Evaluating The Development Characteristics Of Preschool Children

Piaget claimed that children were in charge of the construction or the building of their own knowledge and that construction was superior to instruction (Gordon and Browne, 2004). Piaget thought that educators should provide a stimulating environment and have the children explore. Teachers should watch and also interact with the children, but they should let the children find and experience new ideas and knowledge on their own. (Crain, 2005)One of Piaget's major contributions is what is known as the general periods of development. He found four major general periods or stages of child development (Crain, 2005, p. 115): Sensorimotor Intelligence (birth to two years). Babies organize their physical action schemes, such as sucking, grasping, and hitting. Preoperational Thought (two to seven years). Children learn to think but their thinking is illogical and different from that of adults. Concrete Operations (seven to eleven years). Children develop the capacity to think systematically, but only when they can refer to concrete objects and activities. Formal Operations (eleven to adulthood). Young people

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

Piaget developed a workable theory that has had considerable implications for education, most notably for child-centred learning methods in nursery and infant schools. Piaget argued that young children think quite differently from adults so therefore the teacher should adapt the teaching methods to suit the child. For example, nursery school classrooms can provide children with play materials that encourage their learning. Using sets of toys that encourage the practice of sorting, grading and counting. Play areas, where children can develop role-taking skills through imaginative play. Materials like water, sand, bricks and crayons that help children make their own constructions and create symbolic representations of objects and people in their lives. A teacher’s role is to create the conditions in which learning may best take place.

The preschool is concerned with the child at different developmental stages (Berger, 2009). Teacher must ask herself two questions about the child at those stages. Firstly, how does the child think about and view his world? Secondly, what learning tasks should the child be given at this point in his development? To answer the questions, the teacher must orient herself to Piagetian developmental theory and sharpen her observational skills.

Piaget developed the theory of stage development; he had based his theories on his children by carrying out detailed observations where he came up with four stages in each process. But he believed a child had to be at a certain age to learn something or they simply couldn’t learn it or know it. I believe he underestimated children’s abilities and knowledge. The first stage was called sensorimotor stage- in this stage children learnt through using their 5 senses, touch, taste, smell, seeing and hearing. He believe they understood that the

The Piaget's stage theory of cognitive development is also known as the stage theory. It introduces that, in the expansion of our thinking, we act through an organized and certain sequence of steps. However, the theory focuses not only on compassionate how the children obtain knowledge, but likewise on the discernment of the substance of intelligence. According to the Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, there are two stages in the thinking pattern of a 3-year old preschooler and 9-year-old student. They are the preoperational stage for the 2 to 7 year old and the concrete operations stage for the 9 year old. The preoperational stage (three years old preschooler), this is where a new child can intellectually perform and signify to the objects and issues with the quarrel or the images, and they can act. The concrete operations (nine year old student), where a child is at the stage and deliver the ability to maintain, reserve their thinking, and analyze the objects in conditions of their many parts. However, they can also assume logically and understand comparison, but only about the concrete events.

In this domain Piaget stated that the child who is still in the preoperational stage can’t conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations. They can’t mentally manipulate information. The child is able to form stable concepts as well as magical beliefs and their thinking is still egocentric, which means that the child has difficulty seeing the viewpoint of others. Piaget split this stage into the symbolic and intuitive thought substage. In the symbolic function stage children are able to understand, represent, remember, and picture objects in their mind without having the object in front of them. Vygotsky stated that children learn cognitive tasks through their interactions with older peers and adults. Not only do younger children watch and imitate older people or peers as they complete tasks, but these older guides also help younger children accomplish tasks they couldn’t accomplish on their own. He calls this the zone of proximal development which he describes what children can do alone and what they can do with assistance. Another theorist named Bandura coined the term observational learning which means people learn appropriate social behaviors by observing and modeling others. This type of learning is most effective during childhood. Vygotsky believed that the important part of the cognitive development is language. He observed that very young

Early childhood is often characterized by endless make-believe and sociodramatic play which indicates the development of mental representation. Sociodramtic play differs from simple make-believe play in that it involves play with peers. This stage of play is often referred to as the Preoperational Stage. This is the stage immediately after Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage. The Preoperational Stage spans from two to about five or six years of age. At this stage, according to Piaget, children acquire skills in the area of mental imagery, and especially language. They are very self-oriented, and have an egocentric view; that is, preoperational children can use these representational skills only to view the world from their

