Jean Piaget’s Theory of

Cognitive
Development
Sensorimotor (Birth to 2 years of
age)
• The child is experiencing a
sensation.
• Tasting or sucking on the lemon,
the child now knows that it is
sour.
• Here the caregiver may repeat
the word “lemon” as the child
tastes it, establishing a word that
may help the child recognize the
lemon later.
Preoperational (ages 2 to 7)
• Children at the preoperational
stage when presented with two
equal pieces of PlayDoh, one
flattened, one rolled into a ball,
will likely choose the flattened
piece because it “looks larger”.
• The child’s thinking at this stage
is restrictive so even if the
caregiver explained the logic, the
child will remain in their
concrete thinking.
Concrete Operational (ages 7 to 11)
• In picture I, both A and B contain
equal amounts of the liquid.
• In picture II, the contents of B are
poured into C.
• Children in the preoperational
stage can determine by using
their logic, that the contents of A
and C are still equal, because it
was shown at the beginning that
A and B both contained equal
amounts of the liquid.
Formal Operational (ages 12 and
beyond)
• The youth at this stage, are capable
of understanding mathematical
reasoning and concepts.
• In the picture you can see the teen
speaking about the area of a triangle
to an audience similar in age.
• If Piaget’s theory is true then
children below the age of 12 would
have a more difficult time
understanding the concept of
shapes having measurable areas.