Piaget's Theory Of Cognitive Development Essay

Cognitive development starts from the age of infancy and continues through the period of adolescence and on to adulthood. The basic components of cognitive development are mental processes; memory, critical thinking/ problem solving, categorization, language, and creativity, all of which are formed in the youngest years of a child’s life (Wells, Encyclopedia of Children’s Health). Jean Piaget originated and based his work in Switzerland. He had a PhD in Zoology, which he used to develop a biologically rooted theory named the “Theory of Cognitive Development,” describing the advancements in this form of development from birth to adolescence in four universal stages (Central Michigan University, Piaget and Beyond). Lev Vygotsky was born in Western
The four stages include the sensorimotor, which is ages ranging from 0-2,
Symbolic thought, or the ability to visualize things that are not actually present, occurs in the sixth substage. This development begins the transition to the preoperational stage of cognitive development in Piaget’s theory. Piaget demonstrated the development of all these skills in the sensorimotor stage with the “Blanket and Ball Study” in 1963, where a ball is shown to the child and then hidden with a blanket. It is then taken out from under the blanket by Piaget and placed in a different location (Freud et al). Piaget deduced that before 8 months the baby made no attempt at searching and had no conception of object permanence. He found that between the ages of eight and twelve months they can perform the simple search, but if they have to retrieve it from a new area they will be unsuccessful. Between 12 and 18 months, Piaget found that both tasks of retrieving the ball are completed correctly and the child has developed the object’s