Jean Piaget was a highly influential child psychologist who developed the theory of cognitive development. His theory proposed that children's intellectual development occurs in four distinct stages - sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational - with each stage building upon the previous as the child develops new cognitive abilities through interaction with the environment. Piaget's theory revolutionized the field of developmental psychology and remains widely influential today.

1. Jean Piaget
By Tracey Wilson

2. Jean Piaget
• Child Psychologist
• Carl Jung
• Cognitive Theory
• Developmental Psychology
• Most Influential Developmental
Psychologist to Date
• Theory of Cognitive Development

3. Theory of Cognitive Development
• A comprehensive theory about the nature and development of
human intelligences
• Consists of Four Stages

4. Sensorimotor (ages 0-2)
• Cognitive development comes
through use of body and
senses
• No object permanence until
later in this stage
• Language absent until end of
period
• Egocentrism

5. Preoperational (ages 2-7)
• Begins using symbols; no
manipulation
• Realism, animism, irreversibility
• Beginnings of representation
• Egocentric and socialized speech

6. Concrete Operations (ages 7-11)
• Can perform mental
operations with the use of
concrete objects
• Classification and number
concepts
• Verbal understanding

7. Formal Operations (ages 11 and up)
• Released from the restrictions
of tangible and concrete
• May separate real from the
possible
• Hypothetic/deductive
reasoning
• Logico-mathematical
structures
• Language freed from concrete,
able to express the possible

8. Vocabulary
• Scheme- way of responding to the world
• Assimilation- new experience consistent with present scheme
• Accommodation- new experience that requires modification of old
scheme or formation of new scheme
• Equilibration- attempts to adjust prior scheme with new experiences
that do not fit