Child Development - Theories - Piaget - Piaget Stages

Piaget Stages

Sensorimotor: (birth to about age 2)

During this early stage, the child learns about himself and his environment through motor and reflex actions. Thought derives from sensation and movement. The child learns that he is separate from his environment and that aspects of his environment—his parents or favorite toy—continue to exist even though they may be outside the reach of his senses; this is called object permanence. Teaching for a child in this stage should be geared to the sensorimotor system. You can modify behavior by using the senses: a frown, a stern or soothing voice—all serve as appropriate techniques.

Preoperational: (begins about the time the child starts to talk to about age 7)

Applying his new knowledge of language, the child begins to use symbols to represent objects. Early in this stage he or she also personifies objects. They are now better able to think about things and events that aren't immediately present. Oriented to the present, children have difficulty conceptualizing time. Their thinking is influenced by fantasy—the way they'd like things to be. Children's at this age show egocentrism-they assume that others see situations from his or her viewpoint. They take in information and change it in their mind to fit their ideas. Teaching must take into account the child's vivid fantasies and undeveloped sense of time. Using neutral words, body outlines and equipment a child can touch gives him an active role in learning. However a child still can not grasp the concept of conservation - an ability to understand that specific properties of objects such as volume,weight or number remains the same despite the changes in shape or arrangement of those objects.

Concrete: (about first grade to early adolescence)

During this stage, accommodation increases. The child develops an ability to think abstractly and to make rational judgments about concrete or observable phenomena, which in the past he needed to manipulate physically to understand. In teaching this child, giving him the opportunity to ask questions and to explain things back to you allows him to mentally manipulate information.

Formal operations:

This stage brings cognition to its final form. This person no longer requires concrete objects to make rational judgements. At this point, he is capable of hypothetical and deductive reasoning. Teaching for the adolescent may be wideranging because he'll be able to consider many possibilities from several perspectives.