Piaget s Theory Of Cognitive Development - 1660 Words

Background Take a look at two children who are between the ages of four and ten years old. Neither of those children would observe nor solve a problem or situation the exact same way. This is because of the four cognitive development stages. Each stage signifies a certain level of development and understanding based on the age of a child. Jean Piaget is a scientist and philosopher who eventually created the cognitive development theories. â€Å"Piaget’s first intellectual interest were the study of nature and epistemology. These interests shaped his views of cognitive development† (Ed Psych Modules, 2012, p. 119). Cognitive Development is defined as a development in a child’s perceptual skill, language learning, information processing,†¦show more content†¦Object performance is what a child will develop throughout this stage. This is the awareness that things do exist even though they cannot be seen at some point in time. Learning object performance is crucial for the next stage, pre-operational. For example, if there is a teddy bear placed in front of a child and it is taken away while they are not looking, the child will not look for it because he cannot see it. Some might would call this â€Å"out of sight, out of mind†. Once the child understands object performance, they will try to search for their hidden bear because of their new capabilities. The sensorimotor stage can be divided into six separate sub stages that reflect the area of development in reference to a new skill. The six stages are as follows: Reflexes, Primary circular reactions, Secondary circular reactions, coordination of reactions, tertiary circular reactions, and early representational thought. In regards to the reflex stage, one could say that this starts in the womb rather than at zero months. In this stage the child interacts with his/her surrounding strictly with natural born processes such as sucking and looking. The slight turning of body. At that age they understand that their body requires movement and they carry out that task. During the â€Å"primary circular reaction stage† the child carries over attributes from the reflexes stage and progresses them. Imagine a child sucking his/her thumb and then repeats the action later purposefully because