Explain Piaget's Stages Of Cognitive Development

MIDTERM HDFS 201 1. The overall idea surrounding Piaget’s Cognitive Development theory is that development is solely dependent upon maturation. Piaget believed that people simply developed as they got older, without environmental factors affecting development. The concrete operational stage explains cognitive development in children that are seven to twelve years old.

On the Contrary, Erickson (…………….) believed that there were eight stages of human development, he emphasised his development in terms of social and emotional development with each stage associated with social conflict or crisis while Vogotsky (………………) explain the theory of human development using the sociocultural theory. Vygotsky argued that children build their knowledge through social and cultural experiences. One of major criticism of Piaget theory of cognitive development is the use of strict stage time scale for each stage of development. Many researchers in their own opinion agreed that many children abilities overlap. (…………………

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

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.

He suggested that all children would pass through the stages in the same sequence, as each successive stage represents a more complex way of thinking, and is built on the solid foundation of the previous stage. He suggested that although generally children tend to pass through the same stage around the same age, this is a process which cannot be rushed, and each individual child has their own pace of development (Shaffer, 1999). The four stages Piaget outlined are representative of levels in the development of intelligence, and provide a list of schemas children employ at each level. " A schema is a representation in the mind of a set of ideas, perceptions, and actions, that provide a mental structure to help us organize our past experiences, and prepare us for future experiences."

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development Cognition is a process where different aspects of the mind are working together that lead to knowledge. Piaget’s cognitive development theory is based on stages that children go through as they grow that lead them to actively learn new information. Cognitive change occurs with schemes that children and adults go through to make sense of what is happening around them. The change that occurs is activity based when the child is young and later in life correlates to mental thinking. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development start from birth to adulthood

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).

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.

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.

According to Piaget, as children develop they acquire cognitive structures known as schemata and concepts. Schemata are mental representations / rules to help children understand their world and solve problems. Concepts are rules that describe properties of environmental events and their relations to other concepts (Martin, Carlson & Buskist, 2007). Children obtain schemata and concepts by engaging with their surroundings. The

Cognitive development stages are the central part of Piaget’s theory, which demonstrate the development stages of children’s ability to think from infancy to adolescence, how to gain knowledge, self-awareness, awareness of the others and the environment. These stages are respectively relative to 4 ranges of age. It consists of characteristics of each stage and phenomena of each. The first stage between birth to 2 years old, children learn the external through senses and action, instinctively. They sense object permanently and they usually show anxiety to strangers.

As for Piaget, interaction with peers is more effective than those with people carrying higher skills and capabilities. The reason is that peers’ ability is almost equivalent with each other. So that it is not stressful for people to express different views. Consequently, cognitive development is promoted by interaction with peers through cognitive conflicts. On the contrary, cognitive development is motivated by interaction with people such as teachers and parents in Vygotsky’s theory (Vygotsky,1978).

Theories of these two cognitive psychologists have been compared and contrasted on different levels. This essay will look into the differences and similarities between their theories. These two psychologist 's theories differ from each other in numerous ways. To begin with, Jean Piaget 's cognitive development theory proposes that children adapt to their environment by actively constructing knowledge as they perceive and explore their surroundings. His theory comprised of four stages of development.

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

Piaget did not believe that intelligence was a fixed trait. Jean’s theory was divided into three stages. Stage one, the Sensorimotor: Intelligence in action: child interacts with the environment by shaping objects from ages 0-2 years old . Stage two- Pre-operational: Pre-conceptual- is  ages 2-4 years old.