New Views on the Young Brain: Offerings from Developmental Psychology to Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This article presents a broad review of recent developments in perspectives and research on early cognition. An overview of methodologies used to explore infant memory and categorisation is provided, with a discussion of the manner in which studies using these procedures have served to overturn Piagetian viewpoints on infant cognitive competence. In addition, research into the way in which the brain grows and responds to early experience is described, with a consideration of how neural networks are established and shaped by early learning. The general conclusion is that there is now available a range of radically new approaches to understanding the growth of the human brain and mind that is potentially of immense value to early childhood educators.