PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Use the following chart to outline Piaget's stages of cognitive development and identify the major problem-solving
skills of children at each stage. The diagram below represents Piaget's four main stages of development. Write
the names of the stages in the appropriate blanks.

Age Name of Stage Tasks for this Stage

Birth - 2 I

2 - 7 II

7 - 11 III

11 - IV

TASKS

1. Child can draw conclusions from a number of specific facts, but is not able to think in hypotheticals.
2. Child acts on the environment by knocking down blocks, making sounds, finding toes.
3. Child begins to understand during this stage that objects can change shape without other changes in their
characteristics (conservation).
4. Child is able to hypothesize (use If…, then… thinking)
5. Child cries when parent is no longer present. (separation anxiety)
6. Child starts to represent the world internally through language.
7. Child is able to think abstractly.
8. By end of this stage, child realizes that objects still exist although the object is not longer seen.
9. Child understands and performs operations that go in the other direction (known as reversibility). An
example is addition and subtraction.
10. At the start of the stage, the child cannot take another point of view. (egocentric)
 Stage Concept
See list below
1. A child can explain that 3 x 2 represents three sets of
two.
2. A child doesn’t sneak a cookie when his mom outside
because he thinks that she can see what he sees.
3. A child is asked to add 3 and 2. Using his fingers, he
counts and answers “5”. Asked to then add 2 + 3, the
child uses his fingers again to get the same answer.
4. A child is given a cardboard box and pretends that it is
a train.
5. A child is given a cardboard box and she explores it by
opening and closing the flaps.
6. A child proposes that maybe the color that you call
“red” is the color that, if he looked with your brain, he
would call “yellow”.
7. A child pushes a button on a toy and it makes a sound.
He repeats this over and over and over and over….
8. A child tells his friend, “I’ve got the best joke. What
can leap higher than a tall building?” “ Anything, tall
buildings can’t leap!”. The child’s understanding of the
two interpretations of the question indicate that he
has reached this stage.
9. A child uses his understanding of molecular movement
to predict how a gas would behave in different
conditions.
10. A mother takes a toy from a child and puts it under a
blanket. The child does NOT look for it.
11. Presented with a picture of 4 cats and 6 dogs, a child
is asked, which are there more of: cats or animals? The
child correctly responds, “animals”.
12. Upon overhearing his mother mention that it is
difficult for a woman to “make it to the top of a large
corporation”, the child asks why she can’t just take the
elevator.
13. Upon seeing his Aunt Sally who lives out-of-town, the
child cries.
14. When given one cookie for snack, the child begs for
more. Her mother breaks the cookie into two pieces
and the child is happy.

Concepts:
 Abstract thinking
 Conservation
 Egocentrism
 Irreversibility
 Object permanence
 Stranger Anxiety