piagets theory

• Piagets theory is based on the idea that children develop through stages, with different abilities emerging at specific ages.
• Sensorimotor stage: Infants at the age of 0-2 years old interact with the world using senses and learn through trial and error. they also develop object permanage at 8 months. this means that they understand if an object exists even if it cant be seen or touched
• Piaget's theory suggests that cognitive development occurs in four main stages: sensorimotor (0-2 years), preoperational (2-7 years), concrete operational (7-11), and formal operational (11-18).
• Preoperational stage: Children at the age of 2-7 begin to use symbols such as words and pictures to represent objects and events. However, their thinking is egocentric (which means that they only see things from their point of view) and they cant conserve (which means that they dont understand that if appearance changes the quantity still stays the same)
• Concrete operational stage(7-11):Children at this stage have the ability to problem solve, but only when they can see or physically handle the problem. they will find difficulty if they are asked to imagine the problem. they become less egocentric, and develop the ability to conserve.
• Formal operational stage (11-18): individuals at this stage have control over their own thoughts, and they understand that time changes things. they have also developed abstract thinking which means they can think through complicated ideas in their heads without seeing a concrete image
• a weakness of piagets theory is that he overestimated what children could do. for example, piaget suggested that by the age of 11, children are able to think in an abstract way. however, research has gone against this. this is a weakness because it suggests that piaget was optimistic about what children at the age of 11 could do in the formal operational stage and that not all children’s thinking is abstract as he suggested,
• a further weakness is that piagets theory was based on small samples of children. for example, piaget used his own kids within his research. this is a weakness because it suggests that the sample iss unrepresentative and that there could be researcher bias.
• Piaget suggested that children develop their understanding of the world in stages.
• Piaget suggests that children learn about the world through schemas
• Schemas are mental representations that an individual has about the world and are based on past experiences.
• assimilation: when an individual aquires new information, but this does not radically change the individuals understanding of a topic.
• accommodation: when an individual acquires new information which requires them to form a whole new schema to deal with their new understanding.
• a strength is that there is evidence to support the view that children do go through cognitive stages of development as they get older

  for example, research suggests that children do change in the way they think as they get older

  this is a strength as it seems that the overall concept of cognitive stages in development is correct