Jean Piaget And Lev Vygotsky's Four Stages Of Cognitive Development

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This essay will discuss normal cognitive development; the essay will do this by showing two psychologists’, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, perspectives on what constitutes normal development; in its discussion it will show how their theories resemble and disagree with one another in relation to normal development. Additionally, it will discuss what is meant by both atypical and abnormal development and who has decided what normal development entails. In addition, the essay hopes to examine the problematic issues underpinning the idea of ‘normal’ development. Normal development is contemporary society’s preconceived notions on the time period in which both physical and mental milestones should occur in each developmental stage of a person's …show more content…

The Centre for Disease Control, warns parents to watch their children for abnormal development, instructing them to watch for key milestones to “Learn the signs” and “act early” ("Milestones 2 months", 2016). However, whilst this is an attempt by the CDC to help parents, this highly negative view on abnormal development and the emphasis on “milestones” that must be reached by a certain age could convince parents that their child is unhealthy or mentally stunted if they are simply unique in their development; this approach by the scientific community to atypical development can in my opinion be directly linked to Piaget’s theories on ‘normal development’. In conclusion, normal development is very difficult to define and so those that theorize about it often do not have similar theories on the same subject matter. Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky were two of the most influential researchers on the subject of cognitive development and although their theories were opposed in many ways, they both have had a profound impact on the view cognitive development both typical and atypical in the modern

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