Cognitive Development
Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
Cognitive development is often confused with brain development but in reality, they are two very things. Brain development refers to the physical, observable growth and changes in brain structure. Cognitive development on the other hand is not something that can be viewed, cognitive development refers to the changes in ones ability to produce abstract thought and changes in the thought processes itself. In this section we will focus on Piaget's theory regarding cognitive development.
Piaget's Theory suggests that there are 4 linear stages of cognitive development/thinking that are progressed through sequentially. These stages include
sensorimotor, preoperations, concrete operations, and formal operations.
The first stage, sensorimotor, occurs from birth to about 2 years old. This stage is broken down into 5 substages. Substage 1 occurs during the first month of the infants life. During this stage the infant strictly uses biological reflexes like crying and suckling in order to satisfy its biological needs. During substage 2, the infant gains control of its muscles and movements and begins to notice sensory information in its environment. The infant is also able to focus on things and engage multiple senses at once. During substage 3, which occurs at around 4 months, the infant makes the connection that its actions can have some effect on its surroundings. The infant has more control over its extremities so it begins to move things with its arms and hands. During substage 4, at around 8 months, the infant begins to create well-thought-out plans of action in prediction of events in its future. Infants also begin to partake in imitation of people and things in their environments. During substage 5, at around 1 year old, the infant's ability to search for things greatly improves due to its development of logical thinking patterns. During the 6th and final substage, at around 18 months, the infant develops object permanence which is the understanding that an object still exists after leaving the infants field of vision. The infant also learns to use and understand symbols, which in turn helps their language skills to develop. Language skills are what help advance the child into the pre-operations stage.
Pre-operations
Concrete Operations
With language development comes the pre-operational stage which lasts from 2 to 7 years old. As language improves, so does the child's understanding of symbols and concepts. The child begins to understand words and can associate those words with certain things or actions. Oftentimes, children don't fully understand things and it can be hard for them grasp new/correct definitions due to egocentrism. This refers to ones inability to understand the perspective of others. Children in this stage also often think animisthically which means they have a tendency to personify inanimate objects. This tendency also plays a role in make-believe-play which is something pre-operational children often engage in. Pre-operational children also start to classify things into one dimensional groups as their understanding of language develops. Piaget's theory suggests that there are 2 substages for classification: symbolic and intuitive. Symbolic classification is when children organize things based on it's most apparent quality and nothing more while intuitive classification is the child's ability to recognize a category that has been given by you. Children in the pre-operational stage must also have balance when it comes to make-believe play and constructive play which refers to play that introduces new (educational) concepts.
Next comes the concrete operational stage which lasts from age 7 to 11 years old. This is the stage where children's thought processes and reasoning becomes concrete. Children are unable to think abstractly or about information that is not immediately available. Children's classification skills become fully developed during this stage and they can classify objects based off of multiple dimension (size, shape, color, etc.). Children also begin to understand conservation which is the fact that something can change in shape, size or height and still contain the same amount because nothing has been added or subtracted. During this stage, egocentrism begins to decrease and play becomes less about self and more about the thoughts of the group.
Formal Operations
The final stage is the formal operational stage which occurs from age 11 and up. This is the stage where the child gains the ability to think abstractly. In this stage, people are able to think about situations that may or may not happen. They are also able to think about outcomes of possible decisions that they will make. During this stage people also gain "hypothetico-deductive" reasoning skills which is the ability to think about a multitude of possibilities and outcomes for any situation. People in this stage also are able to realize that there could be more than one correct answer for a question and there could be many. It is said that many American adults never reach this stage due to the pressure in America to get the "right answer".
Self Connection
There are multiple connections to myself and Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development. The main one being that I can confidently say that I have experienced every stage of his theory and I currently find myself in the "formal operations" stage. I am able to think abstractly and "hypothetico-deductively". However, I do think that I may have reached this stage a little bit earlier than Piaget suggested that it comes.
Application to Nursing
As a nurse, you must be able to critically and abstractly think within your day to day life in order to properly treat your patients. I think hat anyone attempting to pursue a career in nursing must be in the "formal operations" stage of Piaget's theory. I also think that it will be important for me as an obstetrics nurse to understand the sensorimotor stage in order to better advise parents bout their new infant.