From Birth to 3 Months

The first three months of a child's life are a time of wonder. Major developmental milestones at
this age are centered on exploring the basic senses and learning more about the body and the
environment. During this period, most infants begin to:

 See objects more clearly within a distance of 13 inches

 Focus on moving objects, including the faces of caregivers
 Tell between sweet, salty, bitter, and sour tastes
 Detect differences in pitch and volume
 See all colors in the human visual spectrum
 Respond to their environment with facial expressions
 Demonstrate anticipatory behaviors like rooting and sucking at the site of a nipple or
bottle

From 3 to 6 Months

In early infancy, perceptual abilities are still developing. From the age of three to six months,
infants begin to develop a stronger sense of perception. At this age, most babies begin to:

 Recognize familiar faces

 Respond to the facial expressions of other people
 Recognize and react to familiar sounds
 Begin to imitate facial expressions

From 6 to 9 Months

Looking inside the mind of an infant is no easy task. After all, researchers cannot just ask a baby
what he or she is thinking at any given moment. To learn more about the mental processes of
infants, researchers have come up with a number of creative tasks that reveal the inner workings
of the baby brain.

From the age of six to nine months, researchers have found that most infants begin to:

 Understand the differences between animate and inanimate objects

 Tell the differences between pictures depicting different numbers of objects
 Utilize the relative size of an object to determine how far away it is
 Gaze longer at "impossible" things such as an object suspended in midair

From 9 to 12 Months

As infants become more physically adept, they are able to explore the world around them in
greater depth. Sitting up, crawling, and walking are just a few of the physical milestones that
allow babies to gain a greater mental understanding of the world around them.

As they approach one year of age, most infants are able to:
  Understand the concept of object permanence, the idea that an object continues to exist
even though it cannot be seen
 Imitate gestures and some basic actions
 Respond with gestures and sounds
 Like looking at picture books
 Manipulate objects by turning them over, trying to put one object into another, etc.

From 1 Year to 2 Years

After reaching a year of age, children's physical, social, and cognitive development seems to
grow by leaps and bounds. Children at this age spend a tremendous amount of time observing the
actions of adults, so it is important for parents and caregivers to set good examples for behavior.

Most one-year-olds begin to:

 Understand and respond to words

 Identify objects that are similar
 Tell the difference between "Me" and "You"
 Imitate the actions and language of adults
 Can point out familiar objects and people in a picture book
 Learn through exploration

From 2 to 3 Years

At two years of age, children are becoming increasingly independent. Since they are now able to
better explore the world, a great deal of learning during this stage is the result of their own
experiences.

Most two-year-olds are able to:

 Sort objects by category (i.e., animals, flowers, trees, etc.)

 Stack rings on a peg from largest to smallest
 Imitate more complex adult actions (playing house, pretending to do laundry, etc.)
 Identify their own reflection in the mirror by name
 Respond to simple directions from parents and caregivers
 Name objects in a picture book
 Match objects with their uses

From 3 to 4 Years

Children become increasingly capable of analyzing the world around them in more complex
ways. As they observe things, they begin to sort and categorize them into different categories,
often referred to as schemas. Since children are becoming much more active in the learning
process, they also begin to pose questions about the world around them. "Why?" becomes a very
common question around this age.
At the age of three, most kids are able to:

 Demonstrate awareness of the past and present

 Actively seek answers to questions
 Learn by observing and listening to instructions
 Organize objects by size and shape
 Understand how to group and match object according to color
 Have a longer attention span of around 5 to 15 minutes
 Asks "why" questions to gain information

From 4 to 5 Years

As they near school age, children become better at using words, imitating adult actions, counting
and other basic activities that are important for school preparedness.

Most four-year-olds are able to:

 Rhyme
 Name and identify many colors
 Draw the shape of a person
 Count to five
 Tell where they live
 Draw pictures that they often name and describe
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different
stages of mental development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children
acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence. Piaget's stages are:

 Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years

 Preoperational stage: ages 2 to 7
 Concrete operational stage: ages 7 to 11
 Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up

Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning process, acting much like little
scientists as they perform experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids
interact with the world around them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon existing
knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to accommodate new information.

How Piaget Developed the Theory

Piaget was born in Switzerland in the late 1800s and was a precocious student, publishing his
first scientific paper when he was just 11 years old. His early exposure to the intellectual
development of children came when he worked as an assistant to Alfred Binet and Theodore
Simon as they worked to standardize their famous IQ test.

