4.3.1.3 Stages of Cognitive Development (lecture notes 3)
As children’s cognitive structures are established and evolve, children progress through
four major stages of cognitive development, three of which occur during infancy and
childhood. These stages are called the sensorimotor period, the preoperational period,
and the concrete operational period; the formal operational period occurs in
adolescence at the earliest, but may never be achieved by some individuals.
Because Piaget believed that early stages provide the foundation for later ones, children
must progress through each stage in order—there is no skipping stages. At each stage
of cognitive development, children are believed to think about problems in qualitatively
different ways than they do at earlier or later stages. As such, children were thought to
reason about the same problem in entirely different ways as they aged. In this way,
Piaget’s theoretical perspective describes discontinuous changes in development. In the
same way that a caterpillar transforms into a cocoon before emerging as a butterfly, the
preoperational thinker solves problems differently than a concrete operational thinker,
who also solves problems in different ways than a formal operational thinker.
Information about the ages associated with each stage, as well as key information about
cognitive competencies and limitations during each developmental period, are shown in
Table 4.1: The Four Primary Stages of Cognitive Development.
, The first major stage of cognitive development is the sensorimotor period, which occurs
from birth to age two. During this period of time, infants initially learn about the world
through their actions on it. As shown in Table 4.2, this initial stage includes six
substages, each of which is characterized by the evolving ways in which infants learn
about their environment. In the first substage of the sensorimotor period, from birth to
one month of age, children learn from the world using the reflexes they have available
to them from birth.
Table 4.2: The Six Substages of the Sensorimotor Period.
In the second substage, from one to four months of age, infants learn about the world
by engaging in primary circular reactions, where they engage in repeated actions on
As children’s cognitive structures are established and evolve, children progress through
four major stages of cognitive development, three of which occur during infancy and
childhood. These stages are called the sensorimotor period, the preoperational period,
and the concrete operational period; the formal operational period occurs in
adolescence at the earliest, but may never be achieved by some individuals.
Because Piaget believed that early stages provide the foundation for later ones, children
must progress through each stage in order—there is no skipping stages. At each stage
of cognitive development, children are believed to think about problems in qualitatively
different ways than they do at earlier or later stages. As such, children were thought to
reason about the same problem in entirely different ways as they aged. In this way,
Piaget’s theoretical perspective describes discontinuous changes in development. In the
same way that a caterpillar transforms into a cocoon before emerging as a butterfly, the
preoperational thinker solves problems differently than a concrete operational thinker,
who also solves problems in different ways than a formal operational thinker.
Information about the ages associated with each stage, as well as key information about
cognitive competencies and limitations during each developmental period, are shown in
Table 4.1: The Four Primary Stages of Cognitive Development.
, The first major stage of cognitive development is the sensorimotor period, which occurs
from birth to age two. During this period of time, infants initially learn about the world
through their actions on it. As shown in Table 4.2, this initial stage includes six
substages, each of which is characterized by the evolving ways in which infants learn
about their environment. In the first substage of the sensorimotor period, from birth to
one month of age, children learn from the world using the reflexes they have available
to them from birth.
Table 4.2: The Six Substages of the Sensorimotor Period.
In the second substage, from one to four months of age, infants learn about the world
by engaging in primary circular reactions, where they engage in repeated actions on
