Growth from Infancy to Adolescence According to Piaget's Cognitive Model

Piaget's model contributes to understanding and fostering a child's active role in learning. It can be used as a gateway of understanding how children learn and how they view the world around them in different stages of their lives.

The first stage is the sensory-motor stage during infancy (up to around 18 months old). The baby can do such actions like suck its thumb to follow objects around with his/her eyes. The child in this stage is a baby that can only see the world through his/her own perspective and needs. The second stage is when the child participates in pre-operational thought. This is stage can last until the child is about seven years of age. The child goes through ore-conceptual and intuitive phases within the stage of pre-operational thought. Children in this stage may have a hard time distinguishing between objects that are bigger or longer. For example, play dough that is rolled into a ball may be seen as smaller than play dough that is rolled into a rope-like shape and the dough that is smashed may be seen as less than a ball of dough of the same amount that is still in an intact ball. Children who are concrete operational thinkers notice that a short glass with 50 ml of water in it has the same amount of water in it as a long, tall, glass holding 50 ml of water but standing taller than the shorter glass. The illusion that the taller glass has more water in it does not "trick" the children who have developed concrete operational thinking.

These stages are by no means strict bounded rules for development. There have and will be individuals that are not obviously in one stage or one who is not in the stage associated with their age. Hence, this is the reason why Piaget's model should be used in settings where such evaluation can be useful and practical such as a classroom with school-age children. A teacher can use this model as a reference when reflecting on the student's learning abilities and development. According to Piaget, the children who are eleven years old and beyond are at the stage of formal operational thought. These children can generalize scenarios like the two different glasses with the same amount of water and apply the same concept to a scenario they have never seen before.