Adhd and Piaget's Theories

Jean Piaget sought to understand and explain to others how the brain changes from birth until the mid-teens. There are so many huge developments during those years and Piaget got them down to four stages. The four stages in Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development are the sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage. These stages cover things such as reflexes to adolescent egocentrism. (Santrock)

Piaget’s theory was introduced by Jean Piaget who established four periods of cognitive development. The four stages are; Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, and Formal operational. The sensorimotor is the first stage and begins when the child is born and proceeds until the age of two years. The second stage is the preoperational stage and begins with the child is two years old and continues until the child reaches six years of age. The concrete stage is the third stage and begins when the child is six years old and proceeds until the age of 11 years old. The formal operational stage is the fourth stage and

This experiment has been conducted to answer ‘Are the set age groups within the four stages of piaget’s theory accurate or is it possible for someone younger than twelve to successfully complete a formal operation?’. Therefore the aim of this experiment is to investigate the cognitive development of young children of different age groups; to do this eight activities will be conducted including object permanence, Animism, Egocentrism, Conservation of amount, conservation of substance (Mass), conservation of Volume, Classification and Abstract thinking; for all of the four stages in Piaget's theory there will be two activities.

At this stage is when their mental lexicon expands, creating more complex sentences and holding conversations with their peers and other adults (Kaderavek, 2105, p. 18). Concrete operations is the next stage following preoperational. This stage is developed between ages of seven to eleven where children begin the process of becoming logical thinkers, categorize objects and thoughts, and organize information (Kaderavek, 2015, p. 18). Lastly, the formal operation stage, from ages eleven to fifteen, is when children learn to be abstract thinkers by creating and testing hypotheses (Kaderavek, 2015, p. 18). Without these four important stages, Piaget believed that a child could not develop language accurately and in the future could develop a language disorder.

The Concrete Operational Stage (7-11): - A this stage the child can operate objects and understand them providing they can se them and/or are holding them. The child can count, spell, read etc. Although the child still needs some objects i.e. fingers, toys to count there is still a need for visual assistance. The child is developing a less egocentric perspective.

The sensorimotor stage infants develop their schemas through sensory and motor activities. Followed by the preoperational stage where children begin to think symbolically using words, to represent concepts. Next concrete operational stage children display many important thinking skills, like ability to think logically. Finally, formal operational stage young adolescences formulate their operations by abstract and hypothetical thinking. Piaget’s theory provides ample and insightful perspectives, so it remains the central factor of contemporary

The teacher could place two cups that have the same amount of liquid in the cups but because one of the cups is taller than the other the child is going to think the taller glass has more liquid in it. The third stage is the concrete operational stage which occurs during ages seven to eleven. The term concrete operational means the child can reason only about tangible objects presents. So the child can conserve and think logically but only with practical aids. Thinking becomes less egocentric with increased awareness of external events. The fourth and final stage is the formal operational stage which occurs during ages eleven to fifteen. This stage focuses on hypothetical thinking and scientific reasoning. Piaget believed that only children can learn when they are ‘ready’ to learn. He also believed that development couldn 't be ‘sped up.’ Piaget believed that children learned through the resolution of disequilibrium (self discovery, active participation). He believed that teachers should ‘bend’ to children’s needs, provide an appropriate environment, promote self discovery, exploratory learning, self-motivated learning, and set challenges to existing schemes.

For Piaget (1973), there are stages in human cognitive development, which culminates with the stage called formal operation beyond which early adulthood sets in. According to Piaget, this level of cognitive development is marked by a shift from concrete operation thinking to a capacity for abstract reasoning. At this stage the adolescence focuses less on the immediate concrete world and begins to develop and conceive abstract concepts like justice, politics, and history etc. According to Piaget, the adolescent stage begins approximately at 11 years.

Children develop cognition through two main stages that Jean Piaget theorized. The stages run from birth and infancy to school age children. Sensorimotor is the first stage and goes from birth to about the age of two. This stage implies that the children learn about the environment they live in and they learn this through the reflexes and movements they produce. They also learn that they are separate people from their parents and they can say goodbye to them and know they will come back. The second stage is called the preoperational stage. During this stage of development, children will learn how to incorporate symbols to represent objects. This is also the beginning of learning the alphabet and speech. The child is still very much egocentric at this point in time, but with the help of understanding educators, the child will grow appropriately onto the next stages of development. Finally, the children need to develop emotionally/socially.

In the concrete operational stage between the ages of seven and twelve, children become capable of logical thought, they also start to be able to think abstractly. However they are best suited to visible or concrete objects and things they can see (Lee and Gupta). Once the child has reached the formal operations stage from twelve years onwards it becomes more practiced at abstract processing, carrying out problem solving systematically and methodically thus completing the cognitive development process.

“According to Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, it states that all children go through specific stages as their brain matures. It also stated that these stages are completed in a fixed order within all children, according to their range of age (Atherton).” In other words, one cannot expect a two month old baby to solve simple math problems as that of a five year old. There are four stages in which Piaget grouped the development of a child according to their age groups, in which children interact with people and their environment. The sensorimotor stage (birth until age 2) children use their senses to explore their environment. During this stage, children learn how to control objects, although they fail to understand that these objects if not within their view continue to exist. The preoperational stage (2 until age 7) children are not able to see other's viewpoints other than their own. In other words, if the same amount of water is poured into a short wide glass and then a tall thin glass the child will perceive that the taller glass has more water because of the height. The concrete operational stage (7 until 12) children begin to think logically, but only with a practical aid. The last stage of Piaget’s cognitive theory is the formal operation stage (12 through adulthood) in which children develop abstract thinking and begin to think logically in their minds (Piaget).

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, known as ADHD, is defined by the National Institute of Mental Health as “a brain disorder marked by an ongoing pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development.” On the

ADHD is a common acronym for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD is widely discussed and debated among professionals, scholars, parents and teachers. The first signs of hyperactivity alone were named in the late 1950s. ADHD is common among children today and many contend with the disorder. The causes of ADHD are still likely to be debated as many point the finger at a multitude of sources. Some of the possible causes are: heredity, environment, prenatal smoking, lead exposure, and diet. Although ADHD is still a topic for debate, there are many effects or symptoms children contend with and there are also many treatments.

In this paper, I will provide examples to distinguish between a 3-year-old preschooler and a 9-year-old student and their thinking patterns. To help with this, I will be using Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Piaget developed the idea that children must pass through several different stages in order to get to the sophisticated thinking of adulthood. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development consisted of four stages: the sensorimotor (birth-2 years of age), pre-operational (2-7 years of age), concrete operational (7-11 years of age), and formal operational (11 years-adulthood). Therefore, this paper will distinguish between a 3-year-old preschooler in the pre-operational stage and a 9-year old student in the concrete operational

For this paper I will be exploring Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Swiss Psychologist Jean Piaget, theorized that children progress through four key stages of cognitive development that change their understanding of the world. By observing his own children, Piaget came up with four different stages of intellectual development that included: the sensorimotor stage, which starts from birth to age two; the preoperational stage, starts from age two to about age seven; the concrete operational stage, starts from age seven to eleven; and final stage, the formal operational stage, which begins in adolescence and continues into adulthood. In this paper I will only be focusing on the