Jean Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development Essay -- childs intelle

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development Very briefly describe Piaget’s stages of cognitive development and explain what he meant by saying that young children are egocentric. Use experimental evidence to consider this claim. Cognitive development is what psychologists talk about when discussing a child’s intellectual growth. Jean Piaget (1896 to 1980), a Swiss psychologist developed a theory of cognitive development, which is still much discussed and critiqued today. Providing a firm building block to all work done in the study of child development and the concept that young children are egocentric. Piaget’s stages are divided into four main steps of cognitive development. Stage one begins at birth and is completed at approximately two years; this is called the period of sensorimotor intelligence. Second stage builds on from the first at the age of about two years, the preoperational period lasts for five years of the child’s life. From that the child moves into the Concrete Operations stage, a stage which lasts to the age of eleven. Finally a child will reach the fourth stage the period of Formal operations aged eleven plus. Piagets first stage of intellectual growth, the Sensimotor period can be split into another six parts, each part can be tested by use of simple experiments with babies. Object Permanence is understanding that something any object is there weither or not the person can see it. For example when we put an object such as a cup down on a table and turn our back to it, it is rational to state that the cup will still be exactly where it was left. Piaget’s theory stated that babies within the Sensimotor pe... ...e of formal operations the person is now able to think hypothetically In conclusion Piagets theory of cognitive development is backed up with the experimental evidence given from experiments run with infants and children. From birth to the stage of concrete operations the child is termed egocentric. What Piaget meant by calling young children egocentrics was that they are not selfish but have not yet attained the ability to see things from another perspective. Bibilography Gleitamn,H.,Fridlund, A.J.,& Reisburg, D. (1999) Psychology, (5th ed.). New York: W.W.Norton & Co. Ginsburg,H.P.,Opper,S.(1988) Piagets Theory of intellectual development,(3rd ed.). London:Prentice Hall International (UK). Glover, J.A.,et.al.(1949).Educational psychology Principles and Applications. Boston: Little Brown and Company.