Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development states that a newborn passes through the stage of reflex actions and then reaches a stage where it can perform complex actions like an adult.
• Piaget maintains that the stages of development have continuity and that the individual goes through the stages of development one at a time just like a butterfly.
• The thinking of children is different from that of adults because the child is at a different stage of development. However, the child is not an idiot.
• Piaget believes that cognitive development is based on experience and that schemas are the basic units of our information.
• Schemas are the general concepts that are based on experience and organize the past experiences. They also build the structures of cognition.
• When the child is able to repeat some schema in its mind, it is called operation or mental process.

Test your knowledge of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, which explains how children's thinking develops as they interact with the world around them. Explore concepts such as schemas, stages of development, and the differences in thinking between children and adults.