Essay --

As children play in the dirt, run through the grass, climb trees, build cars and castles, scribble on paper, or sing songs they are developing learning skills that many are unaware. Many people mistake play as uselessness but through Piaget’s developmental stage theory he shines light on such activities and how each stage enhances children’s learning outcomes throughout life. In this paper I want to look at Piaget’s stage theory definition, identify and describe the developmental characteristics of the preoperational stage, his ideal of how a four year old classroom should be set up for activities that will enhance children’s developmental learning and explore one activity for each developmental domain. Jean Piaget was a developmental psychologist that studied how children flourish and the process of how they learn. Throughout his study he followed many children and performed many test trying to provide facts and proof on how children learn best. Through many trial and errors Piaget came up with the stages of cognitive development which he broke down into four sub-stages. These stages are: 1. Sensorimotor stage that ranges from age birth to two where the baby begins learning through his senses and body control. 2. Preoperational stage starts around age two through seven when the child enters pre-school level, begins talking in two word sentences and is beginning to experience â€Å"a more complete understanding of object permanence where the child's image-based thinking improves and develops with a capacity called representation and de-centration in which the child advances from centration to a more objective way of perceiving the world.†(para.1) 3. Concrete operational stage is from age seven till eleven which expends on the pre-oper... ... sticks. When the activity is done it leaves a hardened textured surface and you can see bits of yellow showing through. During this activity you can discuss the different shapes of the moon, where the moon light comes from and what the moon is made of. Throughout Piaget’s studies he focuses on how children develop intellectually as well as perceive the world around them. His ultimate goal was to shed light on young children’s development in which he grouped into stages to help encourage developmentally appropriate activities. Piaget’s wanted to make sure that as educators each child was being taught within their realm of knowledge and environmental appropriate settings. Through his teaching young children are being taught by hands on experiences that includes regulated time of structured teaching, self-selected activities, physical activities and proper rest time.