piaget's theory

Piaget’s theory is that children are qualitatively different than adults. There are four stages in Piaget’s theory that is sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The studies observe children from birth to adolescence focusing on their memory, development, thought process, and the concept of language. Piaget believes that children like to learn and figure things out on their own without the help of older children, they develop their own knowledge, and they do not feel the need to be rewarded after figuring something out. My subject, Zach Wiewel, is a male that is 18 years and 4 months of age from Austin Texas whom is a freshman at the lovely Texas A&M University. One of the questions I asked Zach was “if A+12=23 then what is A?” and he answered quickly with 11, which was the correct answer. I saw that he had a quick thought process that analyzed the problem and allowed him to think hypothetically in answering the problem correctly. This allowed me to observe that he was clearly in the formal operational stage, which I would hope considering his age. He was not in the sensorimotor stage because while I was talking to him he did not understand things by just his senses; he was using more than just that. He was not in the preoperational stage because when I showed him a sign stating “no talking in the library” he knew that it meant to be quiet, allowing me to see his understanding of do’s and do not’s. Lastly, I drew two equal rectangles but rotated them to where one lied horizontal and the other stood vertical. I then asked Zach if the Rectangles were the same and he answered yes. He could tell that my two rectangles were equal showing me he could think logically and proving he was no longer in the concrete operational stage. After I observed Zach and witnessed his thought process, I was able to conclude that he was clearly in the formal operational stage. Being that he is 18 years of age, this is, according to Piaget, what