Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory

Question 1

Describe the Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory.

Answer 1

Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory identifies key periods or stages in a child’s life where the child acquires new cognitive skills and capacities. This theory also highlights the environmental factors that are necessary for children to develop their cognitive skills appropriately.

Piaget believed that cognitive development unfolds in four sequential stages.

Question 2

Name the 4 stages Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory.

Answer 2

1. Sensorimotor
2. Pre-operational
3. Concrete Operational
4. Formal Operational

Question 3

Describe the Sensorimotor stage.

Answer 3

Age range:
Birth to 2 years

Outcomes of Each stage:
The infant experiences the world through his/her senses and physical actions (reaching, touching, looking or mimicking).
Inability to touch, see and feel the object means it does not exist.

Development Indicators:
- Object permanence - understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard or touched.

Question 4

Describe the Pre-operational stage.

Answer 4

Age range:
2 - 7 years

Outcomes of Each stage:
The child is capable of symbolic thoughts and represents things with words and images but lacks logical reasoning.
- Use of scribbled designs to represent people, houses, cars, etc.
- Drawings are fanciful and inventive.

Development Indicators:

• Expanded use of language
• Ability to pretend
• Egocentrism, which involves children assuming their way of thinking about things is the only way.

Question 5

Describe the Concrete Operational stage.

Answer 5

Age range:
7 - 11 years

Outcomes of Each stage:

• The child is now able to think logically about observable concrete events and classify objects into different sets, except for reasoning about abstract concepts such as infinity and meaning of life.
• At 9 - 11 years, the child learns to transubstantiate, i.e. convert information into another form to understand conclusions.

Development Indicators:

• Ability to think logically about observable concrete events
• Ability to understand observable comparisons
• Ability to perform mathematical operations

Question 6

Describe the Formal Operational stage.

Answer 6

Age range:
11 years to adulthood

Outcomes of Each stage:

• The teenager is now able to think about abstract concepts, reason and logically test hypothesis.
• The teenager develops:
  1. Abstract reasoning and thinks in more idealistic and logical ways.
  2. Adolescent egocentrism, which are beliefs that others are as interested in him/her as he/she is.

Development Indicators:

• Ability to idealise and imagine possibilities
• Ability to reason morally