Piaget's Theory

Piaget’s theory is based on the fact that children’s thinking does not develop in a smooth fashion. Instead he figured that the children’s thinking goes into certain “take off” mode. Piaget believed that from early on a child acts like a tiny scientist who is actively involved in making guesses or hypotheses about how the world works (Wadsworth 388). His main belief is that children learn to understand things through two processes called assimilation and accommodation (Wadsworth 388). Piaget’s theory is based off four stages; sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal. The Sensorimotor takes place roughly from birth to about two years old (Atherton n.pag.). This stage is when the child starts to relate their sensory experiences (such as hearing and seeing) to their motor actions (such as mouthing and grasping) (Wadsworth 389). Another stage that is exceeded during sensorimotor is the object permanence. The children begin to understand objects continue to exist even if they can no longer hear, touch, or see them (Atherton n.pag.). I started observing kindergartners and noticed that there were not any students that were still in this first stage.