Swiss biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) constructed an important model of child development and learning. He believed that the developing child builds cognitive structures or mental maps/schemes; networked concepts for understanding and responding to physical experiences within his or her environment. He further believed that a child's cognitive structure increases in sophistication with development, progressing from mere reflexes such as crying and sucking to highly complex mental activities.
1. Sensorimotor stage= Birth-2 years old
The child, through physical interaction with his or her environment, builds a set of concepts about reality and how it works. This is the stage where the child does not know that physical objects remain in existence even when out of sight. This is object permanence.
2. Preoperational stage (ages 2-7)
The child is not yet able to conceptualize abstractly and needs concrete physical situations.
3. Concrete operations (ages 7-11)
As physical experience accumulates, the child starts to explain his or her physical experiences. Abstarct problem solving is also possible at this stage.
4. Formal operations (Ages 11-15)
By this point, the child's cognitive structures are like those of an adult and include conceptual reaosning.
I think that his research is super cool, and so much more reasonable for his time. He didn't run horrible tests on his children or anything! Hurray!
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