1. Intellectual Development
The Theories of
Jean Piaget

2. Four Stages of Development
Piaget
Four Stages of Development
1. Sensorimotor Birth- 2 years
2. Preoperational years
3. Concrete Operations years
4. Formal Operations adult
Silly Preschoolers Come to Fremd

3. Sensorimotor Stage 1st stage of mental development
Infants use their senses and motor skills to learn and communicate
Learning during this period is extremely important- can be the basis for all future mental development! (INFANT SCIENTIST)
Piaget divided this stage into 6 substages…

4. Sensorimotor Stage Substage One: Birth to 1 month
Practices reflexes- sucking, grasping, crying
Egocentric- infants do not understand themselves as a separate person
-- the world revolves around me!!! 

5. Sensorimotor Stage Substage Two: 1 to 4 months
Combine two or more reflexes
- Example: May wave their fists and bring it to their mouths at the same time
Repeat these new combinations often

6. Sensorimotor Stage Substage Three: 4 to 8 months
Begin to control their mental world by making connections between what they do and what happens
- Example: touch mobile in crib and make it move
Intentionally repeat enjoyable activities

7. Sensorimotor Stage Substage Four: 8 to 12 months
Piaget believed by age one, babies apply learnings to solve problems
- Example: may squeeze, hit, or shake an object to see what it will do
Start imitating others- important way to learn!

8. Sensorimotor Stage Substage Four Cont’d:
Learn to follow objects with their eyes
Love to play peek-a-boo!!

9. Sensorimotor Stage Substage Four Cont’d:
Begin to understand Object Permanence
- objects continue to exist, even when out of sight-
-infants are able to find partially hidden objects

10. Sensorimotor Stage Substage Five: 12- 18 months
Infants discover new ways to solve problems
-Example: may push away box to find a toy behind it
Can find totally hidden object

11. Sensorimotor Stage Substage Six: 18 months- 2 years
The beginning of thought processes
Toddlers start to think about what they’re going to do before they do it
Trial and error exploration- if I do this, what will happen??

12. Preoperational This is the 2nd major stage of development
Children begin to do some mental thinking rather than solving all problems through physical skills
Occurs during the preschool years
Ages 2-7

13. Preoperational
Believes that there are 11 basic concepts that children must master in order to move on to the next stage
Conservation, classification, sequencing, reversibility, cause & effect, recall, time, representation, number, spatial relations, and language

14. Preoperational Two sub-stages of preoperational:
Preconceptual: children form a mental image of what they see around them many of these are incomplete or illogical
EX: All collies are the dog “Lassie”
Intuitive: children are sometimes able to grasp a problem’s solution by how they feel about it
EX: If they are on the stairs and higher than a parent, they will still feel that they are a small person and not really “taller” than the parent

15. Preoperational Still EGOCENTRIC
a belief a person has that everyone thinks in the same way and has the same ideas as he or she does

16. Preoperational Symbolic play is important in this stage of development
pretend play
objects stand for something else
change things from the real world or dreams

17. Preoperational
Mental images are symbols of objects and past experiences that are stored in their mind.
Can picture the following in their heads:
Cat
Thunderstorm
Flower
School

18. Preoperational Logical thinking concepts:
Concepts that are not directly experienced through the senses but are developed through thought.
These require the thinker to see a relationship between things

19. Preoperational
Language development is extremely important in this stage:
Articulation (making the sounds in language)
Vocabulary (estimations below)
900 words at age 3
1,500 words at age 4
2,000 words at age 5
Grammar matures a great deal between ages 3-5 years old