Your child’s ability to think, learn and solve problems varies depending on his cognitive development stage. Psychologist Jean Piaget first developed the theory of cognitive development in 1952 after observing children in their natural environments, according to the "Encyclopedia of Childrens' Health." Four cognitive stages describe the changes children complete from birth to adulthood.
Sensorimotor Stage
The sensorimotor stage occurs between birth and 2 years. Initially, children in this stage focus only on experiences, interactions and objects occurring at the present time. Children think that if an object is no longer in sight, it is permanently gone.
AllPsychOnline reports that the major achievement of this stage occurs when children understand that objects continue to exist even when they cannot see them. Other milestones include development of basic language and symbolic abilities, goal-directed behavior and learning through conducting trial-and-error experiments.
Preoperational Stage
During the preoperational stage, imagination, memory and language skills develop rapidly. The preoperational stage occurs between the ages of 2 and 7. Children in this phase begin to engage in pretend play and use hunches or intuition as a basis for some logical thinking, according to Education.com. Children in the preoperational stage believe that their point of view is the same point of view shared by other people or even inanimate objects.
Concrete Operations Stage
During the third stage of cognitive development, children gradually become less egocentric, develop logical thinking and are able to understand that other people may have different viewpoints and emotions. The concrete operations stage occurs between the ages of 7 and 12.
Children in this phase learn conservation, the ability to understand that the volume of an object stays the same even if an object is placed in a larger or small container. Children also understand the concept of grouping, but can only apply their new cognitive skills to concrete objects they have actually seen, touched or heard and cannot perform abstract thinking based on their prior experiences, according to AllPsychOnline.com.
Formal Operations Stage
The formal operations stage begins at approximately age 12 and continues into adulthood. Children in the final stage of cognitive development understand abstract thinking and can apply logical reasoning to both concrete objects and situations and abstract ideas, according to Education.com.
During this stage, children develop proportional reasoning, which is an ability necessary to understand more complicated math principles. Children in the formal operations stage are able to develop their own ideas about social and other issues and understand the value of using hypotheses to determine outcomes. Education.com reports that only 35 percent of high school graduates in industrialized countries reach the formal operations stage.