Piaget believes in three stage of moral development. The premoral stage that begins before the age six, morality of constraint that happens between the ages of six to ten, and the morality of cooperation stage that occurs after the age ten. The premoral stage is when the child exhibits little to no concern for rules. They do not understand the concept of rules and how they are applied to everyone. At this age, children are too selfish to take others wants and needs into account and they act to maximize rewards. Children know that rewards are given when they act in a positive way so they act to avoid punishment. The second stage is the Morality of Constraint. This occurs between the ages of six to ten and it’s illustrated when the child believes that what determines whether an action is good or bad is the consequence of the action and not the motive behind it. They believe that rules are made by people that have authority and that following the rules means being right. Children in this age group also tend to obey rules because they are unchangeable and important. The overall lesson of this stage is that morals are absolute. The last stage of this development is the Morality of Cooperation. Morality of Cooperation also known as Heteronomous Morality Stage and Autonomous Morality Stage is seen in children after the age of ten and it’s all about understanding rules and respect. Understanding that rules can be unreasonable agreements that can be changed and that rules can be

The 3 year old preschooler goes through the Piaget’s preoperational stage by starting with pretend play and using symbols to relate his or her message towards the people around. Since they are just starting to talk and express themselves, egocentricism is starting to take place, but that is not necessarily a problem. Their needs come first because they don’t understand that other people have a different point of view. One example would be: if one person is watching television, a 3 year old would stand in front of that person not realize that he or she is blocking the view of the

     Early childhood is often characterized by endless make-believe and sociodramatic play which indicates the development of mental representation. Sociodramtic play differs from simple make-believe play in that it involves play with peers. This stage of play is often referred to as the Preoperational Stage. This is the stage immediately after Piaget's Sensorimotor Stage. The Preoperational Stage spans from two to about five or six years of age. At this stage, according to Piaget, children acquire skills in the area of mental imagery, and especially language. They are very self-oriented, and have an egocentric view; that is, preoperational children can use these representational skills only to

Jean Piaget is one of the pioneers to child development, he was an important factor in the growth, development and one of the most exciting research theorists in child development. A major force in child psychology, he studied both thought processes and how they change with age. He believed that children think in fundamentally different ways from adults.. Piaget’s belief is that all species inherit the basic tendency to organize their lives and adapt to the world that’s around them, no matter the age. Children develop schemas as a general way of thinking or interacting with ideas and objects in the environment. Children create and develop new schemas as they grow and experience new things. Piaget has identified four major stages of cognitive development which are: sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operations, and formal operations. According to the text here are brief descriptions of each of Piaget’s stages:

In order to support children’s growth educators try to provide a stimulating classroom environment. They implement different strategies, tools and practices to help achieve this goal. Since educators play an important role in children’s development they should be familiar with developmental psychology and know of its educational implications in the classroom. There are two major approaches of developmental psychology: (1) Cognitive development as it relates to Piaget and (2) social development as it relates to Vygotsky. An educator may find it useful to study Piaget’s theory of cognitive development to help children build on their own knowledge.

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development Very briefly describe Piaget’s stages of cognitive development and explain what he meant by saying that young children are egocentric. Use experimental evidence to consider this claim. Cognitive development is what psychologists talk about when discussing a child’s intellectual growth. Jean Piaget (1896 to 1980), a Swiss psychologist developed a theory of cognitive development, which is still much discussed and critiqued today. Providing a firm building block to all work done in the study of child development and the concept that young children are egocentric.

Evaluating the need to be incorporated in Preschool classroom and programs, it remains fundamental to consider that in the very real sense, children at this age remain to be much of explorers facing a future in many unfamiliar territories. As the educationists and the caregivers, it is thus central that we do everything necessary in getting the children ready for such great adventure that lies ahead. In this fundamental is the creation of an environment within which the children will feel safe and secure, effectively engage and connect the learning with past experiences and the present interests and beget opportunities to engage in active play and explore. Of attention, these must be achieved from the organization of the materials and equipment necessary in sparking their interest. Paying attention to Piaget’s stage theory the children would thrive with abilities to experiment, try out things on their own, and draw conclusions on their own. Outlined in this project is a preschool classroom plan that pays attention to such outlines in Piaget’s state theory.