Jean Piaget s Theory Of Cognitive Development - 1444 Words

The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is considered one of the 20th Century’s most influential naturalistic researchers in clinical psychology and child development. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is based in the belief that childhood plays a vital and crucial role in later development to an adult. Piaget became particularly interested in children and their development while working at Binet’s IQ laboratory in Paris (1921). (Presnell, 1999) During that time he started to study children and the way they reason. He wanted to understand how we, as humans, come to know what we know. (McLeod, 2009) Piaget’s theory breaks down children’s learning into four main stages. 1.Sensorimotor stage (infancy ages birth to 2†¦show more content†¦The baby first develops ‘reflex acts’ (the first month of life) where the baby learns actions like sucking. In the beginning of my life I had things to suck on, such as my mother’s breasts, bottles and pacifiers. A baby then will move on to ‘primary circular reactions’ (one to four months old) when the baby demonstrates that it has control over it hands and legs. The baby will kick out her legs and find enjoyment in that action because she did it voluntarily. The ‘secondary circular reactions’ (four to eight months old) are the type of reactions we see when a baby holds an object, such as a rattle, he or she shakes the rattle to hear the sound and thus providing pleasure as the baby makes the noise him or herself. The next part of the development of the baby is the ‘co-ordinating secondary schemes’ (eight to twelve months old) which is when the b aby not only shakes the rattle, but also will reach out to take the rattle because that is what the baby wants. The baby is making a connection with the rattle on the table that it wants, grabbing it and shaking it to produce a sound. The baby begins to explore the environment and starts to mimic behaviour of other individuals. The next part of development in this stage is ‘tertiary circular reaction’ (twelve to eighteen months). Here the baby starts to put things together for example making the cup tower instead of just knocking it down. The final development in this