Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

In accordance with Piaget’s theory, the stage of preoperational falls under the second category in regards to the four stages. It is therefore important to note that this stage usually starts at the age of two years and above, that is around seven years before the other stage can begin. This is a critical stage since it is also the same time that most of the children start to learn and develop thinking capacity that is only considered to be at a symbolic level (Marková, 2017). However, as much as they are considered to be thinking, it is important to be aware of the fact that they are not yet capable of using cognitive operations. At this second stage, Piaget described it as a stage where children think before operations or after an activity has taken place. Due to this fact, Piaget was able to prove that this is the main reason why children are unable of using logic ideas or even separate their ideas (Marková, 2017)

According to Piaget, it is important to expand the children’s learning by providing opportunities for exploring and questioning their thoughts. The Piaget’s theory connects with the Lev Vygotsky’s philosophy of pushing children to have more hand to hand interactions. This should be taken into account when attempting to prepare an individual planning and evaluation of practitioners looking into the children as individuals with activities customized to their own taste. The ecological systems theory by Urie Bronfenbrenner influences how clinicians and environments need to organize and plan activities for children to progress (Leung & Shek, 2020).

He acknowledges the significance of adapting to the environments to provide people with vital areas and do it in different ways to cater to varying learning types. To encourage positive behavior or improve learning, such as using reward.  Since a child is born, they are involved in informal socialization as an aspect of daily learning. They engage in informal socialization with the people they know especially the ones they form relations with. It is facilitated through playing with other children as well as learning from others as they exchange thougts and develop their views (Leung & Shek, 2020). They imitate the adults and children around them and end up forming their minds for future associations. Organized nteraction is practiced in school settings when the chil gets to a school going age. This way, children get to learn in an organized manner and are supervised by the people around them. The interaction is organized because the adults around them are trained to develop children through psychological means.

In school, the children are encouraged to play with their peers in organized games that offer chances to learn new skills and views. The games offer all facets of development; emotional abilities, language, imagination and analytical skills. The teachers are encouraged to keep their evidence-based practices up to date and be on the lookout for any new developments. They keep track of these developments through holidy training sessions and networking events. Since children in the preparational stage of cognitive development, they think at a symbolic level and are not yet using cognitive operations (Leung & Shek, 2020). Therefore, the people around them need to learn the appropriate symbols to use to help the children learn. Placing them in an environment sorounded by teachers trained in psychology presents them with an opportunity to learn faster and develop cognitive skills by the time they get to the third stage of Piaget’s theory. After the age of 7, the children’s view is no longer egocentric and they can see the other people’s point of view.

References

Kornilov, S. A. (2015). Commentary-child and adolescent development in the focus of emerging developmental science. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2015(147), 117-121. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20079

Leung, J. T., & Shek, D. T. (2020). Theories of adolescent development: Overview. The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119171492.wecad305