2.2 Piaget’s Developmental Stage Theory

Stage 1: Sensorimotor

  • 0 - 2
  • Info is gained through the senses and motor actions
  • The child perceives and manipulates but does not reason
  • Object permanence
    • The understanding that objects exist independent of one’s actions or perceptions of them
    • Before 6 months infants act as if objects removed from sight cease to exist

Stage 2: Pre-operational

  • 2-7
  • Emergence of symbolic thought
  • Reasoning develops, but not high level
  • Egocentrism: can’t see the world from the others’ eyes (three mountains experiment)
  • Lack of the concept of conservation

Stage 3: concrete operational

  • 7-12
  • Understanding of mental operations leading to increasingly logical thought
  • Less egocentric
  • Inability to reason abstractly or hypothetically

Stage 4: Formal operational

  • 12-adult
  • Abstract and scientific reasoning