Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development in children proposes how biology influences the development of human being's knowledge, biological maturity and interaction with the environment. This constructs a child mental representation of the world. According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) what Piaget called invariant functions that has tendency to adjust to the environment. The capability of these mental structure to modify is affected by biological development. For this reason, Piaget called himself "genetic epistemologist." Each time a modification and thought process of the mental structure with the environment occurs, it creates a new schema or a set of linked mental representations of the world that allow individuals to move up to a higher level and adapt more knowledge effectively. Schema follow systematic change at fixed periods of time. Therefore, Piaget deduced that schemes develop through four stages. Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years old) The infants start formulating an understanding of themselves and the world through interactions with the environment via movement and senses, and realize the existence of unseen or touched objects Preoperational stage (ages 2 to 4) The child is self-centered, can …show more content…
He stressed individuals are able to adapt to their environment by successfully completing each stage of challenges which is based on how well the previous stage was accomplished (Snowman & McCowan, 2013). Erikson points out that adolescents are comfortable with themselves, have an idea of what they want for their future and have the love and support of loved ones to support and encourage their choices. These are the ways which assist adolescents when they encounter challenges during each stage. For him, the focus was to help the child identify and understand