Outline the main similarities and differences between Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s explanations for cognitive development in children

Piagetian theory essentially views development in four fairly rigid stages, that although they shed a great deal of light on child development, do not allow for an understanding of child development as being enhanced by social and cultural factors as was shown by Vygotsky in his 'social cultural theory of child development '. They do not contribute to our informed interaction with children, particularly with regard to education, where Voygotsky 's ideas have been seminally valuable. In Thinking and Speech, Vygotsky, postulates that in Piaget 's stages of development, each stage merely presents itself after the previous stage has run its course, it does not stem from it. (1982, p. 110) The four universal developmental stages of Piagetian theory are as follows: The 'sensorymotor ' stage which occurs between the ages of 1 and 2 years old. This is the period during which Piaget identified the child developing a general schema for movement and sensation. This is followed by the 'preoperational ' stage from 2-7 years where the child in his opinion has an inadequate ability to turn thought into action. The child is seen as Egocentric as is demonstrated in the 'three mountains ' test, where three differently decorated, sculpted mountains are placed before the child and she is asked to demonstrate an understanding of how the view might look from the perspective of another; she is unable to do so. (Martin et al. 2009 p. p63). This struggle continues into