Much of Piaget's interest in the cognitive development of children was inspired by his
observations of his own nephew and daughter. These observations reinforced his budding
hypothesis that children's minds were not merely smaller versions of adult minds. Up until this
point in history, children were largely treated simply as smaller versions of adults. Piaget was
one of the first to identify that the way that children think is different from the way adults think.

Instead, he proposed, intelligence is something that grows and develops through a series of
stages. Older children do not just think more quickly than younger children, he suggested.
Instead, there are both qualitative and quantitative differences between the thinking of young
children versus older children.

Based on his observations, he concluded that children were not less intelligent than adults, they
simply think differently. Albert Einstein called Piaget's discovery "so simple only a genius could
have thought of it."

Piaget's stage theory describes the cognitive development of children. Cognitive development
involves changes in cognitive process and abilities. In Piaget's view, early cognitive development
involves processes based upon actions and later progresses to changes in mental operations.

The Stages

Through his observations of his children, Piaget developed a stage theory of intellectual
development that included four distinct stages:
The Sensorimotor Stage
Ages: Birth to 2 Years

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

 The infant knows the world through their movements and sensations.
 Children learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking, grasping, looking,
and listening.
 Infants learn that things continue to exist even though they cannot be seen (object
permanence).
 They are separate beings from the people and objects around them.
 They realize that their actions can cause things to happen in the world around them.

During this earliest stage of cognitive development, infants and toddlers acquire knowledge
through sensory experiences and manipulating objects. A child's entire experience at the earliest
period of this stage occurs through basic reflexes, senses, and motor responses.

It is during the sensorimotor stage that children go through a period of dramatic growth and
learning. As kids interact with their environment, they are continually making new discoveries
about how the world works.

The cognitive development that occurs during this period takes place over a relatively short
period of time and involves a great deal of growth. Children not only learn how to perform
physical actions such as crawling and walking, they also learn a great deal about language from
the people with whom they they interact. Piaget also broke this stage down into a number of
different substages. It is during the final part of the sensorimotor stage that early representational
thought emerges.

Piaget believed that developing object permanence or object constancy, the understanding that
objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, was an important element at this point
of development. By learning that objects are separate and distinct entities and that they have an
existence of their own outside of individual perception, children are then able to begin to attach
names and words to objects.

The Preoperational Stage

Ages: 2 to 7 Years

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

 Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent
objects.
 Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective
of others.
 While they are getting better with language and thinking, they still tend to think about
things in very concrete terms.
The foundations of language development may have been laid during the previous stage, but it is
the emergence of language that is one of the major hallmarks of the preoperational stage of
development. Children become much more skilled at pretend play during this stage of
development, yet still think very concretely about the world around them.

At this stage, kids learn through pretend play but still struggle with logic and taking the point of
view of other people. They also often struggle with understanding the idea of constancy.
For example, a researcher might take a lump of clay, divide it into two equal pieces, and then
give a child the choice between two pieces of clay to play with. One piece of clay is rolled into a
compact ball while the other is smashed into a flat pancake shape. Since the flat
shape looks larger, the preoperational child will likely choose that piece even though the two
pieces are exactly the same size.

The Concrete Operational Stage

Ages: 7 to 11 Years

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes

 During this stage, children begin to thinking logically about concrete events.
 They begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of liquid in a
short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for example.
 Their thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete.
 Children begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a general
principle.

While children are still very concrete and literal in their thinking at this point in development,
they become much more adept at using logic. The egocentrism of the previous stage begins to
disappear as kids become better at thinking about how other people might view a situation.

While thinking becomes much more logical during the concrete operational state, it can also be
very rigid. Kids at this point in development tend to struggle with abstract and hypothetical
concepts.

During this stage, children also become less egocentric and begin to think about how other
people might think and feel. Kids in the concrete operational stage also begin to understand that
their thoughts are unique to them and that not everyone else necessarily shares their thoughts,
feelings, and opinions.

The Formal Operational Stage

Ages: 12 and Up

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

 At this stage, the adolescent or young adult begins to think abstractly and reason about
hypothetical problems.
 Abstract thought emerges.
  Teens begin to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues
that require theoretical and abstract reasoning.
 Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific
information.

The final stage of Piaget's theory involves an increase in logic, the ability to use deductive
reasoning, and an understanding of abstract ideas. At this point, people become capable of seeing
multiple potential solutions to problems and think more scientifically about the world around
them.

