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Cirelys Santiago Seda Jean Piaget - Cognitive Development Professor B. Jackson - 3100 October 15, 2023 Cognitive Development Jean William Fritz Piaget was a Swiss psychologist who specialized in the development of knowledge. He was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1896. He was the eldest of three siblings. Piaget was considered an early sprouter in education. Around the age of eleven he proposed a paper on a specific bird called the (Albino Sparrow). As you can assume, by this paper it started part of the fundamentals in studying scientific creatures. His eagerness to learn was developed in his creativity to write published papers. He devoted most of his studies to creating analytical theories of how children developed and how they later manifested into adulthood. Throughout his career in the discovery of theories, Piaget is widely recognized as a cognitive development psychologist. Apart from that he is also known as a published author and genetic epistemologist and partaker in constructivist theory as well. His theory consists of four stages that are broken up in age groups as well as emphasizing the importance of these separations are also based on psychical, emotional, and social skills. In 1923, Piaget married a lovely lady and had three kids. We often see throughout reading and published facts that the first participants in Jean's theory were his children. Main Concepts: Developmental theory in Stages Jean Piaget's main concept focused on how children's unraveling development is linked to how they interact with people and the environment in their own experiences. During this theory, we see that Piaget's concept is broken up into four stages. These four stages consist of the Sensorimotor stage, the Preoperational stage, the Concrete Operational stage and the last one the Formal Operational stage, each identifying with a specific age group. It focuses on early to middle childhood development with inferences of how it can continue to develop later in adulthood. ● The Sensorimotor Stage is the stage that occurs from infancy to age two . In this stage we see these children begin to get a sense of the world through their senses and actions. One of the first examples provided in discovering cognitive ability at a young age is through object permanence . This is where a specific item is acknowledged in the presence of the child and then suddenly hidden to prove that the object still remains existing even if not physically present. The text states this as schemes primarily entail perceptions and behaviors. Children's understanding of the world is based largely on their

physical interactions with it. (Ormrod, 2020, p. 289). Piaget also emphasizes that this typical change can be stressful for the child of this age, and it needs to be compacted in an organizational way ( schema ) through the processes of assimilation and accommodation. This process is based on how children associate patterns with exposure to them. By assimilating they interpret an object or event in a way that's consistent with an existing scheme. (Ormrod, 2020, p. 287). An example of this can be taking a remote and placing a paper towel over it. The child reacts to pointing at the object as it is there, even if I don't conceptually see it. Thus, pulling the object out again from a perspective view allows the child to recognize this skill as object permanence. Though the child will not understand this terminology until years later. This simply just puts into practice the cognitive skill. There are also substages to the sensorimotor stage starting with reflexes and ending with the beginning of representational thought. (Lally & Valentine-French, 2019). ● The Preoperational Stage consists of the continuing cognitive development theory where it now focuses on age groups two through seven . During this stage children begin to unravel the same skills as mentioned in the previous stage but are getting more sophisticated. Now, considering that though it is getting better, still be aware that they are growing and developing so their skills are limited. Here we start to see the idea of egos. One particular part that I would bring to attention during this stage would be egocentrism . Children at this stage see the world through their own lenses. Often lacking sympathy and understanding of others. The diagram represented in the textbook states this stage as many schemes that now have a symbolic quality, in that children can think and talk about things beyond their immediate experience. (Ormrod, 2020, p. 289). Focusing on the environment around them, they tend to use images, and words as a form of symbolism to represent the idea of objects they interact with. ● The Concrete Operational Stage is between ages seven through eleven . In this area you can certainly differentiate the skill enhancement between a child of younger age compared to now. We see that in this stage, a child of this age, their skills become more organized and think logically. Conservation is a primary focus in this area. This is when an understanding that if nothing is added or taken away, the amount or quantity doesn't change despite any changes in physical appearance or positioning. (Ormrod, 2020, p. 292). An example we can relate this to is science. We take two cylinders, one short and another tall, they are the same in depth. By pouring vinegar in the short one, the volume is specific, then taking that same liquid and pouring it into the taller cylinder, we see the volume does not change. They are shaped differently, but essentially contain the same amount of volume. This enables them to think critically with the information presented, they establish logical reasoning. ● The Formal Operational Stage occurs through ages eleven and twelve through middle childhood and later develops throughout adulthood . Since this is the final stage of cognitive development theory, we know that in this area we see a lot more advancement of critical thinking , problem solving, understanding abstract ideas and hypothetical reasoning. The textbook gives us the terminology of these processes are proportional thinking and separation and controlled variables. The first process is enabling them to

neighborhoods, we must factor in that we will encounter children of special needs, children who learn differently, children who have emotional or mental needs, and even children who lack basic moral or teaching simply because of the background they come from or due to a neurological disorder. Scientifically speaking, psychology is a broad field of study that revolves around data, experiments, theories, case studies, clinical trials, published papers/journal articles, even historically speaking, all of these are used to shape psychology in the field that it is today. A field that can be minimized to the basics like a therapist or social worker, or specialized like a clinical psychologist, a licensed therapist in substance abuse or even working with psychiatry. But, referring back to Piaget, we see a lot of theorists in childhood education pick apart each other's perspectives as well as add to them. Like there are oftentimes huge comparisons and contrasts between Vygotsky and Piaget, or Bandura and Erikson, Freud, and Skinner. The list goes on. My point is, there are many ways to approach certain situations, there is also room for correction and improvement, this is why we still implement these theorists with their theology and why the field today is very rigorous and respected.

References: Cherry, MSEd, K., & Swaim, E. (2022, November 2). Jean Piaget’s life and contributions to psychology . Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/jean-piaget-biography-1896- 1980-2795549 Lally, M., & Valentine-French, S. (2019b). Lifespan development. Piaget and the Sensorimotor Stage | Lifespan Development. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny- lifespandevelopment/chapter/piaget-and-the-sensorimotor-stage/ Main , P. (2021, June 11). Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development. RSS. https://www.structural-learning.com/post/jean-piagets-theory-of-cognitive-development- and-active-classrooms#:~:text=Piaget%20 used%20 observations%20and%20clinical,with %20 charts%20of%20 children's%20development. Ormrod, J. E. (2020). Human Learning (8th ed.). Pearson Education Inc. Smith, L. (2021). About Jean Piaget . Jean Piaget Society. https://piaget.org/about-piaget/ Webb, P. K. (2010, August 16). Piaget: Implications for teaching . Taylor & Francis online. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00405848009542880