Early Childhood In Developmental Psychology (Cognitive Development Jean Piaget)

Early childhood is a time of remarkable physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. Infants enter the world with a limited range of skills and abilities. Watching a child develop new motor, cognitive, language and social skills is a source of wonder for parents and caregivers. 

According to Jean Piaget, the understanding thoughts of a child are constructed through a number of channels, which include, listening, reading, experiencing, and exploring the place they live in or the environment they grow up in. The work of Jean Piaget has been labeled as constrictive and interacting. Before the time of Jean Piaget, child psychology was not given that much importance. You can also say that, before the time of Jean Piaget, there was no such thing as child psychology.

Children reason and think differently during different times in their lives. Jean Piaget believed that everyone boy or a girl, pass through an invariant sequence. This sequence comprise of four qualitatively distinct stages divided in the life of the person. Although, all children will pass these stages, but the ages at which they pass or enter these stages is still a variable. The four cognitive stages are:

• Sensorimotor (from birth to two years of age):  A period of time between birth and age two during which an infant's knowledge of the world is limited to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities. Behaviors are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli.
• Preoperational (from age two to age seven):  A period between ages two and six during which a child learns to use language. During this stage, children do not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally manipulate information and are unable to take the point of view of other people.
• Concrete (Seven to Eleven years of age): A period between ages seven and eleven during which children gain a better understanding of mental operations. Children begin thinking logically about concrete events, but have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts.
• Formal Operation or Abstract Thinking (from eleven years of age and so on): A period between age twelve to adulthood when people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning and systematic planning also emerge during this stage

For this photo, can be explain with the first of four cognitive stages is sensorimotor period. The first stage of Piaget's theory lasts from birth to approximately age two and is centered on the infant trying to make sense of the world. During the sensorimotor stage, an infant's knowledge of the world is limited to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities. Behaviors are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli. Children utilize skills and abilities they were born with (such as looking, sucking, grasping, and listening) to learn more about the environment.

• Object Permanence

According to Piaget, the development of object permanence is one of the most important accomplishments at the sensorimotor stage of development. Object permanence is a child's understanding that objects continue to exist even though they cannot be seen or heard.

Substages of the Sensorimotor Stage:

The sensorimotor stage can be divided into six separate substages that are characterized by the development of a new skill.

1. Reflexes (0-1 month):

   During this substage, the child understands the environment purely through inborn reflexes such as sucking and looking.

2. Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months):

   This substage involves coordinating sensation and new schemas. For example, a child may such his or her thumb by accident and then later intentionally repeat the action. These actions are repeated because the infant finds them pleasurable.

3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months):

   During this substage, the child becomes more focused on the world and begins to intentionally repeat an action in order to trigger a response in the environment. For example, a child will purposefully pick up a toy in order to put it in his or her mouth.

4. Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months):

   During this substage, the child starts to show clearly intentional actions. The child may also combine schemas in order to achieve a desired effect. Children begin exploring the environment around them and will often imitate the observed behavior of others. The understanding of objects also begins during this time and children begin to recognize certain objects as having specific qualities. For example, a child might realize that a rattle will make a sound when shaken.

5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months):

   Children begin a period of trial-and-error experimentation during the fifth substage. For example, a child may try out different sounds or actions as a way of getting attention from a caregiver.

6. Early Representational Thought (18-24 months):

   Children begin to develop symbols to represent events or objects in the world in the final sensorimotor substage. During this time, children begin to move towards understanding the world through mental operations rather than purely through actions.

     

Sources:

http://www.sciography.com/jean-piaget.htm

http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/ss/early-childhood-development_3.htm

http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/p/sensorimotor.htm