Piaget's Stages Notes

Students with Mild to Moderate Disabilities

                                                                            Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development.  Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of mental development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence. Piaget's stages are:  Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years Preoperational stage: ages 2 to 7 Concrete operational stage: ages 7 to 11 Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up   Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning process, acting much like little scientists as they perform experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids interact with the world around them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon existing knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to accommodate new information.

                                                                                The Sensorimotor Stage-Ages: Birth to 2 Years Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes: The infant knows the world through their movements and sensations Children learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking, grasping, looking, and listening Infants learn that things continue to exist even though they cannot be seen (object permanence) They are separate beings from the people and objects around them They realize that their actions can cause things to happen in the world around them Piaget believed that developing object permanence or object constancy, the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, was an important element at this point of development.    

                                                                            The Preoperational Stage-Ages: 2 to 7 Years Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes: Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects. Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective of others. While they are getting better with language and thinking, they still tend to think about things in very concrete terms. Children become much more skilled at pretend play during this stage of development, yet continue to think very concretely about the world around them.   

                                                                           The Concrete Operational Stage-Ages: 7 to 11 Years Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes During this stage, children While thinking becomes much more logical during the concrete operational state, it can also be very rigid. Kids at this point in development tend to struggle with abstract and hypothetical concepts.begin to thinking logically about concrete events They begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of liquid in a short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for example Their thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete Children begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a general principle While thinking becomes much more logical during the concrete operational state, it can also be very rigid. Kids at this point in development tend to struggle with abstract and hypothetical concepts.  

                                                                       The Formal Operational Stage-Ages: 12 and Up Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes: At this stage, the adolescent or young adult begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems Abstract thought emerges Teens begin to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific information The ability to thinking about abstract ideas and situations is the key hallmark of the formal operational stage of cognitive development. The ability to systematically plan for the future and reason about hypothetical situations are also critical abilities that emerge during this stage. 

                                                                                      Delays in Cognitive Development Neurological deficits, deprivation, environmental factors,or a combination some kids don't develop cognitive skills typically.  These students may demonstrate differences in Quantity/Quality of their cognitive skills. Examples: Learning colors, shapes and similar basic concepts.  They may also have issues with more advanced concepts too  Example: counting, numbers, reading printed or writing  language. Students often have trouble generalizing things to learn to other situations or concepts.                                                                                Atyipcal Social/emotional Development If a student experiences developmental delays it manifests from social and emotional domains.  Example: Being too trusting of others. This allows others to take advantage of them.  Students also struggle with reading and understanding social and nonverbal cues. These affect emotional states or social conventions, linguistic cues during interpersonal interactions.  Example of this: Autism- individuals with this disability can show excellent verbal skills, but be unable to initiate or maintain conversations. or struggle with turn-taking. Example: Intellectual disability, Autism, or Behavior Disorders (ADHD)-example of this is students may have difficulties with impulse control, emotional self-regulation, sustaining attention, interfering with social interactions as much as academic performance.  Atypical Development of Gross Motor Skills: Motor Development of a child,  Examples:  If an s/he cannot stand, walk or run. Signs of Atypical gross motor skills-when a child is 3-12 months old, if a child DOES NOT open his/her hands, or if the child has difficulty sitting up on their own without support.  Signs of Atypical gross motor skills-when a child is 12-36 months old, If a child has trouble walking/running up and down stairs, rolling, catching or throwing a ball; or jumping or hopping. These children have higher or lower muscle tone than normal problems with motor planning, motor coordination, balance, proprioception. 

                                                                                    Delays in Cognitive Development Neurological deficits, deprivation, environmental factors, or a combination some kids don't develop cognitive skills typically.  These students may demonstrate differences in Quantity/Quality of their cognitive skills. Examples: Learning colors, shapes and similar basic concepts.  They may also have issues with more advanced concepts too Example: counting, numbers, reading printed or writing  language. Students often have trouble generalizing things to learn to other situations or concepts.

                                                                                   Atypical Social and Emotional Development If a student experiences developmental delays it manifests from social and emotional domains.  Example: Being too trusting of others. This allows others to take advantage of them.  Students also struggle with reading and understanding social and nonverbal cues. These affect emotional states or social conventions, linguistic cues during interpersonal interactions.  Example of this: Autism- individuals with this disability can show excellent verbal skills, but be unable to initiate or maintain conversations. or struggle with turn-taking. Example: Intellectual disability, Autism, or Behavior Disorders (ADHD)-example of this is students may have difficulties with impulse control, emotional self-regulation, sustaining attention, interfering with social interactions as much as academic performance. 

                                                                            Atypical Development of Gross Motor Skills: Motor Development of a child,  Examples:  If an s/he cannot stand, walk or run. Signs of Atypical gross motor skills-when a child is 3-12 months old, if a child DOES NOT open his/her hands, or if the child has difficulty sitting up on their own without support.  Signs of Atypical gross motor skills-when a child is 12-36 months old, If a child has trouble walking/running up and down stairs, rolling, catching or throwing a ball; or jumping or hopping. These children have higher or lower muscle tone than normal problems with motor planning, motor coordination, balance, proprioception. 

