The Stages Of Development For Children

Piaget suggests that development in children occurs in four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational.

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

I handed my infant niece, Harper, a set of keys, thinking she would shake them and giggle at the noise they made. I thought this because in Piaget’s developmental stage, sensorimotor, it states that infants learn from experimenting and their main focus is what is happening in that very moment. My prediction was correct. As soon as I held the keys in front of her she began to reach for them. Then once I handed the keys to her, she rattled them making a clanging noise.

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.

| 0-3 Months: * Tries to lift head. * Begins to hold objects when placed in hand.3-9 Months: * Establishes head control * Begins to sit with support from about 6 months un-supported.9-18 Months: * Is now very mobile e.g. crawls, bottom-shuffles, cruises, walks.18 Months - 2 Years: * Walks well and tries to run but has difficulty stopping.2-3 Years: * Kicks a ball, learns to jump and may learn to somersault.

The first being the sensorimotor stage during which the infant child learns about the world around him/her by using their senses to make sense of their environment. Towards the end of this discrete stage the child begins to understand that things are represented by symbols, for example, mummy, dog and ball. The next stage of development as described by Piaget is the Pre-Operational stage when a child comes to understand that written words can be used in order to communicate information about the world around

In Piaget's first stage of development, the sensorimotor period, which occurs from birth until the age of two, deals with infants discovering the world through their five senses; the infants learn also through applying their motor skills and polishing them. They can also only distinguish things that are present--which are able to be seen, touched, or heard--and ends when the infant can create mental representations in their minds of those objects.

Evidence based approach at my work setting has shown that children who have attended nursery’s during their early years have developed more social skills as well as behavioural skills and cognitive skills as these have been developed through their early years at

“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).

At this stage the child is developing more socially, is able to understand feelings and has real friends. Physically they are high in energy, from running around to riding in the tricycle. All children develop differently, but at this age there are certain skills that are crucial for the child’s intellect and self regard.

Jean Piaget Believed in Cognitive Development. “ Cognitive development is the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood” (Cognitive). He came up with four stages to his theory, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Children between the ages of 0-3 years go through the Sensorimotor and the preoperational stages of development. The other stages do not impact a child’s development until the age of elementary to adolescence and into adulthood.

Jean Piaget, a cognitivist, believed children progressed through a series of four key stages of cognitive development. These four major stages, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational, are marked by shifts in how people understand the world. Although the stages correspond with an approximate age, Piaget’s stages are flexible in that as long as the child is ready they are able to reach a stage. In kindergarten, many of the stages of both sensorimotor and preoperational stage were easy to find. For instance, the teacher allowed the students to have a couple minutes of free time. Many of the students chose to go to the tree house play area and began playing house. This is an example of the sensorimotor stage

The stage of development this paper chooses to focus on is preschool age children. This paper will discuss in-depth the stage of "preschool age," characteristics and milestones of development for preschool age children, three appropriate activities that aid in development for preschool age children, and why these activities are important to enhancing a preschool child's development.

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.

A Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget, believed that there were four stages of cognitive development. The first stage is the Sensorimotor stage, this last from birth to around 2 years of age. This stage is where infants coordinate their sensory experiences to their motor actions. At the beginning of