PIAGET

Piaget  suggests that cognitive development takes place as a result of the interaction between the child and the environment. Piaget felt that play emerges in the sensorimotor stage (0-2 years) during which the child practices basic sensorimotor skills (blowing, sucking, grabbing. etc.). Play, like cognitive development, develops sequentially. In the 2-4 age period preconceptual thought emerges. The child at this stage is able to utilize objects symbolically. Intuitive thought (4-7 years) is marked by the child’s ability to perceive and to imagine. The child can form a more accurate representation of his environment during the concrete operations stage (7-1 1 years) and in the formal operations stage (11-15 years) his skills become socialized, refined and expanded. Throughout these stages the child is developing cognitive schemes and adopting aspects of the environment that fit these schemes (assimilation). In addition the child may revise or adapt his cognitive schemes to fit in with realities observed through interaction with his environment (accommodation).