Piaget 's Cognitive Theory And Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget is a key figure for development, focusing on cognitive constructivism – that being that we must learn from experience and development, building on knowledge that has already been developed. The strengths and weaknesses of Piaget 's cognitive development theory will be discussed.

Kolodny, N, J, 2004, The beginner’s guide to eating disorders recovery, Gurze Books, Carlsbad, CA

believe that everything is about them; they have an egocentric view of the world. Piaget’s

Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory states that children go through four stages of cognitive development as they actively construct their understanding of the world. Stage one of this theory, or the sensorimotor stage, infants of the age newborn through two years construct an understanding of the world by sensory skills (hearing and seeing) with physical actions. This for example could be a simple game of peak-a-boo. Skye, the infant in the video clip, giggles at his mother playing the game. According to Piaget’s theory, young infants do not know what happens when object go out of sight. During the first year, infants learn that objects have life of their own, even when not visible. This is known as object permanence. Mya knew to look

According to Piaget (1929, 1954, 1963), the process of adaptation helps us to understand how a child constructs his/her world. Taking Piaget's theory of Cognitive Development with particular focus on the Sensori-Motor stage of development, I am going to discuss how understanding this stage might influence me when working with a baby as a nursing student in the future.

Throughout history, many brilliant minds have made impactful contributions in Psychology which have shaped our understandings of the human mind and our behaviors. Jean Piaget was by no means an exception. Piaget was a clinical psychologist known for his pioneering work in child development. He was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. Over the course of his later career in child psychology, he identified four stages of mental development that took into account young people 's development from basic object identification to highly abstract thought. This paper will focus on Piaget’s life history and personality, as well as his theory on the cognitive developmental stages, its purpose, and its applications during his lifetime and now.

Piaget, Erikson, Skinner and Vygotsky all have similarities and differences within their approaches in regards to cognitive development. Firstly, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development describes the changes in logical thinking of children and adolescents. Piaget suggested that children proceed through four stages that are based on maturation and experience. Piaget managed numerous intelligence tests to children and this led to him becoming interested in the types of faults children of different ages were most probable to make. Piaget hypothesized that cognitive development proceeds in four genetically determined stages that always follow the same sequential order (Developmental and Learning Theories, 2011). The four stages in Piaget theory are the Sensorimotor stage (infancy), the Pre-operational stage (Toddler and Early Childhood), the Concrete operational stage (Elementary and early adolescence), and the Formal operational stage (Adolescence and adulthood). Furthermore, Piaget’s theory is guided by assumptions of how learners interact with their environment and how they integrate new knowledge and information on existing knowledge. In brief, Piaget proposed that children are active learners who build knowledge from their environments and they learn through assimilation and accommodation, and complex cognitive development occurs through equilibration (Developmental and Learning Theories, 2011). Piaget also believed that the interaction with physical and social

According to Piaget (1957), cognitive development was a continuous restructuring of mental processes due to varied situations and experiencing the world and maturing biologically. His view of cognitive development would have us look inside a child’s head and glimpse the inborn process of change that thinking goes through. “He was mainly interested in the biological influences on “how we come to know’” (Huitt and Hummel, 2003). Piaget’s views helps us to have appropriate expectations about children’s mental abilities during different periods of development, especially in terms of logical-mathematical intelligence, and that it was our ability as humans to think abstractly that differentiated us (Science and Cognitive Development). There are three elements of Piaget’s cognitive development theory: schemas, the adaptation process and stages of development. Schemas are basically mental templates of knowledge that individuals use to help make sense of the world around them. The adaptation process which allows for the transition from one stage to another, including assimilation, accommodation and equilibrium and the stages of development in which each child must pass through.

It is never too early to begin teaching orientation and mobility skills to an infant. Without early intervention, a child may lack the awareness and therefore initiative to move their bodies and explore their environment independently. Early intervention of orientation and mobility skills is the catalyst to encourage sensory and motor development, self-concept, as well as cognitive, social and language development. A future life of independence is dependent on these critical developmental skills.

Physical changes occur immediately after the birth of an infant, and happen over his or her lifespan, particularly from infancy to childhood. He or she first learns to roll over (typically by 3 months), then to sit (usually by 6 months), then to stand holding on (usually 6.5 months), then to creep and then to walk (usually by 12 months), and then to walk up steps (usually by 17 months). By one estimate, from 3 months to 15 months, new neural connections of an infant are formed in the infant’s brain, and old ones removed, at an astonishing rate of 100,000 per second (Rakic, 1995). However, changes in human occur not only during infancy, but also through their whole life, from infancy through childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age

Piaget’s Critics In the world of cognitive brain development, especially when it comes to children and infants, no one has pioneered the field quite like Jean Piaget has. While Piaget might have been one of the first to create a comprehensive theory on brain development, this means over time researchers have found flaws and criticisms with Piaget’s methods and theories. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is based on four key concepts: Assimilation, Accommodation, Adaptation, and Equilibrium. Assimilation is the concept of a child adding new information to an already existing classification, such as learning that a cat and dog can both be four-legged animals, but are not the same thing in my case as a child.

What are the major challenges to Piaget's theory of cognitive development and what aspects still have value?

Jean Piaget is considered to be very influential in the field of developmental psychology. Piaget had many influences in his life which ultimately led him to create the Theory of Cognitive Development. His theory has multiple stages and components. The research done in the early 1900’s is still used today in many schools and homes. People from various cultures use his theory when it comes to child development. Although there are criticisms and alternatives to his theory, it is still largely used today around the world.

For this paper I will be exploring Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Swiss Psychologist Jean Piaget, theorized that children progress through four key stages of cognitive development that change their understanding of the world. By observing his own children, Piaget came up with four different stages of intellectual development that included: the sensorimotor stage, which starts from birth to age two; the preoperational stage, starts from age two to about age seven; the concrete operational stage, starts from age seven to eleven; and final stage, the formal operational stage, which begins in adolescence and continues into adulthood. In this paper I will only be focusing on the

Jean Piaget, a cognitivist, believed children progressed through a series of four key stages of cognitive development. These four major stages, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational, are marked by shifts in how people understand the world. Although the stages correspond with an approximate age, Piaget’s stages are flexible in that if the child is ready they can reach a stage. Jean Piaget developed the Piagetian cognitive development theory. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development proposes that a child’s intellect, or cognitive ability, progresses through four distinct stages. The emergence of new abilities and ways of processing information characterize each stage. Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of mental development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence.