Middle Childhood: Piaget Theory of Cognitive Development

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Piaget’s theory of cognitive development changed the way psychologists and educators view children’s intellectual development. However, with the widespread acceptance of Piaget’s insight and theory has also came with research that modifies and refines his contribution. According to Piaget there are four major stages of development (Day, Mary.) Today I am going to discuss one of the four stages that is known as the Concrete Operational Stage. There is no better device for demonstrating the school-aged child’s capacity for distinguishing between appearance and reality than Piaget’s classic conservation tasks. By age 6, most children have begun to show some signs of the concrete operational stage, which is Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development, during which children construct schemes that enable them to think logically about objects and events in the real world. And the children can quickly figure out that a lump of clay has the same mass no matter how its appearance is changed. Thus, this stage is devoted to the construction of schemes that enable children to think logically about objects and events in the world.
How much insight does a school-aged child really have into her own personality? The answer depends on whether we look at the child at the beginning of this period or near the end of it. Across the years from 6-12, children’s understanding of themselves improves quite a bit. By the end of the middle childhood period, children’s self-concepts include new components, a psychological self and valued self. The psychological self is a person’s understanding of his or her enduring psychological characteristics. It first appears during the transition from early to middle childhood, and becomes increasing comple...

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...hildren’s understanding of friendship. He found that if you ask preschoolers and young school-aged children how people make friends, the answer is usually play together, or spend time physically near each other, In later years of middle childhood, around age 10, this view of friendship gives ways to one in which the key concept seems to be reciprocal trust. Also gender segregation is at its peak during this period and appears in every culture. Friendship becomes more common and enduring with specific between boys and girls.

Works Cited

Day, Mary . "Thinking of Piaget's stage of formal operation ." ascd . N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.

Gifford Smith , Mary. "Journal of School Psychology." Childhood peer relationships, social acceptance, friendships and pee networks. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. .

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