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The Four Stages Of Jean Piaget's Cognitive Development

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Jean Piaget was a theorist that focused on individual’s mental processes (Rathus, S., & Longmuir, S., 2011, p.10). Piaget analyzed how children distinguish and mentally show the world and how there, logic, thinking and problem-solving ability is developed (Rathus, S., & Longmuir, S., 2011, p.10). Piaget believed that children’s cognitive processes develop in an orderly sequence (Rathus, S., & Longmuir, S., 2011, p.10). It has 4 stages such as, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and, formal operational (Rathus, S., & Longmuir, S., 2011, p.11). In this paper, I will discuss how Piaget developed his theory and how toys can meet each need during the 4 specific stages.

In Piaget’s theory, sensorimotor is the first stage which …show more content…

The last substage lasts from 18 to 24 months and this is where the external exploration is replaced by mental exploration (Rathus, S., & Longmuir, S., 2011, p.83). Ojose studied Piaget’s theory and concluded in this stage that object permanence is shown, which is when the child can find objects after the objects are placed in an unknown spot, they can still find the objects even though they are unable to see them (Ojose, 2008, p. 26). External stimuli increase the infant’s cognitive development because you are introduced to different objects and noises around you. When that happens, you observe what is happening around you and you can connect with things. External stimuli also triggers your motor skills. Over all, sensorimotor focuses on knowing where objects are and discovering your world, and that is what external stimuli helps the infant do.

A play mat is a toy that infants grow up with, a play mat is a mat that the infant lays on and while they are laying, there are objects hanging down, it can be a musical object hanging down a teddy or a sun shaped object. A play mat is colorful mat that little babies love and this helps parents do their work as well because the baby is distracted with there toy. This toy meets Piaget’s needs because in the first substage infants tend to focus on identifying objects, locating where it goes. If they are crying the objects under the mat are always a good distraction because it helps them get busy and identify what’s around

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