Jean Piaget & Child Development

Jean Piaget outlined a series of developmental stages that children go through as they mature. These stages are: Sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years); Preoperational stage (2-6 years); Concrete operational stage (7-11 years); and Formal operational stage (12 years into adulthood). For this assignment I was asked to observe a child who was in either the sensorimotor, preoperational, or concrete operational stages of development. The child whom I chose to observe was my little cousin Nicholas, or Nick …

…of views. This is also a characteristic of concrete operational stage. According to Piaget, my little cousin would be going along in the perfect order of development. He is mentally right where he should be and displayed many of the characteristics known to his current stage of development. By watching and paying attention to him and the way he interacted allowed me to first hand see some of the characteristics of Piaget's stages of development.