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Jean Piagets Theory on Child Development

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Jean Paiget (1896-1980) was biologist who was originally studied molluscs.
He was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland he passed away September 16th 1980.

Jean Piaget’s theory as 4 developmental stages these are,

* The Sensorimotor Stage (birth-2 years)
* The Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)
* The Concrete Operational (7-11 years)
* The Formal Operational Stage (11 years plus)

All of these 4 developmental stages have sub-stages for each age range.

Sensorimotor Sub-stages
Simple reflexes - (birth-1 month old)
At this time the infant uses natural reflexes that they were born with such as, sucking and rooting. In which they understand the environment purely on these actions.

Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months)
This stage a child may suck their thumb or finger by accident and then repeat the action intentionally for pleasure.

Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months) The child becomes more focused of their immediate environment and likes to see the affects of their surroundings such as they may pick up a toy to place it in their mouth or move a toy to another place.

Co-Ordination of Reactions (8-12 months)
At this stage a child starts to explore their close surroundings such as picking up a set of toy keys and shake them to realise they make a noise once they are shaken.

Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months)
At this stage a child starts to practice attention seeking form a parent or a career by shouting, screaming or just generally making a noise to see the reaction from their actions.

Early Representational Thoughts (18-24 months)
In this finally sub-stage children will start to understand the world through mental development rather than just their actions.

Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)
At this stage children’s Language and mental development start to take a huge leap!
Children’s pretend play increases great deal

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