Child Development Theorist Project
By: Shakia Griffin
Jean Piaget was originally from
Neuchnatel, Switzwerland
Background information about Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget was the oldest child Arthur Piaget, professor of medieval literature at the University, and of Rebecca Jackson. At age 11, while he was a pupil at Neuchatel Latin high school, he wrote a short notice on an albino sparrow. This short brilliant scientific career made of over sixty books and several hundred articles. His interest for mollusks was developed during his late adolescence to the point that he became a well-known malacologist by finishing school. He published many papers in the field that remained of interest for him all along his life. After high school graduation, he studied natural sciences at the University of Neuchatel where he obtained Ph.D. During this period, he published two philosophical essays which he considered as "adolescence work" but were important for the general orientation of his thinking.
What Jean Piaget is known for in the world of child development/education
Jean Piaget is know for cognitive development stage theory. The theory described how children's ways of thinking developed as they interacted with the world around them. Infants and young children understand the world much differently than adults do, as they play and explore, their mind learns how to think in ways that better fit with reality. Piaget's theory has four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. During the sensorimotor stage, which often lasts from birth to age two, children are just beginning to lean how to learn. Through language development, the more tasks occurring during the period involve children figuring out how to make use of their bodies. They do this by experiencing everything with their five senses, hence, "sensory," and by learning to crawl and then walk, point and then grasp, hence, "motor." During the preoperational stage which often lasts from ages two through seven, children start to use mental symbols to understand and to interact with the world, and they begin to learn language and to engage in pretend play. In the concrete operational stage that follows, lasting from ages seven through eleven, children gain the ability to think logically to solve problems and to organize information they learn. In the formal operational stage, which often lasts from age eleven on, adolescents learn how to think more abstractly to solve problems and to think about things that aren't really there concretely in front of them.