Paiget’s stages explained

Stage one

Sensorimotor

Sensorimotor stage time period

From birth until about two years

Sensorimotor stage description

Developing the ability to coordinate their sensory with their motor actions

Sensorimotor vocab word

Object permanence

Object permanence

Developes when a child recognizes that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible

Stage two

Preoperational

Preoperational time period

From two years old to seven years old

Preoperational description

They gradually improve their use of mental images

Animism

The belief that all things are living

Egocentrism

Limited ability to share another persons view point, they do what they want

Centration

Tendency to focus on one thing at a time

Irreversibility

Inability to envision reversing an action

stage three

Concrete operational

Concrete operational time period

Seven to eleven

Concrete operational description

Can perform operations only on images of tangible objects and actual events

Theory of mind in concrete operational

Gain a sense of what others are thinking or feeling, leads to empathy

Conservation

Piaget’s term for the awareness that physical quantities remain constant in spite of changes in their shape or appearance

Conservation example

Brady has two slices of pizza, Connor has one slice cut in half—Connor thinks that he has the same amount

Stage four

Formal operational

Former operational time period

Begins around age 11

Formal operational description

They begin to apply their operations to abstract concepts in addition to concrete objects