The Ages of Stages

Sensorimotor Stage     birth to 2 years             
Preoperational Stage   2 to 6 years
Conrete Operational    7  to 11 years
Formal Operational     12 years to adulthood

According to Jean Piaget each child enters the four stages of cognitive learning at their own pace.  A child cannot learn skills that they are not ready for and he feels this is why certain skills should not be introduced too early in education.  The child simply would not be ready to comprehend the lesson.

Who is Jean Piaget?

                         

• Jean Piaget was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland in 1896 and died in 1980. 
• He was a psychologist who created the cognitive learning theory. 
• He developed his theory through observations of children.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget
*Since Wikipedia is an interactive site make sure to verify the information you read.

 

The four stages of Jean Piaget's cognitive theory of learning

• sensorimotor: learn through senses and motor activities
• preoperational: pretend play, speech and communication development
• concrete operational: logical reasoning, problem solving and beginning of abstract thinking
• formal operational: abstract thinking, deductive logic, and test hypotheses