The ability to thinking about abstract ideas and situations is the key hallmark of the formal
operational stage of cognitive development. The ability to systematically plan for the future and
reason about hypothetical situations are also critical abilities that emerge during this stage.

It is important to note that Piaget did not view children's intellectual development as a
quantitative process; that is, kids do not just add more information and knowledge to their
existing knowledge as they get older. Instead, Piaget suggested that there is a qualitative change
in how children think as they gradually process through these four stages. A child at age 7
doesn't just have more information about the world than he did at age 2; there is a fundamental
change in how he thinks about the world.
The sensorimotor stage
The sensorimotor stage is the earliest in Piaget's theory of cognitive development. He described
this period as a time of tremendous growth and change.

During this initial phase of development, children utilize skills and abilities they were born with
(such as looking, sucking, grasping, and listening) to learn more about the environment. In other
words, they experience the world and gain knowledge through their senses and motor
movements.

As children interact with their environments, they go through an astonishing amount of cognitive
growth in a relatively short period of time—the sensorimotor stage lasts from birth to
approximately age 2.

Illustration by Hugo Lin. © Verywell, 2018.

Substages

The sensorimotor stage can be divided into six separate sub-stages that are characterized by the
development of a new skill:

1. Reflexes (0-1 month): During this substage, the child understands the environment
purely through inborn reflexes such as sucking and looking.
2. Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months): This substage involves coordinating
sensation and new schemas. For example, a child may suck his or her thumb by accident
and then later intentionally repeat the action. These actions are repeated because the
infant finds them pleasurable.
3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months): During this substage, the child becomes
more focused on the world and begins to intentionally repeat an action in order to trigger
a response in the environment. For example, a child will purposefully pick up a toy in
order to put it in his or her mouth.
4. Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months): During this substage, the child starts to show
clearly intentional actions. The child may also combine schemas in order to achieve a
desired effect. Children begin exploring the environment around them and will often
imitate the observed behavior of others. The understanding of objects also begins during
this time and children begin to recognize certain objects as having specific qualities. For
example, a child might realize that a rattle will make a sound when shaken.

1. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months): Children begin a period of trial-and-error

experimentation during the fifth substage. For example, a child may try out different
sounds or actions as a way of getting attention from a caregiver.
2. Early Representational Thought (18-24 months): Children begin to develop symbols
to represent events or objects in the world in the final sensorimotor substage. During this
 time, children begin to move towards understanding the world through mental operations
rather than purely through actions.

Object Permanence

According to Piaget, developing object permanence is one of the most important

accomplishments at the sensorimotor stage of development. Object permanence is a child's
understanding that objects continue to exist even though they cannot be seen or heard.

Imagine a game of peek-a-boo, for example. A very young infant will believe that the other
person or object has actually vanished and will act shocked or startled when the object reappears.
Older infants who understand object permanence will realize that the person or object continues
to exist even when unseen.

This is a classic example of how, during this stage, an infant's knowledge of the world is limited
to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities and how behaviors are limited to simple
motor responses caused by sensory stimuli.
The preoperational stage
The preoperational stage is the second stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development. This
stage begins around age 2, as children start to talk, and lasts until approximately age 7.

During this stage, children begin to engage in symbolic play and learn to manipulate symbols.
However, Piaget noted that they do not yet understand concrete logic.

Illustration by Hugo Lin. © Verywell, 2018.

Major Characteristics

The preoperational stage occurs roughly between the ages 2 and 7. Language development is one
of the hallmarks of this period. Piaget noted that children in this stage do not yet understand
concrete logic, cannot mentally manipulate information, and are unable to take the point of view
of other people, which he termed egocentrism.

During the preoperational stage, children also become increasingly adept at using symbols, as
evidenced by the increase in playing and pretending. For example, a child is able to use an object
to represent something else, such as pretending a broom is a horse.

Role-playing also becomes important— Children often play the roles of "mommy," "daddy,"
"doctor," and many other characters.

Understanding Egocentrism

Piaget used a number of creative and clever techniques to study the mental abilities of children.
One of the famous techniques to demonstrate egocentrism involved using a three-dimensional
display of a mountain scene. Often referred to as the "Three Mountain Task," children are asked
to choose a picture that showed the scene they had observed.

Most children are able to do this with little difficulty. Next, children are asked to select a picture
showing what someone else would have observed when looking at the mountain from a different
viewpoint.

