The document describes Jean Piaget's four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. It provides details about the key characteristics and abilities developed at each stage, from the development of object permanence in infants to logical and abstract thinking in adolescents.

4. SCHEMA: an individual’s
way to understand or create
meaning about a thing or
experience.
For instance, if a child sees a
dog for the first time, and his
mother told him that it is a
dog, he now creates his own
schema of what a dog is (a dog
has 4 legs and a tail. It barks.)

5. ASSIMILATION: the
process of fitting a new
experience into an existing
or previously created
cognitive structure or
schema.
If the child sees a cat, he
would think that it is a dog
because it has also 4 legs
and a tail.

6. ACCOMMODATION: the process
of creating a new schema.
The child might try to fit it into his
schema of a dog, and say, “Look
mommy, what a funny looking dog.
Its bark is funny too!”
Then the mommy explains, “That’s
not a funny looking dog. That’s a
cat!” with mommy’s further
descriptions, the child will now
create a schema, that of a cat.

7. EQUILIBRATION:
is achieving proper balance between assimilation
and accommodation.
When our experiences do not match our schemata
(plural of schema) or cognitive structures, we
experience cognitive disequilibrium. This means
there is a discrepancy between what is perceived
and what is understood.

9. SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
(from birth to two years)

10. During this initial phase of development, children
experience the world and gain knowledge through their
senses and motor movements. As children interact with
their environments, they go through an astonishing
amount of cognitive growth in a relatively short period of
time.
Children utilize skills and abilities they were born
with (such as looking, sucking, grasping, and listening) to
learn more about the environment.

11. According to Piaget, developing object
permanence is one of the most important
accomplishments at the sensorimotor stage of
development.
Object permanence is a child's understanding that
objects continue to exist even though they cannot be
seen or heard.
Imagine a game of peek-a-boo, for example.

12. A very young infant will believe that the other person or
object has actually vanished and will act shocked or startled
when the object reappears.
Older infants who understand object permanence will
realize that the person or object continues to exist even when

13. The sensorimotor stage can be divided into six separate sub-stages that are
characterized by the development of a new skill.
1. Reflexes (0-1 month):
During this substage, the child understands the environment purely through
inborn reflexes such as sucking and looking.
2. Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months):
This substage involves coordinating sensation and new schemas. For example, a
child may suck his or her thumb by accident and then later intentionally repeat the
action. These actions are repeated because the infant finds them pleasurable.
3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months):
During this substage, the child becomes more focused on the world and begins to
intentionally repeat an action in order to trigger a response in the environment.
For example, a child will purposefully pick up a toy in order to put it in his or her
mouth.

14. 4. Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months):
Children begin exploring the environment around them and will often imitate the
observed behavior of others.
The understanding of objects also begins during this time and children begin to recognize
certain objects as having specific qualities. For example, a child might realize that a rattle will
make a sound when shaken.
5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months):
Children begin a period of trial-and-error experimentation during the fifth substage. For
example, a child may try out different sounds or actions as a way of getting attention from a
caregiver.
6. Early Representational Thought (18-24 months):
Children begin to develop symbols to represent events or objects in the world in the final
sensorimotor substage. During this time, children begin to move towards understanding the
world through mental operations rather than purely through actions.

15. PRE-OPERATIONAL STAGE
(from two to seven years)

16. Language development is one of the hallmarks of
this period. Piaget noted that children in this stage do
not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally
manipulate information, and are unable to take the
point of view of other people, which he
termed egocentrism.

17. Egocentrism. The tendency of the child to only see
his point of view and to assume that everyone else has
his same point of view. The child can not take the
perspective of others.
For instance, a three year old girl who cannot
understand why her cousins call her daddy “uncle” and
not daddy.

18. Symbolic function. Children become increasingly
adept at using symbols, as evidenced by the increase in
playing and pretending.
For example, a child is able to use an object to
represent something else, such as pretending a broom is
a horse.

19. Role playing also becomes important during the
preoperational stage. Children often play the roles of
"mommy", "daddy", "doctor", and many other characters.

20. Centration. The tendency of the child to only focus
on one aspect of a thing or event and exclude other
aspects.
(ex pic of glass of water)

21. Irreversibility. Pre-operational children still have
the inability to reverse their thinking
Ex. They can understand that 2+3 is 5, but cannot
understand that 5-3 is 2.

22. Animism. The tendency of children to attribute
human like traits or characteristics to inanimate objects.

23. Transductive reasoning. A type of reasoning that
is neither inductive nor deductive.
Ex. Since her mommy comes home everyday around
six o’clock in the evening, when asked why it is already
night, the child will say, “because my mom is already
home.”

24. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE
(from seven to eleven years)

25. During this time, children gain a better
understanding of mental operations. Children begin
thinking logically about concrete events, but have
difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical
concepts

26. Decentering. The ability of the child to perceive the
different features of objects and situations.

27. Reversibility. One of the most important
developments in this stage is an understanding of
reversibility, or awareness that actions can be reversed.
An example of this is being able to reverse the order of
relationships between mental categories.

28. Conservation. The ability to know
that certain properties of objects like
number, mass, volume, or area do not
change even if there is a change in
appearance.
Ex. The child can now judge
rightly that the amount of water in a
taller but narrower container is still
the same as when the water wa sin a
shorter but wider glass.

29. Seriation. The ability to order or arrange things in a
series based on one dimension such as weight, volume or
size.

30. Another key development at this stage is the
understanding that when something changes in shape or
appearance it is still the same, a concept known as
conservation. Kids at this stage understand that if you
break a candy bar up into smaller pieces it is still the
same amount at when the candy was whole.

31. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE (from
eleven to sixteen years)

32. During this time, people develop the ability to think
about abstract concepts. Skills such as logical thought,
deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also
emerge during this stage.

33. Hypothetical Reasoning. The ability to come up
with different hypothesis about a problem and to gather
and weigh data in order to make a final decision.

34. Analogical Reasoning. The ability to perceive the
relationship in one instance and then use that
relationship to narrow down possible answers in another
similar situation or problem. The individual in the
formal operations stage can make an analogy.
Ex. If UK is to Europe, the Philippines is to ____.
The individual will reason that since the Uk is found in
the continent of Europe, then the Philippines is found in
what continent? Then Asia is his answer.

35. Deductive Reasoning. The ability to think logically
by applying a general rule to a particular instance or
situation.
For example, all countries near the north pole have
cold temperatures. Greendland is near the North Pole.
Therefore, Greenland has cold temperature.