framework. Access date: 11.12.2018. Retrieved from: https://www.education.vic.gov.au

Van Hoorn, J.L., Monighan-Nourot, P., Scales, B. and Alward, K.R., 2014. Play at the center of the curriculum. Pearson.

Van Oers, B. and Duijkers, D., 2013. Teaching in a play-based curriculum: Theory, practice and evidence of developmental education for young children. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 45(4), pp.511-534. Goldstein, J., 2012. Play in children’s development, health and well-being. Brussels: Toy Industries of Europe.

Weaver, R.G., Webster, C. and Beets, M.W., 2013. Let us play: maximizing physical activity in physical education. Strategies, 26(6), pp.33-37.

Wood, E.A., 2014. Free choice and free play in early childhood education: Troubling the discourse. International Journal of Early Years Education, 22(1), pp.4-18.

Yawkey, T.D. and Pellegrini, A.D., 2018. Child’s play: Developmental and applied. Routledge.

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