As we will see, the cognitive skills are ones that early childhood teachers value, and that they can encourage deliberately. The other area of research discussed, literacy development, is especially important to educators working with older young children.his chapter is about how the cognitive development of young children can be affected by early childhood programs. It therefore does not describe everything that psychologists know or believe about cognitive development in young children.
However, Polynesians have a long storytelling tradition that includes tales of migratory travel between many of the main island groups--Samoa, Tahiti, etc. The Polynesian Triangle encompasses 16 million square miles of ocean, making Oceania the largest continent on earth. The first person of European descent to arrive in Hawaii was Captain James Cook, who came in 1778. Hawaiians had been living in the islands for more than 1500 years by the time he arrived.
Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii. According to the U.S. Census Bureau report for 2000, there are 401,162 people who identified themselves as being Native Hawaiian alone or in any combination, but they are not considered Native Americans. 140,652 people identified themselves as being Native Hawaiian alone. The majority of Native Hawaiians reside in State of HawaiÊ»i and the American Southwest. Two-thirds live in the State of Hawaii while the other one-third is scattered among other states, with a high concentration in California.