Piaget’s roughly 60 year old model of cognitive development draws from different fields. These fields include the sciences, such as; biology and genetics, alongside the arts; such as philosophy and epistemology. Piaget believed that in order to observe the process of thought formation in humans; the best place to start was with a tabula rasa, a blank slate; a child.
According to Piaget; children develop as a product of complex interaction. This interaction is dependent on the maturation of the nervous system and the development of language.
This means that children mature based on their social interaction with the physical world around them. As every parent knows; kids respond to stimuli around them. These are recognizable at different stages of developmental maturity. Children develop thoughts during the very first years of their lives. These thoughts become more abstract as the child grows through each developmental stage into adulthood. Piaget’s theory is used as a reference schema for identifying and directing the rational; cognitive, thought processes made by children.
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