Jean Piaget: The Four Stages Of Cognitive Development

The four stages of cognitive development, according to researcher Jean Piaget include, the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operations stage, and the formal operations stage. Each of these stages contributes to an exceptional amount of advancements in a child’s cognitive development throughout their lives. To differentiate the thinking patterns between a three year old and a nine year old, one must first know which stage to put each child in, and from there, analyze the development of those certain stages. As reported by Piaget’s theory, a three-year-old preschooler would correlate within the preoperational stage, while a nine-year-old student would correlate within the concrete operations stage of cognitive development. The length of time a child is in the preoperational stage is while the child is between the ages of two and seven. During this time a preschooler would’ve began to develop a sense of language and its concepts. Children these ages use the process of assimilation and accommodation to understand, form, and re-evaluate schemes. This process is commonly used, as the children are now able to roam more freely and ask questions about themselves and their environment. However, preoperational children are not yet capable of logical thinking or rational sense. Animism, for

While a preoperational stage is a time of animism and centration, the concrete stage is a time of more in depth cognition management and skepticism for children and students. Transitioning from the preoperational stage into the concrete stage enabled me to see early signs of development and how it slowly evolves into more complex and logical understanding, as I can now more accurately predict how certain stages of ones life allows them to act differently in a