Piaget Theory Of Cognitive Development Essay

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development states four stages of cognitive development. During the first Sensorimotor Stage which Piaget

(Burton, Westen, & Kowalski, 2014, p. 464). Piaget has proposed 4 stages in his theory of cognitive development; the first is sensorimotor stage, pre-operational stage, concrete operational stage and finally, formal operational stage. Mollie and her friends are in the Pre-operational stage of cognitive development. This can be shown as they are in a pre-school

In fact, Harry Beilin (1992) claims that that no other psychologist or individuals has impacted the field of developmental psychology as Jean Piaget has. Further to this, he conveyed innovative approaches and processes which immensely transformed the studies of cognitive development of children. This is evident through Piaget asking children unrestricted questions to attempt to understand their cognitive development (Smith et al., 2003, p. 103). Hence, Piaget’s influence on other researchers to research on children development. In contrast to this, despite certain psychologist approving Piaget’s theory on how children cogitate, other psychologist and educators contradict his concept of why thinking progresses the way it does.

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development Piaget asserts, children are born with inherited scripts, called schema, these schema are building blocks for cognitive development. As a child grows, he acquires more of these building blocks; moreover, these building blocks become more complex as the child progresses through different stages in development (Huitt, Hummel 2003). Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development are as follows. First, The sensorimotor stage where an infant has rudimentary motor skills, and can eventually

He died on September 16, 1980, in Geneva, Switzerland.” (Editors, 2015) The Stages of development and cognitive stages “Piaget believed that children are like "little scientists" and that they actively try to explore and make sense

One of the most well known theories in cognitive development is Piaget 's theory. The psychologist Jean Piaget theorized that as children 's minds development, they pass through distinct stages marked by transitions in understanding followed by stability. Piaget describes four different stages of development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operation, and formal operations. Each stage describes the thinking patterns of a child depending on his or her age. In order to compare the thinking processes of a three-year old and a nine-year old using Piaget 's theory, you must compare two sequential stages of cognitive development: preoperational and concrete operations.

Brief History Jean Piaget was a Twentieth century Swiss psychologist and was the first psychologist to systematically study the cognitive development of children. Thomas (2005) wrote that early in Piaget’s career he worked with children and his observations and interactions with the students led him to the theory that a young person's cognitive processes are inherently different from those of adults (pp. 188-9). According to Ahmad, et al. (2005) , Piaget showed that when compared to adults, young children think in differently and he then came to the conclusion that cognitive development was an ongoing process which occurred due to maturation and interaction with the environment (p. 72).

The first stage is the sensory motor stage ( birth-2 yrs.) , in this stage child does not know the physical object in existence when out of stage. Second stage is called the preoperational stage (age2-7), no abstract conceptualisation is possible where it needs concrete physical situation. In the stage is concrete operational stage (age7-11), starts to conceptualize with experience that accumulates. The fourth stage is formal operation (11-15), cognitive structures resembles like adults and includes conceptual reasoning.

Piaget developed a stage theory of intellectual development that included four distinct stages: the sensorimotor stage, from birth to age 2; the preoperational stage, from age 2 to about age 7; the concrete operational stage, from age 7 to 11; and the formal operational stage, which begins in adolescence and spans into adulthood. He believed that there were four necessary ingredients for cognitive development which included: “maturation of the nervous system, experiences gained through interaction with physical world, social environment, and child’s active participation in adapting to environment & constructing knowledge from experience.” (Sullivan, 2014, Slide 3) The sensorimotor stage occurs between birth and age 2. Infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through sensory experiences and handling objects.

His approach of studying the development of the human mind was a synthesis of ideas drawn from biology and philosophy. He looked at human beings as biological organisms who must adapt successively to their environment. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development revolutionized the study of children’s cognitive development and it has undergone some revisions over the years. It also provides a set of basic principles to guide our understanding of cognitive development that are found in most recent theories.

The second stage is between age of 2 to 6 years old, children form ideas with words and images, which is tend to be over generalizing. Developmental phenomena of this stage include pretending play, egocentrism and language development. And then the third stage from 7 to 11 years old, children think logically about concrete events and understand similar events. In this period, abilities of conversation and mathematical transformation get to be developed. Last stage, 12

Piaget’s stage theory on cognitive development is divided into 4 stages; sensorimotor stage (0 – 2 years), Preoperational stage (2 – 4 years), Concrete operations (7 – 11 years), Formal operations (11 – 15 years). The theory was developed by Piaget who observed his own children, and the process they went through to make sense of the world around them. This theory explains to us how the mind processes new information it receives though different encounters. The rate at which children develop will differ but the sequence of development will always stay the same, they will go through all 4 stages of cognitive development. In the Sensorimotor stage children will learn through trial and error, they will test different things to find out how they

The first stage of Piaget’s Cognitive Development theory is the Sensorimotor Stage, which he states takes place from birth

This model is broken down into four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The children that I observed were in the concrete operational stage. Cole and Tufano (2008) explains the concrete operational stage as, “Intelligence is acquired through systematic manipulation of concrete objects, resulting in seven types of conservation

He emphasize that the way children reason at one stage is different from the way they reason at another stage . The first stage, is called the sensorimotor stage which extends from birth to age about two. In this stage, infants build an understanding of the world by integrating with experiences such as seeing and hearing with physical, motoric actions. Infants obtain knowledge of the world from the physical actions they carry out on it. Piaget 's divide sensorimotor stage into six-sub stages.