Child Development: Piaget's Theory Of Cognitive Development

There is a misconception that children are like miniature versions of adults and that they think in the same way adults do. This misconception was debunked by a developmental biologist named Piaget who theorized that children reason quite differently. Piaget formulated a theory of cognitive development that explains how children create a mental model of the world. He did not support the idea that intellect is a fixed feature. Rather, he believed that cognitive development is more like a process which occurs due to biological maturation and interaction with the environment. Through his studies on cognition in children, a series of simple but clever tests revealed different cognitive abilities in children at different age stages. Children from birth understand their environment through cognitive development stages that are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

Sensorimotor is the first stage of cognitive development which starts from birth to 2 years of age. During this stage, children acquire their knowledge through their movement and sensations. For example, children at ages from birth to 2 months interact with their environment through sucking and grasping their toys. As children continue growing at this stage, they develop early speech and realize that their actions affect their surroundings; like when they shake their toy, a sound may start playing. The most important substage of the Sensorimotor stage is object permanence which is