Piaget’s Stages of Development

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Piaget’s Stages of Development Jean Piaget was a developmental psychologist who introduced a theory about the cognitive development occurring in stages. The first three stages take place during childhood, with the fourth being the most advanced. The stages were sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational. The first stage, sensorimotor, happens during the first two years of life. The child gathers information about the world through senses and motor functions. The child also learns object permanence. This is the awareness that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be sensed. A child who doesn’t understand object permanence wouldn’t know that even if his or her toy were out of sight that it still existed. Piaget’s second stage was called the pre-operational stage. This stage was longer, lasting from age two to six or seven. Children in this stage understand language but not logic. Egocentrism is the key event of this stage. During this stage, children are unable to take another’s point of view or understand that symbols can represent other objects. They also don’t comprehend others’ mental states, perceptions or thoughts. Concrete Operational was the name of Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development. This stage usually began around age seven and lasted about four years. Children begin to think logically and understand conservation. They comprehend that certain properties such as mass, volume, and numbers remain the same even if their form changes. Therefore they would understand that water being poured from one container to another is the same amount even if the containers are different sizes. His fourth and final stage of development was called the formal operational stage. It usually began around age twelve. The child can then think logically and in the abstract. The main thing about this stage is children can
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