                                                                                             Fine Motor Skills: Children need fine motor skills to Play, Eat, Turn lights on/off, hold crayons, paintbrushes, or utensils.  Student's who have these delays are not struggling in the cognitive development but fine motor development. Oral/motor skills:  Control of jaw, lip, mouth, tongue movements for eating and speaking. Examples of holding small objects: pincer grasp with the thumb and forefinger is another sign of delayed fine motor skill.

                                                                                          Early Language Development:   The development of language skills is critical to the development of cognitive, emotional, and social skills.  Individual's with problems in one area usually have problems/delays in others. Receptive Language: The ability to understand/comprehend spoken and written language we hear and read. Develops before Expressive Language. Children must understand SPOKEN/WRITTEN Language before they learn to write.  Example: A child's ability to listen and follow directions; "Put on your coat" Expressive Language:  Is our production of spoken and written language. Vocal sounds, facial expressions, physical gestures/body language.  Example: Lableing objects in the environment, describe actions and events, put words together in sentences, use grammar correctly “I had a drink” not “Me drinked”, retell a story, answer questions and write short story. Nonverbal Receptive Language: Understanding others' facial expressions. Example: Body Language, Eye Contact, Distance, Voice, Touch, Fashion, Behavior, Time. Verbal Receptive Language:  Understanding what others say.  Example: Qualitative Concepts like Big/Little, Tall/Short. Example: Quantitative Concepts like A lot, Little, none. Written Receptive Language:   Identifying upper/lowercase letters, numbers and reading/comprehending simple and complex sentences and paragraphs.  Example: Tracing, Copying, Writing #'s, copying simple (e.g.,”mom“) and complex words (e.g., “truck“), from an example. writing letters together, in sequence to form words (from memory), e.g., m-o-m-m-my. writing words next to each other to form sentences, e.g. I-love-my-puppy.

Receptive, Expressive, and Pragmatic Language-Delayed or Atypical Development Receptive Language Development: Comprehending language we hear and read.  Example: A child's ability to listen and follow directions; "Put on your coat" Expressive Language: Production of spoken or written language.  Example: Labeling objects in the environment, describe actions and events, put words together in sentences, use grammar correctly “I had a drink” not “Me drinked”, retell a story, answer questions and write short story. Pragmatic Language:  Using receptive and expressive language that facilitates social interactions. These two types of language depend upon receptive language. Example: If a baby is not imitating others' vocal sounds/behaviors or responding to hearing his/her name called or seems to not be listening to others by 12 months, this can indicate a delay/deficient receptive language development.   Example: By 3 years old if a child doesn't follow instructions he/she does not learn to speak normally this is an example of receptive language delay.  Example: By 5 years old  if a child asks others to repeat/or having trouble answering questions. They may have receptive language delays.  Example: By 7 years old signs of receptive language deficits include having trouble understanding stories told/read aloud, avoiding participating in social activities, or having trouble processing or making sense of verbal information.  Example: By 9 years old Having trouble reading sentences is a sign of receptive language delays. 

                                                                                          Expressive Language Development: Expressive Language: is language we produce in order to communicate with others Example: Written words, Vocal sounds, Facial Expressions, Physical gestures/body language.  

                                                                        Vocal /Spoken Verbal Expressive Language Development: Verbal Expressive Language: Can be spoken/written.  Example: Infants forms of verbalization also include vocalizations. "Coo" repeating prolonged vowel sounds, "Grunts" make guttural sounds expressing satisfaction/contentedness; and soon begin to babble by repeating consonant-vowel combinations like "bababa"and "dadada" Infants also imitate adults' vocal sounds and facial expressions. Their first words are often "Mama" or "Dada" which coincide with babbling sounds.  Example: As their speech develops, they echo/repeat others' utterances  "Up" to mean "Pick Me Up" or "Look at the bird up there." Example: They combine pointing with nouns to Identify People, Animals, and Things; "Baby", "Doggie" or "Car"  Example: They soon learn to use the socially conventional utterances; "Thank You" and "Please"  Example: Toddlers then learn to combine TWO words to express phrase concepts, like "Daddy go" or "Mommy shoe" They can also convey a variety of meanings.

                                                                     Development of spoken Verbal Expressive Language Skills:  Development of Verbal Expressive Language Skills: Once kids can speak they use more than one-word expressions by asking questions and answering other's questions. Example: They then begin to using words expressing Qualitative concepts. For instance opposite and relative quantities like "Big & Little", "Tall & Short" Example: They use relative Quantities like "All, none, a lot, or little" As their expressive language skills develop, they reflect children's receptive understanding of concepts.