Piaget’s Stages of Development

Question 1

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 1

(Birth to 2 years) Infants and young children learn primarily through sensory input and action. There are 3 achievements during this stage:
1. Object Permanence allows the child to recognize that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight.
2. Causality is when the child learns to recognize that certain events cause other events.
3. Symbolic Thought is when the child begins using language to think about actions before performing them

Question 2

Preoperational Stage

Answer 2

(2 to 7 years) A key characteristic of this stage is the symbolic function, which allows the child to learn through the use of mental images, language and other symbols that represent objects that aren’t present. Children in this stage can engage in symbolic play and can solve problems mentally.

Question 3

Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 3

(7 to 11 years) Children are capable of performing mental operations using logic and abstract thinking. This allows children to classify and problem-solve in more sophisticated ways.

Question 4

Formal Operational Stage

Answer 4

(11+ years) During this stage, the adolescent or young adult is able to think abstractly, hypothetically, and in a relativistic way. Adolescents can develop competing hypotheses about a problem and strategies for testing the hypotheses. There is an increase in “thinking about thinking” and return to egocentrism during this stage.