Piaget & Early Childhood Development

History

• From the 1920s until his death in 1980, Swiss researcher and psychologist Jean Piaget spent most of his life learning, observing and finding new theories regarding human development. According to piaget.org, Piaget had one goal for his research: to find out how knowledge grows. The theorist focused on how changes in a child's way of thinking occurred. "Child Development" by John. W. Santrock shows that Piaget developed many of his ideas by studying and observing his three children, Laurent, Lucienne and Jacqueline, as well as observing and interviewing other children.

Sensorimotor Stage

• Piaget's theory of cognitive development is broken down into four stages. Within each stage, children are constantly organizing and adapting to new information and experiences; Piaget found that children learn by watching and then doing.

  Piaget's four stages are broken into separate age groups. According to "Child Development," the sensorimotor stage lasts from birth to about two years of age. Infants try to explore and understand the world through physical actions. An infant will hear and see things and learn from each situation. In "Child Development," Santrock gives the example of a newborn sucking on a bottle. First the infant will only suck on the bottle when it is placed directly in its mouth, then he will start to move toward the bottle when it is placed near the mouth. The newborn starts to learn what the bottle is used for and that he can move toward it when hungry. The baby is learning through his actions and trying to make sense of the world. During the sensorimotor stage, an infant will figure out understand object permanence, which is when a child understands that an object continues to exist even when it can not be seen, touched or heard. For example, if a child who has not yet grasped the concept of object permanence sees a toy and then the mother hides the toy, the child won't search for it. But when the child develops object permanence, he will continue to look for the toy when it is hidden; the infant knows the toy is still somewhere.

Preoperational Stage

• Piaget's preoperational stage occurs in children ages two to seven years old. Santrok's "Child Development" states that children in this stage begin to represent the world with words and images. Children start to put pictures and symbols to actual meanings. You will often see children drawing and creating pictures about how they see the world or what they believe in. Their thoughts are not fully complete and complex; for example, Santrock writes that a child will answer the phone and when asked a question, will nod silently instead of verbally giving an answer.

Concrete Operational Stage

• In the concrete operational stage, children ages seven to 11 years old start to think logically. Santrock gives an example in "Child Development": there are two balls of clay the same size. A child watches someone roll one of the balls into a long line and then is asked if the line of clay is bigger than the ball of clay. In Piaget's concrete operational stage, a child will be able to understand that the balls of clay are the same even though they are in different shapes.

Formal Operational Stage

• The final stage in Piaget's theory of child development is the formal operational stage, for ages 11 through adulthood. Santrock explains that children can think abstractly, idealistically and logically in this stage. Santrock states that children will be able to compare their parents to others. They think of their ideal type and they also can solve problems systematically. Children begin to develop reasons for why things occur and happen in life. They become logical thinkers.