Cognitive development
Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child’s development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult brain and cognitive psychology. Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development:. the sensori – motor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational period
Stages of Cognitive development
| Stage | Activities |
| Sensory-motor (Birth-2 yrs) | Differentiates self from objects Recognizes self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally: e.g. pulls a string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a noise Achieves object permanence: realizes that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the sense |
| Pre-operational (2-7 years) |
Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of color |
| Concrete operational (7-11 years) |
Can think logically about objects and events Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9) Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series along a single dimension such as size. |
| Formal operational (11 years and up) |
Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systematically Becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and ideological problems |
