Piaget’s Developmental Theory: An Overview

Piaget’s questions of are we creating children that can only learn what is known or if we are
creating children that can cognate and explore is one that I have thought of before as well. In
some aspects, I wonder if technology is hindering or helping us to create innovators of thought.
It is interesting to explore what Piaget would have thought of iPads for toddlers and young
children and videos of children opening toys going viral on YouTube. Would he have seen them
as tools or as distractions from healthy development? Would he see these newer technologies
as helping children to create their worlds and realities or would he have considered them a
danger to children as they often do not represent the real world?

I have several examples of developmental stages in my life right now. I have a five month old
baby and it has been so fascinating to see how he lacks object permanence as described by
Piaget. I also have nieces and nephews who are a little older and going through other
milestones of development. Learning about these stages of development also puts into
prospective other children I have been around. I nannied for much of high school and my early
college days. I would often get frustrated with some of the children for what seemed to me to
be very obvious. However, now I understand that children really are so different from adults.
Not in a bad way or even less intelligent way, but they are learning and functioning in a unique
way which gives them abilities I might not have and should appreciate.