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Piaget's Theory In Relation To Social Work

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Piaget’s Theory in Relation to Social Work
I have been working in the behavioral health field for three years. Understanding the way children think is key to building the necessary steps to stop certain behaviors. Piaget’s theory explains how children’s thought process increases overtime. There are four stages that children go through and they go for each child. Thinking starts off as simple and then gets more complex as children get older. This relates to social work in many different ways.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Piaget insisted there are various learning stages from birth to adulthood (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). Piaget studied his own children’s cognitive development (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, …show more content…

H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). Sensorimotor period starts at birth and ends at two years of age (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). Babies go from simple reactions to understanding the environment (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). Babies learn about their senses. They learn that the same object can give off different sensations and they understand that they can see and hear their parents at the same time (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). During this period, they learn about object permanence; which is, understanding when an object is out of sight it is still there (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). This takes us to the next stage, preoperational thought period (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). This stage starts at two and ends at seven (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). Language is used for thought when objects are unseen (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). The inability to see different points of view is called egocentrism which is displayed during this stage (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). Focusing on one detail of a certain object and ignoring the rest is called centration (Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K., 2016). The inability to reverse the order of directives is called irreversibility (Zastrow, C. H., & …show more content…

It is necessary to know what kinds of information children’s brains can handle. When we know how they process information, we can then teach them in a way that they can comprehend. When it came to the Hernandez family, the parents did not understand why their children would not listen (Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., Brocksen S. (Eds.)., 2014). The parents needed to see a counselor due to child abuse allegations (Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., Brocksen S. (Eds.)., 2014).

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