Diploma Community Services Work

Piaget’s theory is wide ranging and influential, he seen children as active motivated learners, who through numerous interactions with their social and physical environments develop an increasingly complex understanding of the world around them. He believed that cognitive development passed through four stages.” The sensorimotor stage” (0-2yrs), when cognitive functioning is based mainly on behavior and perception ,sensory contact understanding, the child explores the world surrounding them using its   senses, initially sucking /grasping reflex and moving onto reaching for objects out of reach ,initially the baby cannot understand an object exists out of sight , as the child reaches around 7/8 months they will begin to understand the object /person still exists when out of sight,   “The preoperational stage” (2-7yrs), symbolic thought and language become prevalent, but reasoning is illogical child understands” bad table”, believes inanimate objects have feelings as they do, can only see the world from their own point of view, all these developments take place in the preoperational stage ,“The concrete operational stage” (7-11yrs), thinking about hypothetical, contrary-to-fact and abstract ideas become possible, the children are now able to converse they understand that although the appearance has changed the thing itself does not “The formal operational stage” (11-16yrs), most of the previous characteristics discussed have now developed, the child shows logical thinking and is able to work through abstract problems and use logic without the presence of concrete manipulation, Eg If Kelly is taller than   John and John is taller than Peter who is tallest ? This is an example of Inferential reasoning, formal operational children will systematically test all possibilities before making a conclusion, this is called “inductive reasoning”.
Piaget’s theory is a continued source of controversy, people continue to explore many of the questions he raised, but by using different...