Friday, December 17, 2010

1/2 a cookie + 1/2 a cookie = 2 cookies????

What I found really interesting this week was Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development. To learn about the stages we watched videos of children in each stage. It amazed me that you can break a cookie in front of a kid in preoperational stage and they think they have two cookies. Also, if you spread the same number of quarters over a larger area they think they have more money. This is all part of the preoperational stage of cognitive development.

Another behavior that occurs in this stage is animistic thinking. This is giving inanimate objects human characteristics. No wonder kids at this age have an attachment to dolls or stuffed animals. When I babysat kids in this stage of development I always ended up playing house or with dolls. I found out that they have a very creative imagination. The most difficult aspect of children in this stage of development is their egocenterism. When siblings started arguing it was always a lot harder to get them to settle down because they can only see the situation from their perspective.

1 comment:

  1. I found this a very interesting topic as well. All of your points were very good. I know what you mean with having to play house. I use to have to play dolls and house with my little cousin all the time with I babysat her. I also found breaking a cookie very interesting too. Great job on the post! Keep it up!

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