JEAN PIAGET Cognitive Development CHILD DEVELOPMENT Child development

JEAN PIAGET Cognitive Development

CHILD DEVELOPMENT Child development is an important concept for anyone going into a field of work concerning children Such fields include child life specialists. Piaget was one of the main theorists in child development

Born 9 August 1896, Neuchâtel, Switzerland As a teenager he studied mollusks Later in life he studied child psychology and identified 4 stages in development Died 16 September 1980, Geneva, Switzerland Received multiple awards

He was the oldest sibling His father had a strong dedication to his studies which led to him to be the same way He was fascinated with mollusks by age 10. He would spend hours at the local museum of natural history looking at mollusks Studied zoology at the University of Neuchâtel, Ph. D. in the natural sciences (1918) He spent a semester studying psychology under Carl Jung and Paul Eugen Bleuler at the University of Zürich • where Piaget developed a deeper interest in psychoanalysis The next year, he studied abnormal psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris

In 1920, he worked with Théodore Simon at the Alfred Binet Laboratory in Paris Piaget evaluated the results of standardized reasoning tests that Simon had designed The tests were meant to measure child intelligence and draw connections between a child’s age and the nature of his errors. It ended up raising new questions for Piaget about the way that children learn.

Piaget ultimately decided that the test was too rigid and revised it to allow children to explain the logic of their "incorrect" answers. He realized that children’s power of reasoning was not flawed after all. Where children lacked life experience they used their imagination to come to a logical answer. He also concluded that factual knowledge should not be equaled to intelligence or understanding.

Throughout his career, Piaget also identified four stages of mental development. sensorimotor; preoperational; concrete operational; formal operational

The "sensorimotor stage, " (0 -2 yr) involves learning through motor actions. The "preoperation stage, " (3 -7 yr) children develop intelligence through the use of symbolic language, fantasy play and natural intuition. The "concrete operational stage, " (8– 11 yr) children develop cognitively through the use of logic that is based on concrete evidence. "Formal operations, " (12 -15 yr) children form the ability to think abstractly with more complex understandings of logic and cause and effect.

Piaget is responsible for developing entirely new fields of scientific study, having a major impact on the areas of cognitive theory and developmental psychology

http: //piaget. org/about. Piaget. html