Psychology is a very interesting subject. We learn how we behave in a certain situation, how our thinking ability develops over time, how a child starts thinking about a thing or how the thinking ability of a child develops over time, and many more things. Everyone is curious to know about the fact that how a child grows and develops. Many scholars have given theories on the cognitive development of children. In this blog, we will learn about one of the significant theories of cognitive development “Piaget’s Stages of Development.” It is a very important concept in Psychology Homework Help and every student should learn it.
The theory of cognitive development propounded by Jean Piaget describes how children develop a mental model of the world. According to him, cognitive development is a process that occurs because of the interaction with the environment as well as biological maturation. In his theory of cognitive development, he has suggested that a child moves through four stages of cognitive development. This theory focuses on understanding how children learn and acquire skills and knowledge along with understanding the nature of intelligence. Jean Piaget has suggested the following four stages of cognitive development.
Stages of the cognitive development
Table of Contents
- Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years): In this stage, children learn and acquire skills and knowledge through manipulating objects as well as sensory experiences. The entire experiences of a child occur through basic senses, reflexes, as well as motor responses. This stage is characterized as dramatic learning and growth. It means children learn a lot of skills and acquire significant knowledge in this stage. Children make new discoveries as they interact with their environment. Children learn to perform physical actions such as crawling and walking in a relatively short span of time.
- Preoperational Stage (2 to 7 years): The emergence of language is one of the key hallmarks of this stage, however, the foundation of language development may have been laid during the sensorimotor stage. Children learn through imaginary play in this stage but they struggle with logic. It is very tough for children to understand the idea of constancy. They start thinking symbolically and learn to use a picture as well as words in order to represent objects. Children tend to be egocentric and hence they could not see things from others’ perspectives.
- Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years): In this stage, children start thinking logically about real events. In this stage, egocentrism starts disappearing because children start seeing things from the perspective of others. They also start using reasoning from specific information to a general principle. They become more organized as well as logical. However, they are still very concrete even in this stage. In this stage, children also learn that their thoughts and ideas are unique to them.
- Formal Operational Stage (12 years and above): This is the final stage of Piaget’s cognitive development. This stage involves the ability to use deductive reasoning, increase in logic, as well as an understanding of intellectual ideas. In this stage, individuals start identifying alternative solutions to a given problem. They also think more scientifically about the physical environment around them. The key hallmark of this stage is the ability to think about intellectual ideas as well as situations. People gain critical abilities in this stage such as making a systematic plan for the future. The emergence of intellectual thoughts in people is the characteristic of this stage. People in this stage, start thinking about social, ethical, philosophical, moral, as well as political issues and develop solutions to these problems.
Factors influencing learning and growth of children
There are several factors that have a significant impact on the learning and growth of children. These factors have been discussed here to give you an idea that how they influence how children learn and grow. You can even ask to Do my Psychology Homework to get a full-fledge solution to your assignment.
Schemas
Schemas explain both physical as well as mental actions involved in understanding a given thing or situation. It is a category of knowledge that helps people to understand as well as interpret the world. According to Piaget, schemas include both a category of knowledge as well as the process of acquiring that knowledge. For example, if a child has a schema about an animal (dog) and his/her sole experience has been with a small dog. He/she may believe that all dogs are small and have four legs.
Assimilation
Assimilation can be defined as the process of taking in new information into the existing schemas. As people tend to modify information and experience in order to fit with the pre-existing belief, it is considered somewhat objectives.
Accommodation
Accommodation is the process of altering or changing the existing schemas in light of new information. This process involves altering or modifying existing ideas or schemas due to new information or experience. It is also important to consider that during this process, a new schema might develop.
Equilibration
According to Jean Piaget, all individuals try to make a balance between accommodation and assimilation, that could be achieved through a mechanism of equilibration. It is essential to maintain a balance between assimilation or applying the previous knowledge and accommodation (changing behavior due to new information, as children progress through the stages of development. The concept of equilibration also helps in understanding how a child can move from one stage of thought to the next stage.
Conclusion
This blog might have helped you learning stages of cognitive development as well as factors affecting the learning and growth of children. You might be able to draft your assignment based on these stages of cognitive development. However, writing a psychology assignment is a hectic task because it is an applied subject in which you need to focus on a different concept of psychology along with the real situation. We are here to help you out by providing you professional solutions to your assignment. Just ask us to Do my Assignment for me Cheap, and the expert will provide you with a unique solution.