Invariably, children almost always choose the scene showing their own view of the mountain
scene. According to Piaget, children experience this difficulty because they are unable to take on
another person's perspective.

Other researchers have also conducted similar experiments. In one study, children were shown a
room in a small dollhouse. Children were able to see in the dollhouse that a toy was hidden
behind a piece of furniture. Children were then taken into a full-size room that was an exact
replica of the dollhouse. Very young children did not understand to look behind the couch to find
the toy, while slightly older children immediately searched for the toy.
Developmental psychologists refer to the ability to understand that other people have different
perspectives, thoughts, feelings, and mental states as theory of mind.

Understanding Conservation

Another well-known experiment involves demonstrating a child's understanding of conservation.

In one conservation experiment, equal amounts of liquid are poured into two identical containers.
The liquid in one container is then poured into a differently shaped cup, such as a tall and thin
cup or a short and wide cup. Children are then asked which cup holds the most liquid. Despite
seeing that the liquid amounts were equal, children almost always choose the cup that appears
fuller.

Piaget conducted a number of similar experiments on the conservation of number, length, mass,
weight, volume, and quantity. He found that few children showed any understanding of
conservation prior to the age of five.

Criticisms

As you might have noticed, much of Piaget's focus at this stage of development focused on what
children could not yet do. The concepts of egocentrism and conservation are both centered on
abilities that children have not yet developed; they lack the understanding that things look
different to other people and that objects can change in appearance while still maintaining the
same properties.

However, not everyone agrees with Piaget's assessment of children's abilities. Researcher Martin
Hughes, for example, argued that the reason that children failed at the three mountains task was
simply that they did not understand it. In an experiment that involved utilizing dolls, Hughes
demonstrated that children as young as age 4 were able to understand situations from multiple
points of view, suggesting that children become less egocentric at an earlier age than Piaget
believed.
The concrete operational stage
The concrete operational stage is the third stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development. This
period spans the time of middle childhood—it begins around age 7 and continues until
approximately age 11—and is characterized by the development of logical thought. While their
thinking still tends to be very concrete, children become much more logical and sophisticated in
their thinking during this stage of development.

While this is an important stage in and of itself, it also serves as an important transition between
earlier stages of development and the coming stage where kids will learn how to think more
abstractly and hypothetically. While kids at this age become more logical about concrete and
specific things, they still struggle with abstract ideas.

Understanding Logic

Piaget determined that children in the concrete operational stage were fairly good at the use of
inductive logic (inductive reasoning). Inductive logic involves going from a specific experience
to a general principle. An example of inductive logic would be noticing that every time you are
around a cat, you have itchy eyes, a runny nose, and a swollen throat. You might then reason
from that experience that you are allergic to cats.

On the other hand, children at this age have difficulty using deductive logic, which involves
using a general principle to determine the outcome of a specific event. For example, a child
might learn that A=B, and B=C, but might still struggle to understand that A=C.

Understanding Reversibility

One of the most important developments in this stage is an understanding of reversibility or

awareness that actions can be reversed. An example of this is being able to reverse the order of
relationships between mental categories. For example, a child might be able to recognize that his
or her dog is a Labrador, that a Labrador is a dog, and that a dog is an animal.

Other Key Characteristics

Another key development at this stage is the understanding that when something changes in
shape or appearance it is still the same, a concept known as conservation. Kids at this stage
understand that if you break a candy bar up into smaller pieces it is still the same amount at when
the candy was whole. This is a contrast to younger children who often believe that pouring the
same amount of liquid into two cups means that there is more.

For example, imagine that you have two candy bars of the exact same size. You break one candy
bar up into two equally sized pieces and the other candy bar up into four smaller but equally
sized sections. A child who is in the concrete operational stage will understand that both candy
bars are still the same amount, whereas a younger child will believe that the candy bar that has
more pieces is larger than the one with only two pieces.
The concrete operational stage is also marked by decreases in egocentrism. While children in the
preceding stage of development (the preoperational stage) struggle to take the perspective of
others, kids in the concrete stage are able to think about things the way that others see them. In
Piaget's Three-Mountain Task, for example, children in the concrete operational stage can
describe how a mountain scene would look to an observer seated opposite them.

In other words, kids are not only able to start thinking about how other people view and
experience the world, they even start to use this type of information when making decisions or
solving problems.

