During the early 1900’s there were two psychologist that stood out from all the others, Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget. Vygotsky is a part of the foundation for study of cognitive development. Born in end of 1869 and died in 1934 he was the leader of developmental psychology, education, and child development in his short thirty-five years. Moreover, Jean Piaget was born in 1896 and died in 1980 during those eighty-four years he made drastic leaps in psychology and childrens’ development. Even though both men were born during the same year and they studied the same subjects their beliefs and theories differed greatly. Before Piaget’s theories it was common assumption that children were not competent thinkers as adults. Jean Piaget was the first
…show more content…
Piaget was the first to show that children think in different ways than adults. Piaget later went on to prove that intellectual growth is a process of adaptation. Piaget 's theory was based on children learning through assimilation and accommodations, and most importantly that complex cognitive development occurs through equilibration. Furthermore, he believed that children go through four stages of cognitive development. These stages are always in the same specific order, they never change and a stage is never skipped. However, Jean Piaget never actually gave an age for which children go through each stage. But, he gave descriptions of the stages that made each stage easily identifiable. The first stage is the Sensorimotor Stage, followed by the Preoperational Stage then the Concrete Operational Stage and finally the Formally Operational Stage. Due to Piaget’s study of cognitive development changes were made to the way children are educated. More importantly, Piaget findings and theories are still used in the early childhood classroom today. For example, visual aids are used whenever possible, as well as keeping instructions short as possible to maintain the child’s attention. One of the biggest and most important theories that are still
Piaget was the first to show that children think in different ways than adults. Piaget later went on to prove that intellectual growth is a process of adaptation. Piaget 's theory was based on children learning through assimilation and accommodations, and most importantly that complex cognitive development occurs through equilibration. Furthermore, he believed that children go through four stages of cognitive development. These stages are always in the same specific order, they never change and a stage is never skipped. However, Jean Piaget never actually gave an age for which children go through each stage. But, he gave descriptions of the stages that made each stage easily identifiable. The first stage is the Sensorimotor Stage, followed by the Preoperational Stage then the Concrete Operational Stage and finally the Formally Operational Stage. Due to Piaget’s study of cognitive development changes were made to the way children are educated. More importantly, Piaget findings and theories are still used in the early childhood classroom today. For example, visual aids are used whenever possible, as well as keeping instructions short as possible to maintain the child’s attention. One of the biggest and most important theories that are still