Linguistic Intelligence

**notes taken from the Wisdom Mediated Learning Workshop #2 Behaviours

Children are embarked on a lifelong apprenticeship in developing thinking skills in the four modes of language

The fifth mode of language is often overlooked and plays a vital role in developing language skills

The fifth mode is Inner Speech.

Inner Speech can help as much as outer speech when the child needs to decentre and elaborate his thinking.

Click here to learn more about Inner Speech

The Mental Act of Thinking

There are three phases involved in the Mental Act of Thinking

Input

The process responsible for feeding data into the cognitive system = gathering information

Elaboration

Processing the data fed into the cognitive system = thinking

Output

The process responsible for issuing and acting upon the conclusions reached by elaboration = expressing solution

*notes are taken from Wisdom's Mediated Learning course

Cognitive Function in Elaboration Phase: Definiton of the Problem

When this Cognitive Function is accurate the child will:

*sense that something is wrong and needs attention

*identify the source of discrepancy that created the problem (ie. clearly recognize and state the cause and nature of the problem)

*state all the factors that influence the problem and identify those that are incompatible

When this Cognitive Function is inaccurate the child will:

*be unable to see incompatibility between sources of information (ie.may not recognize that a problem exists)

*have poor data-gathering skills and be unable to form relationships among things and think reflectively about them.

*demonstrate a lack of insight when assessing a situation

*be insensitive to, and lack curiousity about problems

*have difficulty deciding on a course of action in response to a situation

Strategies to Correct Inaccurate Definition of a Problem

Areas you can focus on with Mediated Learning:

*Intentionality & Reciprocity-the parent focuses the problem for the child

*Meaning-the parent encourages identification of things that aren't matching up or clashing, illogical

*Self-Regulation & Control of Behaviour-the parent stimulates reflective thinking and analysis

Cognitive Function in Elaboration Phase: Engage in Spontaneous Comparative Behaviour

When this Cognitive Function is adequate the child will:

* move from simply recognizing objects and events to establishing relationships among them

*make automatic comparisons when approaching tasks or problems

*spontaneously search for similarities and differences among items

*organize and integrate discrete units of information into meaningful systems that are interrelated

*use and modify the criteria of comparison dynamically to suit the problem

When this Cognitive Function is inadequate the child may:

*have an "episodic grasp of reality" in which items are viewed seperately and as having no relationship to one another

*have difficulty using adjectives such as "similar", "like",and "unlike" in spontaneous speech

*have difficulty making decisions that involve the underlying skill of comparing

*make sweeping generalizations about people or events without taking notice of individual differences

Strategies to Correct an Inability to Engage in Spontaneous Comparative Behaviour

Areas you can mediate:

* Meaning- The parent mediates a strategy for comparing

*Transcendence- The parent encourages continual application of comaprison

*Optimistic Alternative- The parent suggest that the child looks at two alternatives before deciding

Cognitive Function in Elaboration Phase: Mental Field

If the cognitive function is broad &narrow, the child will:

*retain a number of units of information in order to mentally manipulate them

*focus on, retain, and use two or more sources of information simultaneously

*recall bits of information that have been previously stored

*recall relevant information from past experiences

*co-ordinate information from a wide variety of sources

If the cognitive function is impaired, the child may:

*be reluctant to engage in the act of trying to commit facts to memory

*have poor long term memory

*have poor short term memory recall

*recall facts episodically

*have difficulty coordinating facts from more than one source of information

Strategies to Correct a Narrow and Limited Mental Field

How Mediated Learning can help:

*Intentionality & Reciprocity-the parent encourages short term recall

*Meaning-the parent mediates a strategy to aid memorization

*Self-Regulation- the parent encourages self-monitoring of behaviour by instilling good habits

Cognitive Function in Elaboration Phase: Select Relevant Cues

When this Cognitive Function is adequate the child will:

*choose and use the correct and appropriate information needed to solve a problem

*define the goal and select from a number of cues only those that are specifically relevant to meet the particular goal

*decide what aspects will be useful in a particular situation

*view all options purposefully in order to differentiate between relevant and appropriate information, as opposed to irrelevant and inappropriate information

When this Cognitive Function is inadequate the child will have difficulty:

*finding the main points of a text

*extracting the moral of a story

*sticking to the point in an argument, discussion or debate

*finding points to substantiate an argument

*solving problems that require discrimination and elimination of irrelevant alternatives (ie. multiple-choice answers, word problems)

*learning large sections of material for tests and exams

Strategies to Correct an Inability to Select Relevant Cues

Areas you can use Mediated Learning in:

*Meaning-the parent encourages the use of the mind maps, having a picture in our head

*Goal Planning-the parent mediates the strategy for reaching a goal

*Self-regulation & Control of Behaviour-the parent encourages a methodical approach

Cognitive Function in Elaboration Phase: Spontaneous Summative Behaviour

Cognitive Function in Elaboration Phase: Elaboration of Cognitive Categories

When this Cognitive Function is adequate the child will have the ability to:

*move from a concrete example to an abstract understanding using language as a tool

*link a verbal label to it's underlying concept (ie. explore the meaning of a word like "conscience")

*Discover, label and verbalize underlying principles

* "think out loud" when working through an activity

*elaborate verbally on how gathered data can be organized into relevant categories

When this Cognitive Function is impaired the child may display:

*lack of correct label for a particular object, sequence, relationship or concept

*have difficulty moving from a concrete task to the underlying abstract principle

*be unable to express himself/herself and "think through" their approach to tasks

*have difficulty explaining oncepts in great depth due to the limited expressive or receptive vocabulary

*be unable to generalize a cognitive skill to similar tasks (ie. may be able to compare two blocks but cannot use the same criteria to compare other objects)

Strategies to Correct Impaired Elaboration of Cognitive Categories

Areas to use Mediate Learning:

*Intentionality & Reciprocity: the parent provides correct labels to describe the mental process

*Meaning-the parent provides reasons for applying thinking skills

*Bridging-The parent encourages the application of a strategy