Cognitive development
What is cognitive development?
Cognitive Development is the process by which a person acquires knowledge about what surrounds him and thus develop his intelligence and abilities . It starts from birth and continues during childhood and adolescence.
Piaget’s theory
To determine the different stages of development that a person goes through, the psychologist Jean Piaget and his theory of cognitive development are the most used references.
Sensorimotor stage
From the moment he is born until he is two years old , the baby acquires a better perceptionof what surrounds him as well as his own movements. This is born with a series of reflexes that allow you to begin to understand the cause and consequences of things from the first month of life.
In the following months the baby already uses his senses , relating them to each other, and learns through patterns of behavior or imitation , which helps him even to prevent what will happen. However, at this stage the baby still does not understand the permanence of objects, and does not conceive their existence when they are not within their field of vision.
The curiosity is the main engine that makes the baby will get the necessary mindsets to develop their knowledge. Experimentation is the child’s way of discovering the functionality of objects . Towards the end of this stage, he is already capable of projecting an action in his mind to deduce whether it will work or not.
Pre-operational stadium
This stage includes from two to seven years . The mental representations develop mainly and the thought in general is much faster and efficient. The child is capable of thinking not only in the immediate and present, but in more timeless thoughts.
The symbols are very important at this stage, because they will be the basis for children’s communication: through them they represent people, places or objects, but also their position over time.
Self- centeredness is characteristic of this period : the child understands his point of view as the only one that exists. It learns that the identity of objects can be permanent even if their external appearance changes, as well as the causality of some actions, although not in a reversible way (things can only happen in a certain way and in a sense).
Stage of concrete operations
It happens from seven to 11 years old . The child’s thinking is increasingly similar to that of an adult, and begins to establish relationships between objects , to reflect logically on them (only real, not abstract), and is even able to adopt other points of view apart from yours.
The child can also sort and classify objects in a hierarchical way , distinguishing between those that are similar or different and even establishing an order between them.
Stage of formal operations
From 12 years and during adolescence . The child is already able to think in an abstract way , sensing the consequences that actions may or may not have during the present. You can also reason about mental representations that are not real.
Reasoning and reflection , therefore, begin to be really effective when it comes to understanding the world around them. With them they reach more complex deductions about reality than before.
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