The Development Of The Cognition

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.

I performed an experiment on two little boys similar to the one we were required to watch on youtube, demonstrating the concept of conservation. Both boys are different ages and at different cognitive stages.

His studies showed that at any stage of life, thinking skills of individuals are similar.” (pg.142) The first stage of Piaget’s theory is based on infancy years. This stage is the sensorimotor stage. This age range is from birth to two years of age. In this stage, infants begin to learn about their surroundings and the world by using their senses. At the beginning, they rely on their reflexes to learn, but then use more purposeful movement to enhance their learning. The second stage is the preoperational stage. This age range is from two years to seven years of age. In this stage, toddlers and younger children begin to communicate by using language. They need to be given hands-on experiences and imaginative play. These are key for a child’s development. The third stage is the concrete operational stage. This age range for this stage is from seven years to eleven years of age. When children are at this stage they are beginning to think logically about things. They are beginning to make generalizations, classify different objects, and are suggesting solutions to their own problems or their peers’ problems. The final stage is the formal stage. This age range is from 11 years of age and older. During this stage children and young teenagers are beginning to ask “what if” questions. They are starting to make predictions about certain things. Children that

Children are unable to comprehend the difference between reality and what the child believes. According to Piaget cognitive development between the ages of 2-6 is called preoperational. Logical reasoning is not prevalent during this age frame. (Berger, 2011, pg. 237) Piaget described the thinking characteristics of children ages 2-6 as centric: two of the four contraction characteristics specifically apply to intent and they are egocentrism and static reasoning (Berger, 2011, pg. 238). Six year olds are egocentric or self-centered, which means the child can only view the world from his own perspective, and the use of static reasoning means the child believes that the world remains the same as long as he is not watching. Vygotsky discovered that children are "apprentices in thinking" (Berger, 2011, pg. 240).

The second stage of development throughout piaget’s stages, is the pre-operations stage. Children from the ages of 2 – 7 years of age go through this stage. During this stage, children's cerebration processes are developing, although they are still considered to be far from 'logical thought'. The vocabulary of a child is additionally expanded and developed during this stage, as they transmute from babies and toddlers into 'little people'. During the pre-operational stage of a child’s development, they are not able to consider things from their own point of view, and imagine that everyone shares this view with them, meaning they are ‘ego centric’. Progressively during this stage, an evident amount of 'decentering' occurs. This is when someone

Bjorklund, D. F., & Causey, K. B. (2017). Children's thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences. SAGE Publications.

At the age of 4-7 the child reaches the, ?Intuitive?, stage, at this stage the child has some concept of differences i.e. the child can distinguish between the size and colour of different coloured bricks. However the child is still what Piaget called, ?Egocentric?, unable to see things from another?s point of view.

Piaget identified four stages of cognitive development from infancy to adulthood. During the sensorimotor stage (birth to two years), an infant experiences the world in terms of sensory information and motor activities. In the preoperational stage (two to seven years), children can think in mental images, but they sometimes think in ways that are illogical by adult standards. The concrete operational stage (seven to eleven years) is marked by increased ability to reason logically, except for abstract reasoning. In the formal operational stage (eleven years on), an individual uses full adult logic and understands abstract concepts.

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 sensorimotor stage the child discovers the environment through physical actions such as sucking, grabbing, shaking and pushing. During these first two years of life children realize objects still exist, even if it is out of view. This concept is known as object permanence. Children in the preoperational stage develop language skills, but may only grasp an idea with repeated exposure. As Piaget describes in the next stage, children draw on knowledge that is based on real life situations to provide more logical explanations and predictions. Lastly, in the formal operational stage children use higher levels of thinking and present abstract ideas.

The process of ordinary cognitive development has often been viewed as an independent, isolated progress due to inherent, individual, and identically produced growth. However, in current literature, there has been a growing consensus that socioeconomic status, and its subsequent resources, cannot be abstracted from the process or success of cognitive development.

The second domain that describes children in middle childhood is cognitive development. Unlike physical characteristics, cognitive development emphasizes on mental development of children. Cognitive development consists of information processing and language (Santrock, 2008). In the aspect of information processing, developments of memory, thinking and metacognition are experienced by children in middle childhood (Santrock, 2008). According to Papalia et al. (2009), the efficiency of working memory of children during this stage improves substantially. This means that they are able to make calculation, organize information into groups, and repeat and reverse at 5 or more numbers that they heard. Besides, children in middle childhood are able to think critically, deeply, and think in different dimension of the task during middle and late childhood (Eccles, 1999). According to the concrete operational stage in Jean Piaget’s theory, operational thinking of children in middle childhood includes four aspects which are logic, decentration,

Piaget claims that before the beginning of this stage, children 's ideas about different objects, are formed and dominated by the appearance of the object. For example, there appears to be more blocks when they are spread out, than when they are in a small pile. During the Concrete Operational Stage, children gradually develop the ability to 'conserve ', or learn that objects are not always the way that they appear to be. This occurs when children are able to take in many different aspects of an object, simply through looking at it. Children are able to begin to imagine different scenarios, or 'what if ' something was to happen. This is because they now have more 'operational ' thought. Children are generally first able to conserve ideas about objects with which they are most comfortable. Once children have learnt to conserve, they learn about 'reversibility '. This means that they learn that if things are changed, they will still be the same as they used to be. For example, they learn that if they spread out the pile of blocks, there are still as many there as before, even though it looks different!

Cognitive development of the brain has been a focus for scientists throughout the twentieth century. Considerable advances have been made in the field of neuropsychology and with the assistance of modern technology such as MRI and brain imaging we are able to understand much more about brain functions. There is still a lot of research to be done to explore the links of cognitive functioning of the cortex. I will discuss localized functioning in the brain as well as the innate modularity versus modularization theory in an attempt to explain how this organisation has been formed and localized from birth.

There are many different things that shape the cognitive development of children. To begin with cognitive development is when a child develops how to process, solve problems, and start making decisions. Once they have learned this they take everything they have learned into their adolescence. An example, of what can shape the cognitive development of a child can be an educational game. Educational games can be very useful in shaping a child’s development because they are having fun while learning at the same time and what kid doesn’t like to play games, the fact that it is even educational makes it even better for them. Not only are they having fun but there are many different games that help in different categories of development in