Piaget Developmental Theory

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Piaget’s theory of cognitive development states that the way we think changes all throughout our life as we grow older and our brain develops. Additionally, our progression of thinking changes as we gain more experiences and knowledge. Piaget split up his research into age groups to roughly estimate the mental processes of children; sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years old), preoperational stage (2-7 years old), concrete operational stage (7-11 years old), formal operational stage (adolescence-adulthood), and abstract reasoning stage (adulthood). During the preoperational stage, children are starting to weave their beginnings of language development with how they view the world. Their vocabulary rises dramatically as they learn to communicate with others and give words to their own feelings. Also, children tend to only think about themselves at this time period because they are not yet aware that others are different from them. What emerges is the beginning of sense of self. Further, the child is beginning to understand the concept of past and future, whereas before …show more content…

In each episode, Dora and her friends go on a journey, learn new words, and stop the villainous Swiper. Dora connects with the preoperational stage as the child is becoming aware that they are moving towards the future, or an end goal, rather than only being aware of the present. Additionally, Dora teaches words in Spanish and English, which points to the fact that this is a sensitive period for children to learn new vocabulary. Finally, Dora views her friends as different from her and helps Diego and Boots talk about their feelings, showing empathy. Children in the preoperational stage are just beginning to understand that others do not have the same desires and thoughts as they do. Thus, Dora the Explorer correlates this important stage in Piaget’s theory with the details in each

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