Jean Paget's Four Stages Of Cognitive Development

A child’s abilities associated with memory, reasoning, problem solving and thinking are all a part of their cognitive development. Jean Paget, created an idea that children go through four steps of cognitive development. Up until a child reaches the age of two they are learning through their senses, reflexes and the way the manipulate materials. (Mooney, 2013 p.81) It is said that young children are just trying to find understanding in the world around them. Toddlers like to have a routine, this helps them becomes organized and focus their attention. When a child is thrown off of their routine or doesn’t have a routine to begin with they seem to be more easily distracted and therefore miss out on learning opportunities. As toddlers develop a sense of object prominence, meaning they know something exists even when they cannot see it. Between the ages of twenty and twenty-four months a toddler should be able to find an object under two to three covers. Also, around this age children should begin to sort objects by shapes and colors. Make-believe play is also a form of cognitive development. It is an example of children putting together what they understand of the world and acting it out for themselves. During their play a toddler “might call anything with four …show more content…
Young children need support and guidance in their everyday lives. Children need to be provided with a safe environment that will encourage them to grow physically, emotionally, socially, cognitively, and will also help language development. The development of a young child will lead to their successes in the future, so starting a child at a young age with habits, routines and expectations will increase a child’s enthusiasm to learn. All children want to learn, it is my job as a teacher to keep them from getting discouraged so they can grow and prosper to the best of their