Developmental
Stage
& Approximate Age |
Characteristic Behavior |
|
I.
Sensory Motor Period
(0 - 24 months)
|
|
| Reflexive
Stage (0-2 months) |
Simple
reflex activity such as grasping, sucking. |
Primary
Circular Reactions
(2-4 months) |
Reflexive
behaviors occur in stereotyped repetition such as opening and
closing fingers repetitively. |
| Secondary
Circular Reactions (4-8 months) |
Repetition
of change actions to reproduce interesting consequences such as
kicking one's feet to more a mobile suspended over the crib. |
| Coordination
of Secondary Reactions (8-12 months) |
Responses
become coordinated into more complex sequences. Actions take
on an "intentional" character such as the infant reaches
behind a screen to obtain a hidden object. |
Tertiary
Circular Reactions
(12-18 months) |
Discovery
of new ways to produce the same consequence or obtain the same
goal such as the infant may pull a pillow toward him in an attempt
to get a toy resting on it. |
| Invention
of New Means Through Mental Combination (18-24 months) |
Evidence
of an internal representational system. Symbolizing the
problem-solving sequence before actually responding.
Deferred imitation. |
|
II.
The Preoperational Period
(2-7 years)
|
|
Preoperational
Phase
(2-4 years) |
Increased
use of verbal representation but speech is egocentric. The
beginnings of symbolic rather than simple motor play.
Transductive reasoning. Can think about something without
the object being present by use of language. |
| Intuitive
Phase (4-7 years) |
Speech
becomes more social, less egocentric. The child has an
intuitive grasp of logical concepts in some areas. However,
there is still a tendency to focus attention on one aspect of an
object while ignoring others. Concepts formed are crude and
irreversible. Easy to believe in magical increase,
decrease, disappearance. Reality not firm. Perceptions
dominate judgement.
In moral-ethical realm, the child
is not able to show principles underlying best behavior.
Rules of a game not develop, only uses simple do's and don'ts
imposed by authority.
|
|
III.
Period of Concrete Operations (7-11 years)
|
Evidence
for organized, logical thought. There is the ability to
perform multiple classification tasks, order objects in a logical
sequence, and comprehend the principle of conservation.
thinking becomes less transductive and less egocentric. The
child is capable of concrete problem-solving.
Some
reversibility now possible (quantities moved can be restored such
as in arithmetic: 3+4 = 7 and 7-4 = 3, etc.)
Class
logic-finding bases to sort unlike objects into logical groups
where previously it was on superficial perceived attribute such as
color. Categorical labels such as "number"
or animal" now available.
|
|
IV.
Period of Formal Operations (11-15 years)
|
Thought
becomes more abstract, incorporating the principles of formal
logic. The ability to generate abstract propositions,
multiple hypotheses and their possible outcomes is evident.
Thinking becomes less tied to concrete reality.
Formal logical
systems can be acquired. Can handle proportions, algebraic
manipulation, other purely abstract processes. If a + b = x
then x = a - b. If ma/ca = IQ = 1.00 then Ma = CA.
Prepositional
logic, as-if and if-then steps. Can use aids such as axioms
to transcend human limits on comprehension.
|
