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Piaget's Cognitive Theory of Language Development » Hewitt Schemas and Language Study

What you'll learn this session

Study time: 30 minutes

Cambridge spec: 6.4.3

The aim of Hewitt (2022) on schemas and language
How the study was carried out and what kind of data it used
The main results and the conclusion
How the study is used as the argument for Piaget's cognitive theory

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Where this study fits

In the last few lessons you met Piaget's cognitive theory of language development. Piaget said thinking comes first and language follows. A big idea in his theory is the schema, a mental framework of knowledge. (You met schemas, assimilation and accommodation in the lesson Schemas: Assimilation and Accommodation.)

A theory needs evidence. The named study that supports Piaget's theory is Hewitt (2022). Its topic is schemas and language. It is a set of four case studies, each about one young child. (You will learn about the case study method itself later, in the lesson on case studies.)

Key terms:

Case study: a detailed study of one person or a small number of people. Hewitt studied four young children.
Conceptual concerns: the things a child is mentally focused on. Hewitt found they show up in both the child's play and the child's language.

Aim

Hewitt wanted to explore the relationship between children's schemas and their language. In the study, schemas are seen as repeated patterns of play. She wanted to see whether the way a young child plays again and again in a certain pattern is linked to the way the child's speech and language develop.

Think of a toddler who keeps putting things inside containers, over and over. That repeated pattern of play shows a schema. Hewitt asked how patterns like this connect to what the child says.

Procedure

The study used a case study approach with four young children. Each child was looked at separately and in detail.

🧸 Schemas

The children's repeated patterns of play were looked at. These patterns show which schemas a child is using.

💬 Language

The children's speech, language and communication were looked at alongside the play.

How the data was collected: each child's play and language were looked at together, in detail, so that the two could be compared for each child. Because there were only four children, the information about each child was rich and detailed rather than a set of numbers.

Results

The main finding was a connection between the children's schemas and their language. The link ran through the children's thinking and thoughts. What a child was busy thinking about in play (their repeated patterns) was linked to the language the child was developing.

Hewitt called the things a child is mentally focused on the child's conceptual concerns. The results showed that these concerns appear in both the child's play and the child's language.

Results from case studies are mostly written descriptions, not big tables of numbers. A simple way to show the findings is a table like this one. A bar chart would not suit this kind of data, because there are no scores to count.

What was looked at	Main finding
Repeated patterns of play (schemas)	Linked to the child's thinking
Speech, language and communication	Linked to the same thinking
Overall	Schemas and language are connected

Conclusion

Children's schemas and their language are connected through their thinking. Understanding a child's schemas can help adults, such as nursery staff, to support the child's early speech, language and communication. They can do this by paying attention to the child's conceptual concerns.

How it is used as the argument for the theory

Piaget's cognitive theory says that language develops from thinking, and that schemas are central to this. The Hewitt study is used as support for the theory because:

It found that schemas and language are linked. This fits Piaget's idea that language is built on the child's mental frameworks.
The link was through the children's thinking. This fits the idea that thinking comes first and language follows.
The schemas were seen in play, which is how young children explore the world. Their language then reflected what they were thinking about.

So the study is used as the argument for Piaget's cognitive theory: language development is connected to a child's schemas and thinking.

Common mistakes

Saying the study had hundreds of children. It was four young children, studied one by one.
Mixing this up with the Goldstein study. Goldstein was about babies and social feedback (the learning theory). Hewitt is about schemas and thinking (Piaget).
Forgetting to name the link. The results say schemas and language are connected through thinking.
Writing strengths and weaknesses. You are not asked to evaluate this study. Describe it and say how it supports the theory.

Exam-style question

Hewitt (2022) carried out four case studies of young children.

(a) State the aim of the study. [1 mark]

(b) Describe what was looked at in the children. [2 marks]

Model answer

(a) To explore the relationship between children's schemas (repeated patterns of play) and their language. (1)

(b) The children's repeated patterns of play, which show their schemas (1), and their speech, language and communication (1).

(c) The study found that schemas and language were connected (1) through the children's thinking (1). Piaget's theory says language develops from thinking and schemas, so the link supports it (1).

Exam tip

In (c), do not only repeat the results. Finish by saying how they match Piaget's idea that thinking and schemas come first and language follows.

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