The Application of Piaget’s Theory to Child Development

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The Application of Piaget’s Theory to Child Development Patricia A. Puliah Child Development, ECE 332 Instructor Carrie Phillips January 7, 2013 Todays’ school systems are responsible for more than just traditional education. The systems now play a significant role in the development of children. Understanding how Piaget’s theory is applicable in school enables the school to better advocate on behalf of the child regardless of their abilities or inabilities; thus promoting optimal development across all domains of physical, cognitive, social and emotional, and language acquisition. Jean Piaget believed that children pass through four development stages on their journey from birth through adulthood. Each stage is cumulative of the next. In the infant stage through two years of age, children are in what Piaget calls the sensorimotor stage. He named it this because infants rely on their five senses and motor skills when they begin to explore and learn how their bodies relate to their environment. The sensorimotor stage is broken down into six sub stages. The six sub stages start out with infants that are victims of their environment who are born with inherit reflexes. In the first sub stage, the infant is totally reliant on others around them to do everything outside of those reflexes for them. According to LeFrançois (2012), this stage is characterized by the development of three key reflexes; sucking, grasping and following objects with their eyes. As the infant uses these reflexes to adapt to the environment, these reflexes are quickly replaced with constructed schemes. The sub stages build with the child developing greater cognition as they get older. The sub stages end at 12 months where the child is starting to show mental representation through fantasy and imagination. The next stage is the preoperational stage and applies to children ages two
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