Student Projects/Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget, the Swiss psychologist, proposed his theory of cognitive development after observing children closely. According to him cognitive development occurs in four stages.

They are:

1.    Sensorimotor stage(0-2 years)

2.    Preoperational stage(2-7 years)

3.    Concrete operational stage(7-11 years)

4.    Formal operational stage(11-adult)

He also said that the order in which children pass through these stages is invariant while the rate at which children pass through these may vary from child to child. Thus the ages associated with each stage are approximate. Also each later stage incorporated the earlier stages to itself.