Piaget Cognitive Development

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Children’s Cognitive Development This report outlines an analysis of two children’s responses to a series of Piagetian cognitive developmental tasks. The children’s responses to these tasks will be reviewed in light of Piaget’s theory concerning stages of cognitive development. A brief definition of Piaget’s stages has been included in appendix B, as none is given within this report. The children’s names have been changed to conceal their identity. The first child Kelly is a female grade six student aged eleven. The second child Frank is a male grade one student aged six. Although the children’s responses will be discussed together, testing was done individually. The data sheets containing summaries of their responses have been included at the end of this report in appendix A. Task 1 The first task in the series involved asking the children to draw a tree on each side of a steep mountain. Original drawings are included in appendix C. In Piaget’s theory this task would indicate egocentrism and centration in the thought patterns of the child if drawn incorrectly. It can be seen from the two drawings that both children drew essentially the same diagram. The trees in both pictures grow directly upwards despite the steep slopes of the mountainsides. It would be possible to assume that if the children drew the trees growing at right angles from the slopes, they displayed egocentrism in their thinking. Shown by the idea that children could not imagine trees growing in any another way than the way they themselves usually view trees in their everyday lives. It would also indicate that their understanding is limited by centration, or the inability to focus on more than one aspect at a time (Berk, 2006). These results reflect a non egocentric point of view and a view that is not limited by centration. These two characteristics were believed by Piaget to be major
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