Development Theory of Jean Piaget

​Piaget's stages are:

• ​sensorimotor

• ​preoperational

• ​concrete

• ​formal

​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).

​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.

​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

​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).

​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

​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).

​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

​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).

​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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