A Theory of Cognitive Development
A theory is defined as self-existent logic used to describe related scientific or social events. Generally, hypotheses are created or validated by evidence gained from experiments. Piaget's cognitive development stage hypothesis divides cognitive development into four distinct phases in growing children. Piaget developed a model that describes how the mind processes new information after studying his own children and the process they went through as they made sense of their surroundings. He claims that all children progress through the four defined stages in a similar order. According to the theory, children have been shown to take active roles in the process of learning by acting like scientists do as they conduct experiments, observe and learn concerning their surroundings. As children interact with their world, they continue adding new knowledge, build on the knowledge they already have and ensure adaptation of the ideas they previously had so as they accommodate incoming information. As per the theory, intelligence grows and develops following a series of phases, and it is important to recognize that children think differently from adults, which does not denote that they are less intelligent (Cherry, 2017).
The Sensorimotor Stage
During the initial stage referred to as sensorimotor, a child interacts with the environment to build an understanding of self and reality. After birth, an infant is not able to distinguish itself from the environment. However, as time goes on, he or she stops being immersed in the environment and starts perceiving self differently. For example, at the age of 4-9 months, I could see my nephew biting his thumb, and because biting hurts, he cried due to pain. However when he bit his rattle, he did not cry as it did not hurt him. By repeatedly interacting with the environment in this manner, my nephew learned that there is a difference between the environment he was in and self. This stage is called sensorimotor because a child is only capable of contacting with the environment through his or her sensory and motor abilities. In this phase of life, a child is only mindful of what is presented to them, which makes them to only concentrate on what they see and their activities, and their interactions physically with the environment that is immediate. A child initially does not comprehend the reactions of things, which is the reason why they persistently experiment with activities like throwing things, and they learn about their environments via trial and blunders. In the late period of this phase, the kids perceive that things still exist even when one withdraws them from their view. For example, when my nephew was aged 7 to 9 months, he could go on looking for a toy even when it was removed from his site. This is a very significant milestone that is referred as object permanence as it signifies that the child is developing memory. Immediately after my nephew started crawling, he stood and was walking after some time. During this time due to his increased movement physically, there was evidence of increased development in the manner in which he developed cognition. As he neared the completion of his two years, he reached another essential milestone when he started developing language, which showed that he was developing symbolic capabilities.
The Preoperational Stage
The second developmental stage in children according to Piaget is referred to as preoperational that is characterized by children beginning to think metaphorically, and learn using pictures and words for the purposes of objects representation. The children become egocentric as they struggle to view things from other people's angle. As they get better with thinking as well as language, they are more inclined into thinking regarding things in terms that are more concrete. Watching my nephew through these developmental stages was very fascinating especially in the understanding of the concepts by Piaget. When he was around three years, he kept on saying that the sun was following him as he walked. However, when I asked him whether the moon would follow him or his sister when the two were going in different ways, he got confused because he had never considered a possibility like that one. This was a clear indication that his perspective did not yet entail the awareness that other people experience things differently than he did, which means that he did not know that there were other different perceptions. He was not yet at a position to take the perspective of others. It is important to note that although language might have been founded in the first stage, its emergence is among the hallmarks of the second stage. Although the children during this time learn via pretend games, they struggle with reason and are not able to take the viewpoint of others. This stage lasts between 2 and 7 years, and children are yet not capable of conceptualizing abstractly, which make them need physical situations that are concrete. This is the reason why they classify or talk about objects simply based on important evident features.
The Concrete Operational Stage
The third stage is referred as concrete operational, which is characterized by the beginning of children to reason logically regarding events that are concrete. The children start understanding conversation concept. In addition, they think logically in an organized manner, and start utilizing logic that is inductive or begin reasoning from particular information to principles that are generalized. In this phase, children start operating like adults in terms of their thought processes. This is this stage, which is thought to continue until one becomes a teenager. For example, when I was between 7 and 11 years, I remember that I was in a position to tell that the amount of water in a short, but wide container was equal to the water in a tall, but slender glass. I could also distinguish my thoughts from those of others. For example, I would think of what I wanted my mother to prepare for lunch, but would respect her decision because I knew she was final. I therefore grew up knowing that not everything that I thought would go my way as others also have opinions. This means that the egocentrism I had in the preceding phase had disappeared as I became better at thinking concerning the manner in which other individuals might see a situation. It is thus clear that children at this period start understanding that they have unique thoughts and not all people necessarily theirs in their opinions, feelings and thoughts (Piaget, 1976). During this phase of life, children have increased skills to classify things based on weight, mass and number (Ojose, 2008). For example, I was able to count the number of eggs in the kitchen.
The Formal Operational Stage
Formal operational is the last phase of cognitive development as per Piaget, which is characterized by abstract thinking by the youths, who also reason regarding problems that are hypothetical. They state thinking concerning philosophical, ethical, social, moral and political problems that ask for abstract or theoretical thinking. They also employ logic that is deductive or think from a principle that is general towards specific information. This stage starts from the age of 12 years upwards. For example, it was when I was about the age of thirteen when I started regarding issues that relate to the society, especially the people I chose to be my friends, the cloths I put and generally, started finding out what is expected of me in the society. by this time, no child needs concrete object so as to make rational judgments as the ability for abstract thinking equates that of an adult. Before committing to doing something, I would first think the effect it will have. Although according to Piaget intellectual development should be lifelong, cognitive development ends during this phase, but for one to develop intellectually, knowledge has to accumulate. The principles of the theory of cognitive development have been integrated into the education curriculum by various activities that teachers engage learners in. Children are introduced to objects and basically use examples or experiments with those objects to realize learning. Teachers improve on the kind of exercises they present their ideas in as children grow. For example, when in my initial grades, the mathematics teacher used real tangible objects to teach addition, subtractions, multiplications and divisions, and this strategy was very effective for almost every learner.
References
Cherry, K. (2017). Piaget’s Theory: The 4 Stages of Cognitive Development. Retrieved online on 5th October, 2017 from https://www.verywell.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457
Ojose, B. (2008). Applying Piaget’s theory of cognitive development to mathematics instruction. The Mathematics Educator, 18(1).
Piaget, J. (1976). Piaget’s theory. In Piaget and his school (pp. 11-23). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
