Learning about Piaget”s Theory really hit home for me. I am the oldest child of three and have witnessed all the stages that Piaget describes. The first stage from birth to two years of age is considered the Sensory Motor Stage. At this point in time children take in the world through their senses along with gaining object permanence. Object permanence is the knowledge that things exist even when they can not be seen. I can remember my brother always wanting to play with the pendant on my moms necklace. To get him to stop she would just put the pendant inside her shirt so he couldn’t see it. Even though my brother saw her tuck it away, since it was no longer visible he completely forgot about it. As time went on and he got older this stopped working, because he gained object permanence, so she would have to take it off completely. The second stage from ages two to seven is called the Pre-Operational Stage. In this time period children learn language but do not understand logic. They are also starting to form a theory of mind but lack concept of conservation. Concept of conversation is the understanding that quantity remains the same despite the change in shape. At this time in my brothers life i can remember unevenly splitting candy with my brother and lying about the quantities (so I could have more) and he would believe me. The third stage is called Concrete Operational Stage which is during ages seven to eleven. At this stage children can now think logistically and understand conservation. This was the turning point in brothers life where i could no longer trick or lie to him because he could now independently think about if i was being fair to him. The last stage called the Formal Operational Stage is from ages eleven and up. During this time period children can think logically about abstract concepts. This stage is thought to being earlier than Piaget believed. Piaget’s Theory is still very influential today and holds a lot of empirical support.
Tag: development
Social Attachment and Parenting
Some Reflection…
When was the first time you were separated from your parents for an extended amount of time? Maybe you were staying at grandma’s house for the night or maybe it was your first day of preschool or kindergarten. Do you remember how you reacted or how your parents recall you reacted? Psychology tells us that how every human is born with an innate need for social interaction and attachment.
Infantile Attachment
As humans, we rely on bodily contact to form social connections at younger ages as opposed to forming connections with those who provide nourishment. Once we are born, we all seek attachment but unfortunately, sometimes that is not always the case. Recall to the questions I asked before and try to remember how you reacted when this connection with your parents was detached. While with almost every child there is distress upon separation, with most children, the return of their caregiver comforts them almost immediately. With children that have a more insecure attachment with their caregiver, they will continue to be in distress once reunited. Regardless, when children are neglected from making any connection whatsoever at a young age, they potentially may grow up withdrawn, frightened, or unable to develop speech.
How Parenting Impacts Development (Usually)
When growing up and developing these relationships with their caregivers, children may be parented in an authoritarian, permissive, and/or authoritative manner. This is when a parent may be very strict, submissive, or a mix between the two respectively. Commonly, when a child develops in an authoritarian environment, they potentially develop lower self-esteem. In a permissive household where their every need is provided, children may not develop enough self-reliance throughout their childhood. While this isn’t confirmed, consistently we see that in households that uphold authoritative parenting with a mix of both benefit the child the most by giving them more social competence.
Blog Post 2: Early Child Development
There’s an unspoken rule in my family: if you’re doing something that makes a baby laugh, you absolutely can not stop until the baby is tired of it.
One of the things that usually got babies laughing or smiling was playing the classic game, “peek-a-boo.” Everyone knows it: you put your hands over your face and then quickly remove them, saying “Peek-a-boo!” usually to the delight of the baby.
In the last week, we learned that this is because babies don’t yet understand object permanence. This means that when they can’t immediately see something, babies think that the object literally doesn’t exist anymore. That would explain why they’re so happy to see your face after you move your hands.
Though I’m the youngest child in my immediate family, I get to watch my niece grow up. She’s only three, but many of the concepts and developmental stages we’ve discussed in class are certainly relevant.
For example, I saw her go through Piaget’s theory of the sensorimotor stage. Part of this stage is that the child will take in the world through their senses. When my niece first started to get curious about things, I got to watch her interact with the world around her. Mainly, she liked to put things in her mouth. Of course, she also looked at and touched everything she could.
Another part of the sensorimotor stage is the previously mentioned concept of object permanence, which a child develops around one year old. I remember when my niece first started to realize that when you hid something from her, it hadn’t completely vanished. While this made it harder to protect TV remotes, it was also a really exciting development to watch.
After the sensorimotor stage is the preoperational stage, which kids will stay in until they’re around six or seven years old. In this stage, a child will start to learn the language, but won’t really understand logic. They also lack the concept of conservation, the idea that quantity remains the same despite a change in shape.
In class, we watched the video of young kids thinking tall glasses had more water than a shorter glass, despite watching the same amount be poured into each. This is the stage my niece is currently in. She started to talk a little after she turned two years old, and she can hold a fairly steady conversation now (when she feels like it, anyway).
While she still has a long way to go, it’s been super interesting to watch my niece grow up and develop skills that make her a little more of a functional human. I’m especially excited about the concrete operational stage when she starts to be able to comprehend logic and can hold more complex conversations.