Piaget's theory of children's cognitive development

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November 2009                                                        Nina Goldsworthy

Cognitive development

Jean Piaget was a Swiss Biologist and Psychologist who researched and wrote on the subject of children’s cognitive development from the 1920’s to the 1980’s. His theories were grouped into four main stages:

Sensorimotor stage 0-2 years.

The development of the senses, touch, taste, smell, hearing, sight and instinct. No concept of object permanence, when it disappears it is gone developing into object permanence. When an object is hidden a child will look for it.

Preoperational Stage 2-7 years.

Language skills develop rapidly, egocentricity – children only care about themselves and think everyone only sees the world as they do. Start questioning everything. Schemas, which are mental structures which contain all the information the child needs relating to one aspect of the world. A child has schemas for people, objects, actions and more abstract concepts. (A).

Concrete operational 7 -11 years.

Logical thinking develops as do mass, weight, number. Centristic thought is replaced by ability to consider multiple factors simultaneously, giving the ability to solve increasingly complex problems. The child learns how to group non identical objects. Seriation, the ability to place things according to size, develops.

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Formal operational 11+ years

Abstract way of thinking, form and elate things scientifically. The child develops a broader understanding of the world. Able to hypothesize possible outcomes and think of ways to test theories. Deductive reasoning develops so a child is able to start to draw conclusions.

Reasoning is the last thing to develop in a child and does not appear until 16 + years.

Schemas

These are mental structures, each of which contains all the information the child needs relating to one aspect of the world. A person has schemas for people, objects, actions and more ...

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Summary Although the writer has covered the main features of Piaget's theory there could have been much more detail about the cognitive stages of development, including evidence of these through Piaget's experiments. Also there should have been more detail about schemas, assimilation, accommodation, equilibrium and disequilibrium, since this also explains cognitive development according to Piaget. It would be helpful to write a plan beforehand to give the essay a better structure. 2 stars