Piaget's Stages of Development

Jean Piaget is a well-known name in the field of psychology due to his enormous contribution to both psychology and education. Piaget's stages of development in children focus more on the cognitive improvement in children. In simple words, cognition is nothing but how one perceives the environment and how one processes the information. Being a psychologist, he essentially studied how the intellectual development in children takes place and how they transform from children to adults. Based on his observations and various experiments, he found out that children are as intelligent as their older counterparts but the only difference is their thinking process, which is quite different. Piaget's theory consists of four stages of cognitive development where each stage is characterized by different behavior. To know about all the stages in detail, read further:

Piaget Stages of Development in Children

Following is the brief information on Piaget's stages of development that concentrate on cognitive advancement of children and the behavior it manifests through.

Sensory Motor Stage: This is the first stage of Piaget's cognitive development theory which occurs in children from birth to around two years. In this stage, children's behavior is dominated by reflexes where they are influenced by a stimuli. Initially, babies are fascinated by movement, that's why you would see them following and enjoying moving objects such as moving toys etc. Slowly, after few weeks, children learn to use their body parts for movement. They also get the knowledge of objects at this stage and also know how to manipulate them. Simultaneously, they also learn to understand some of the information received by their senses. But, they are unable to understand or consider anyone else's perspective, need, or want, and hence they are considered as 'ego-centric'.

Preoperative Stage: This stage occurs approximately between two years to seven years. At this stage, children learn to 'think' though it is not completely logical. They also learn to pick up new words and develop the language skills. Though they are developing, they continue to be ego-centric and perceive things from their own point of view. This stage is also characterized by animism where children believe that everything that exists has some life or consciousness. For example, if their moving toy is not working, they may believe that it's tired and hence resting. This happens because they judge the world from their own feelings and think that everything and everyone is like them.

Concrete Operations Stage: Piaget's third stage of development is known as concrete stage of development which occurs between seven years to eleven years. This stage is characterized by 'logical', rational, and more operational thoughts. Using logic abilities, children learn to sought objects on the basis of size, shape, and color, etc. They also develop a better understanding about time and space. They also become less ego-centric and learn to understand the perspective of other people though it may not be right always. They can also receive more than one complex ideas at one time. They become more imaginative and their thinking abilities improve significantly yet they may not be good with abstract things. They also learn to solve problems at this stage.

Formal Operations Stage: At this stage, from eleven to sixteen years, children become 'adult like'. Now, they are capable of thinking logically about everything around them. Children can understand formal and abstract things at this stage. They learn to see things beyond concrete reality. One of the important characteristics of this stage is characterized by hypothetic deductive reasoning by which they learn to analyze hypothetical situations, possible factors, and possible effects and outcomes etc. In short, they learn to think in the holistic and systematic manner.

Apart from this, Piaget also studied the moral development in children and this theory is known as Piaget's stages of moral development. He observed that, till the age of five to six children go through pre-moral judgment stage where they have no idea of rules or morality. The second stage is known as moral realism that occurs between five to nine years where children follow the rules because they are there and are immutable. They judge morality from the consequences and not the intentions. The third and last stage known as moral relativity that starts around seven to eight years. Now children know that rules are not fixed and can be manipulated. They learn to associate with their own ideas of morality based on intentions of the wrongdoer.

Given below is a chart on Piaget's stages of development that would help you understand all the stages at a glance:

Piaget Stages of Development Chart

Stage	Year	Characterized By
Sensory Motor Stage	0 - 2 years	Child can differentiate 'self' from object Manipulates objects by recognizing self as an agent of action Explores the world through senses Develops motor skills and learns to use limbs for movement
Preoperative Stage	2 years - 7years	Illogical and irreversible thought process Learns to use language Can represent objects through words and symbols Ego-centric thought process Classifies objects by single feature
Concrete Operative Stage	7years - 11years	logical, operational, and rational thought process Classifies objects by multiple features can view things from another perspective Are more imaginative and less ego-centric Achieve better understanding of time and space
Formal Operative Stage	11years - 16years	Logical thinking about abstract propositions Can test the hypothesis systematically Improved analytical ability Can deal with ideological problems well

From the above chart of Piaget's stages of development, it is evident that cognitive ability of children improves slowly as they grow and explore more things around them. However, the year span is not rigid, some children may learn or develop at their own pace depending on their genes and environment.