Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory

Piaget was born in Switzerland in the late 1800s and was a precocious student, publishing his first scientific paper when he was just 11 years old.Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of mental development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence.

 

Much of Piaget's interest in the cognitive development of children was inspired by his observations of his own nephew and daughter. These observations reinforced his budding hypothesis that children's minds were not merely smaller versions of adult minds.In this psychology of children, what parents and teachers really need to understand is the complex and critical thinking of  children. A human being in general is a very curious being, but the curiosity in a child who falls under the age group of 2-7 years old is completely different from pre-teens, teens or even adults. This curiosity is innocent and pure, and needs a lot of attention and patience. children tend to critically appreciate the things around them and hence, it gives rise to their strong imagination and intuition.

The four stages explained by Piaget are:

1.The Sensorimotor Stage

Ages: Birth to 2 Year

The infant knows the world through their movements and sensations

2.The Preoperational Stage

Ages: 2 to 7 Years

Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects.

3.The Concrete Operational Stage

Ages: 7 to 11 Years

During this stage, children begin to thinking logically about concrete events

They begin to understand the concept of conservation. Children learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking, grasping, looking, and listening

4.The Formal Operational Stage

Ages: 12 and Up

At this stage, the adolescent or young adult begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems

Abstract thought emerges