Observations

One of the key characteristics of the concrete-operational stage is the ability to focus on many
parts of a problem. While kids in the preoperational stage of development tend to focus on just
one aspect of a situation or problem, those in the concrete operational stage are able to engage in
what is known as "decentration." They are able to concentrate on many aspects of a situation at
the same time, which plays a critical role in the understanding of conservation.

This stage of cognitive development also serves as an important transition between the
preoperational and formal operational stages. Reversibility is an important step toward more
advanced thinking, although at this stage it only applies to concrete situations.

While kids at earlier stages of development are egocentric, those in the concrete operational
stage become more sociocentric. In other words, they are able to understand that other people
have their own thoughts. Kids at this point are aware that other people have unique perspectives,
but they might not yet be able to guess exactly how or what that other person is experiencing.
This growing ability to mentally manipulate information and think about the thoughts of others
will play a critical role in the formal operational stage of development, when logic and abstract
thought become critical.
The formal operational stage
The formal operational stage is the fourth and final stage of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive
development. It begins at approximately age 12 and lasts into adulthood.

At this point in development, thinking becomes much more sophisticated and advanced. Kids
can think about abstract and theoretical concepts and use logic to come up with creative solutions
to problems. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also
emerge during this stage.

Piaget's Testing

Piaget tested formal operational thought in a few different ways.

One task involved having children of different ages balance a scale by hooking weights on each
end. To balance the scale, the children needed to understand that both the heaviness of the
weights and distance from the center played a role.

Younger children around the ages of 3 and 5 were unable to complete the task because they did
not understand the concept of balance. Seven-year-olds knew that they could adjust the scale by
placing weights on each end, but failed to understand that where they put the weights was also
important. By age 10, the kids considered location as well as weight but had to arrive at the
correct answer using trial-and-error. It wasn't until around age 13 that children could use logic to
form a hypothesis about where to place the weights to balance the scale and then complete the
task.

In another experiment on formal operational thought, Piaget asked children to imagine where
they would want to place a third eye if they had one. Younger children said that they would put
the imagined third eye in the middle of their forehead. Older children, however, were able to
come up with a variety of creative ideas about where to place this hypothetical eye and various
ways the eye could be used. An eye in the middle of one's hand would be useful for looking
around corners. An eye at the back of one's head could be helpful for seeing what is happening in
the background. Such creative ideas represent the use of abstract and hypothetical thinking, both
important indicators of formal operational thought.

Understanding Logic

Piaget believed that deductive reasoning became necessary during the formal operational stage.
Deductive logic requires the ability to use a general principle to determine a particular outcome.
Science and mathematics often require this type of thinking about hypothetical situations and
concepts.

Abstract Thought
While children tend to think very concretely and specifically in earlier stages, the ability to think
about abstract concepts emerges during the formal operational stage. Instead of relying solely on
previous experiences, children begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences of actions.
This type of thinking is important in long-term planning.

Problem-Solving

In earlier stages, children used trial-and-error to solve problems. During the formal operational
stage, the ability to systematically solve a problem in a logical and methodical way emerges.
Children at the formal operational stage of cognitive development are often able to plan quickly
an organized approach to solving a problem.

Other Key Characteristics

Piaget believed that what he referred to as "hypothetico-deductive reasoning" was essential at

this stage of intellectual development. At this point, teens become capable of thinking about
abstract and hypothetical ideas. They often ponder "what-if" type situations and questions and
can think about multiple solutions or possible outcomes.

While kids in the previous stage (concrete operations) are very particular in their thoughts, kids
in the formal operational stage become increasingly abstract in their thinking. They also develop
what is known as metacognition, or the ability to think about their thoughts as well as the ideas
of others.

Observations

The following observations were made about the formal operational stage of cognitive
development:

 "The formal operational thinker has the ability to consider many different solutions to a problem
before acting. This greatly increases efficiency, because the individual can avoid potentially
unsuccessful attempts at solving a problem. The formal operational person considers past
experiences, present demands, and future consequences in attempting to maximize the success of
his or her adaptation to the world."
 (Salkind, 2004)
 "In the formal operational stage, actual (concrete) objects are no longer required and mental
operations can be undertaken 'in the head' using abstract terms. For example, children at this stage
can answer questions such as: 'if you can imagine something made up of two quantities, and the
whole thing remains the same when one quantity is increased, what happens to the second
quantity?' This type of reasoning can be done without thinking about actual objects."