​Piaget theorized that intellectual development of children occurs in stages. He believed that not only does the amount of thinking change, the way we think changes. We develop more and more complex thought processes in a predictable manner.

​Piaget's stages are:

• ​sensorimotor

• ​preoperational

• ​concrete

• ​formal

​Piaget's beliefs about how a child learns

​Piaget believed that children develop schema (systems for understanding a situation - a pattern).

​Piaget believed that children fit new information into their existing schema (assimilation - like when a child recognizes that an animal is a dog because there is a pet dog at home).

​Piaget believed that children develop new schema for new information (accommodation - this is when the new information doesn't fit any existing schema).

​sensorimotor stage

​This stage begins at birth and goes until about age 2.

​Characteristics include:

• ​Child acts on the environment by making sounds, finding body parts, and knocking down blocks. Many actions are reflexive.

• ​Child reaches for objects he/she sees.

• ​Child cries when parent leaves.

• ​By one year of age, child realizes that objects exist even when they can't see it any more.

​Activities for Sensorimotor Stage

​play with squeaky toys - initially surprises the child but then child learns cause and effect

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​play with rattle

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​play peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake

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​sing and talk to child

​preoperational stage

​This stage lasts from about age 2 to about age 7.

​Characteristics include:

• ​Child uses language.

• ​Child cannot take another point of view (egocentric).

• ​Child thinks all objects are living (animism).

• ​Child thinks all things are created by humans.

• ​Child uses transductive logic, which assumes that objects which share properties are the same (example: birds and airplanes fly, so both are birds).

• ​Child classifies objects by only one trait, usually color (if you ask a child to sort objects, they can only do it by one trait).

​Activities for the Preoperational Stage

​play dress up and pretend

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​play house and school

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​play with toys that change shape like Play-Doh, sand, clay, water

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​play with cut-out or magnetic numbers and letters

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​play with blocks and Legos

​concrete operations stage

​This stage begins at about age 6 and extends until about age 12.

​Characteristics include:

• ​Child masters concept of conservation (objects retain their properties when their shape changes).

• ​Child understands reversibility (operations can go both ways - addition and subtraction).

• ​Child classifies by multiple traits.

• ​Child classifies by larger classes.

• ​Child uses inductive logic (drawing conclusions from specific facts).

​Activities for Concrete Operations Stage

​cook with children - measurement, understanding steps, sequencing, conservation, classifying ingredients, addition, cooperation, time

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​science experiments

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​reading

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​analogies

​formal operations stage

​This stage begins at about age 12 and extends into adulthood.

• ​Characteristics include:

• ​Child thinks abstractly.

• ​Child hypothesizes.

• ​Child uses deductive logic (deriving facts from a generalization).

​Activities for Formal Operations Stage (Adolescents)

​group work to explain and discuss hypothetical situations

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​write a short story

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​explain the steps in solving a problem

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