Question

Piaget’s observations of children led to a revolutionary theory of cognitive development. Growth processes and experiences combine, so that cognitive functioning expands on four qualitatively different stages: the sensory-motor, the preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations. At each stage, the child attempts to assimilate and accommodate new experiences.

which of the four stages (sensory-motor, properational, concrete operations and formal operations) applies to each description?

1. A four-year-old insists small people must live in the TV because they are right there behind the glass. Identify the stage and the phenomenon being displayed by the child.

2. A child adept at roller skating goes ice skating for the first time. She keeps trying to stand and move just as on roller skates but falls again and again. According to Piaget, what is necessary for mastery of this new skill?

3. An eight-year-old boy threatened to tell his parents when given only one of the three candy bars he and his ten-year-old brother were told to share. The older child then broke his brother’s bar in half and gave him two pieces. This satisfied both children because they each had two pieces. Identify the cognitive stages of these children and the disadvantage that allows the younger child to be cheated.

4. Previously, whenever Johnny banged with a spoon, his mother would put it in a drawer and Johnny would quickly move on to something else. Now that he is eight months old, this isn’t working. The child continues to demand the spoon even though he can’t see it. Identify the cognitive stage of this child and the change that has taken place.

Answer 1

1. A four-year-old ----

Ans. Pre-operational stage and he is showing egocentric

(This is the stage from 2-7 years, the child thinks symbolically and they are egocentric that means the child see everything that happens as it relates to him)

2.  A child adept at roller skating-----

Ans. It is the assimilation and accommodation

(It is the transition from one stage to another the child learns through adaptation here the child had adapted roller skating and goes to ice skating, by using his existing schemas the child moves to deal with the new object.

3. An eight-year-old boy threatened to tell his parents ---

Ans. This is the 4th stage of development. The younger child is 8; he is still in the pre-operational stage.

The older child is in concrete operations

The younger child lacks the ability to conserve. The elder child understands that the younger child would see the candy in number and not in size.

4. Previously, whenever Johnny banged with a spoon, -----

Ans. Johnny is in the sensorimotor stage, he has developed object permanence; it is the ability that a child knows that the object still exists even though he cannot see it.