“Stages of Cognitive Development”

Piaget says there are four stages of children cognitive development.

1.Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years), in which a child learns primarily through

their senses and movement.

2. Preoperational Stage (2-6 years), when a child learns to use words and

symbols like numbers.

3. Concrete Operational Stage (6-11 years), when they understand how to

perform mental tasks, like math.

4. Formal Operational Stage (11- adult), when children learn complex and

abstract reasoning.

Schemas

are the basic building blocks of such cognitive models, and enable us to

form a mental representation of the world.

Piaget defined a schema as - “a cohesive, repeatable action sequence

processing component actions that are tightly interconnected and

governed by a core meaning”

A schema can be defined

as a set of linked mental representations of the world, which we use both

to understand and to respond to situations. The assumption is that we

store these mental representations and apply them when needed.

For example: a person might have a schema about buying a meal in a

restaurant. The schema is a stored form of the pattern of behavior which

includes looking at a menu, ordering food, eating it and paying the bill. This

is an example of a type of schema called a 'script.' Whenever they are in a

restaurant, they retrieve this schema from memory and apply it to the

situation. For example, babies have a sucking reflex, which is triggered by

something touching the baby's lips. A baby will suck a nipple, a comforter

(dummy), or a person's finger. Piaget, therefore, assumed that the baby has

a 'sucking schema.'

In simple term the basic building blocks of intelligent behaviour – a way of

organizing knowledge. It is a structured cluster of concepts, it can be used

to represent objects, scenarios or sequences of events or relations. A

schema is the mental framework that is created as children interact with

their physical and social environments, for eg. many 3 years old children

insist that the sun is alive because it comes up in the morning and goes

down at night. According to Piaget, these children are operating based on a

simple cognitive schema that things that move are alive. At this age they

rely on their current cognitive structures to understand the world around

them. Moreover, younger and older children may often interpret and

respond to the same objects and events in very different ways because

cognitive structures take different forms at different ages. Piaget descried

three kinds of intellectual structures-

1) Behavioural or sensorimotor schema

2) Symbolic schema

3) Operational schema.

Behavioural schema is an organized pattern of behaviour that are used to

represent and respond to objects and experiences. Symbolic schema are

internal mental symbols like images or verbal codes that one uses to

represent aspects of experience. Operational schemata are internal mental

activity that one performs on objects of thought. According to Piaget,

children use the process of assimilation and accommodation to create a

schema or mental framework for how they perceive or interpret what they

are experiencing.

Assimilation Which is using an existing schema to deal with a new object

or situation.

Assimilation plays an important role in how we learn about the world

around us. Through assimilation, we take in new information or

experiences and incorporate them into our existing ideas. Assimilation

refers to a part of the adaptation process. In early childhood, children are

constantly assimilating new information and experiences into their existing

knowledge.

Accommodation This happens when the existing schema (knowledge)

does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or

situation. Equilibration This is the force which moves development along.

Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady

rate, but rather in leaps and bounds.

As children encounter new things and interpret these experiences, they

make adjustments to their existing ideas about the world around them.

This happens when the existing schema or knowledge does not work, and

needs to be changed to deal with a new objects or situation is called as

accommodation. For example when a child learns by experience that

‘things exist even if they are not in sight’.

Equilibrium: Equilibrium occurs when a child’s schemas can deal with

most new information through assimilation. However, an unpleasant state

of dis-equilibrium occurs when new information cannot be fitted into

existing schemas. For eg. When a child knows how a dog is and when
he/she experience the same physical traits but sounds different then

disequilibrium occurs, again the process of assimilation of new information

is done and accommodation of knowledge comes into existence that four

legs one tail and ‘mew’ sound it is a ‘Cat’.t the world.

1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 Yrs.): Children experience the world through

movement and their senses. During this stage they are extremely

egocentric, meaning they cannot perceive the world from others

viewpoints.

2. Through senses.

3. The main achievement during this stage is object permanence -

knowing that an object still exists, even if it is hidden. It requires the

ability to form a mental representation (i.e., a schema) of the object.

4. Imitative behaviours.

5. Trial error

6. 2. The Preoperational Stage (2-6 yrs): According to Piaget after the

sensorimotor stage children’s cognitive development enters the

preoperational stage, which extends from the second year of life

through age seven or eight. Here children’s thinking differs most from

adult thought patterns.

7. During this stage, young children can think about things symbolically

communicated. This is the ability to make one thing - a word or an

object - stand for something other than itself. Thinking is still

egocentric, and the infant has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others

8. Piaget said that during the pre-operational stage, children are

egocentric that means they think of everything only as it relates to

them. They can only focus on one characteristic of a thing or a

person at a time. They take the exact meaning of the words gathers

information from what they experience rather than from what they

are told and relate from their experience.

3. Concrete operational stage (6-11yrs):

To think logically. Hypothetical concept.

Children enter stage of concrete operations at about age seven, many

changes in their thought patterns are visible. At this age children

possess the characteristic of reversibility. Which allows them to

reverse the direction of their thought. They are beginning to be able to

think abstractly.

9. 4. The final stage is of Formal operations (11-Adult): This stage

begins around age eleven or twelve and is marked by the ability to

think logically and in hypothetical terms. Child able to understand

everything scientific, logical and abstract thinking.

The formal operational stage begins at approximately age eleven and

lasts into adulthood. During this time, people develop the ability to

think about abstract concepts, and logically test hypotheses. Display

more skills oriented towards problem solving, often in multiple steps.