Jean Piaget's Four Stages Of Development

“The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done.” Jean Piaget. This was the basis of Swiss theorist, Jean Piaget’s life; he was a creator of new things. At the age of 11, in 1907, he published a paper on the study of a rare albino sparrow, which showed his leaning towards the natural sciences. This was a complete difference from his father’s historical career. Piaget was exposed to philosophy, biology and epistemology, through this exposure he created a new field which he called genetic epistemology. After he married Valentine Châtenay, in 1923, he later studied their three children from infancy and discovered the four

He also established the stages of development based on the observation of his own children. He determined that they were 4 stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete and the formal operational stage. Piaget acknowledged that transitional stages may vary but he believed that at some point all children must go through these

It is the stage where information is gathered through the senses and actions. In the sensorimotor stage, infants develop “the ability to coordinate their sensory input with their motor action.” (Weiten, 2004) “This stage is characterized by the progressive acquisition of object permanence in which the child becomes able to find objects after they have been displaced, even if the objects have been taken out of his field of vision.” (Ojose, 2008)
Preoperational Period
After the sensorimotor stage comes the preoperational stage. This usually occurs during the period between 18-24 months and early childhood (7 years). During this stage, children begin to explore their world using language. The stage also allows for the development of memory and imagination. In the preoperational stage, children engage in make believe and sees objects as possessing life. They can also understand and express relationships between the past and the future. More complex concepts, such as cause and effect relationships and point of view, makes little appearance. Concrete Operational