Jean Piaget Theory

In addition, children do not have notion of time, they only think in the present. The third stage is named the concrete operational because during this stage children are able to think logically about concrete problems and organize things into categories and series. In fact, children are able to reverse thinking to mentally “undo” actions. They also are able to understand past, present and future. Concrete operational stage begins about 7 and ends about 11 years old.

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.

As each stage is accomplished, a person achieves a higher level of functioning. The sensorimotor stage (birth – 2 years) is where a child develops a sense of themselves as separate for the world and palpable objects still exist even though they cannot be seen. In the preoperational stage (2 – 6 years) the child develops the ability to express themselves through language, they understand the meaning of symbols, and they can classify objects. Concrete operations (6 – 12 years) is the stage when the child applies logic to thinking, is able to understand time and space, broadens social interactions, and is can apply rules; but thinking is still concrete.

In a study done by Munroe, Shimmin, and Munroe (1984, A2 Level Psychology) it was found that children of cultural backgrounds went through Kohlberg’s three stages. This is essential as it proves the basis of the theory is available to be used in widespread case and is not isolated to a particular set of features or environment. William Damon (1977, as cited in Craddock, 2002) also tested Kohlberg 's cognitive development theory in a study dealing with 4 to 9 year olds. A scenario featuring a little boy named George who refuses to stop playing with dolls, even though he was told that dolls are toys for girls and that boys should play with other toys was related to each child.

Piaget’s theory of development consists of four phases. The sensorimotor, the pre-operational stage, the concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage (Piaget, 1952). In the Sensorimotor stage which is the age of zero to two years, the infant’s knowledge of their environment developed through their senses, experiences and physical movements. Physical development increases the chances of the infant to develop new intellectual abilities.

Moving on, phonemic discrimination, which can be tested through experiments such as the conditioned head turn tests infants on their abiity to discriminate different sounds. Infants are trained to turn their heads to a particular place when certain sounds a made and if they are correct they are rewarded with a toy and if the infant incorrectly guesses there is no reward. This is how the infants are trained in differentiating sounds. Infants have a wide range of abilities at birth including being able to detect similarities and differences in sounds and language.

For example, Piaget distinguishes three main types of games that he refers to the stages of child development [33; pp. 30]. - game exercises - the first game of the Child related to the gripping action with toys (the first year); - symbolic play, based on the imitation of the adult world with the help of a special system of symbols (early pre-school age) - games with rules that, in fact, are role-playing games. The author of another classification is the national psychology PP Blonsky, who identifies the following types of games: - Imaginary Games - manipulation impulsive origin in infants who are not actual games; - Building Games, which are based on the art of building a child; - Imitating Games based on the imitation of an adult; - Dramatization, i.e. game based on - drama of the child; - Active Games where a huge role played by race; - Intellectual Games based on the activation of mental abilities of the child [33; pp. 52]. Games are also divided by kind of activities on: - physical (motor) - intellectual (mental) - labor - social -

The main theorist associated with interactionist theory is Lev Vygotsky. Interactionists focus on Vygotsky 's model of collaborative learning ( Shaffer,et al.,2002). Collaborative learning is the idea that conversations with older people can help children both cognitively and linguistically (

Stage 1: Sensorial This stage starts from the birth of the child. The child learns about the world with the use of the five senses. Through

The Latent Stage (the stage occurs between the ages of 6 to 11 years) and Freud believed that the superego continues to develop while the id 's energies are suppressed. Children develop social skills, values and relationships with peers. The Genital Stage (11 to 18 years) includes the onset of puberty which causes the libido to once again become active. A keen interest in the opposite sex is developed. If development has been successful to the Genital Stage, the individual will continue to develop into a well-balanced person.

The last stage is the Formal Operational stage, which lasts from age eleven to adulthood. In this phase the child/adult has the increased ability to have idealistic, logical and abstract thoughts. Piaget also developed the idea of a schema. A schema is how people organize the information they gather into smaller

There are many elements that influence the way that a child develops in a cognitive sense. The Novelty Paradigm which includes things such as habituation, sucking, and looking preference are all ways to measure the advance of cognition in infants. Critically assessing the Novelty Paradigm of Habituation can help to give a better insight on the cognitive development of children. Specifically, a novelty paradigm is based off of methods is the theory that infants have a preference to novel rather than familiar stimuli (Siegler, 2014).