Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Piaget believed that children acquire knowledge based on their experiences in order to achieve continuous understanding within themselves. Children
will integrate new information from new experiences with information from previous experiences for them to understand new concepts and adjust
their expectations to enter the new information into their cognitive development. Moreover, he declared that children’s thinking grows in sequence of
stages. After reaching a certain stage, the child will not return to the previous stage.
Sensorimotor Intelligence Preoperational Thinking Concrete Operational Thinking Formal Operational Thinking
(Birth to Age 2) (Ages 2 to 7) (Ages 7 to 11) (Age 11 on)
Babies build understanding through
At this stage children have a high Children begin to think logically and They are not only able to think about
their senses such as seeing, feeling, more flexible with their thoughts and
power of imagination and fantasy in the reality of the world but they are
hearing and touching ideas which leads them to solve
their minds. also able to reason abstractly and
Children who reach the age about 6 problems in a more systematic way
months and above, they begin to idealistically.
This happen because children they Children are able to make logical
organize ideas into firm concepts still cannot really understand about reasoning but they are still tied to They are able to solve problems in a
that do not change the reality of the world. concrete objects or events more organized and systematic way
Children who are at the end of this Two things that discriminate concrete with a combination of knowledge,
sensorimotor stage, they have an Children are very confident with the operational thinking in this stage:
skills and experience
things that they know, even though Reversibility = Allow child to manipulate
understanding of object permanence
the order of any process
Teens have the ability to form
For example, babies initially do not they are less aware of logical hypotheses and able to take up the
Decentering = Allow child to step back
understand about a particular object, thinking challenge to get the validity of the
and analyse an issue from more than
but when they look and feel it one angle information
They continue to build understanding
constantly, they will begin to Children being able to consider the Teens do not need much help from
through dramatic ways
understand the object and be able to problem from another perspective
others to help them in solving
store information about the object Children make more deliberate and
calculated choices, which illustrate that problem because they are more
into their minds.
they are aware of their decentering. likely to be independent and need
At this stage, children learn
something through repetitive actions Implications in teaching and learning less instruction from their teacher
Children at this stage should be Implications in teaching and learning
but not through language because
encouraged to develop their creativity Teachers need to provide concrete materials while Implications in teaching and learning
they still cannot speak well through imaginative activities such as Teachers can use concrete materials to
teaching in order to challenge students to think
drawing, listening to music and fiction logically and analytically. Teachers need to plan illustrate more complex concepts such as the
storytelling. While engaged in imaginative teaching activities that can challenge students use of 3D materials, models, charts and
play, children are simultaneously reflecting ’thinking to force them to broaden their existing diagrams as the beginning of more complex
on the realistic experience. knowledge. Teacher needs to show the solution teaching. Teachers must give students the
according to simple and systematic steps. opportunity to solve the problem and direct
them to show cause to put forward solutions.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development helps augment our understanding of children’s intellectual growth. It also emphasizes that children are not just
passive recipients of knowledge. Instead, children are constantly investigating and experimenting as they build their understanding of how the world works.
Chomsky’s Theory of Language Development
Noam Chomsky declared that humans may be born with a natural skill that allows them to detect characteristics and rules in the using of language. Each
individual has been genetically programmed with universal grammar which is a basic understanding of how communication is structured.
The reason Chomsky declared that Universal WE LEARN IN THE SAME
LANGUAGES SHARE CERTAIN
BASIC TRAITS Grammar is exist SEQUENCE
Chomsky emphasizes that all WE LEARN LANGUAGE MOST WE LEARN DESPITE A “POVERTY Children naturally develop
languages contain similar EFFORTESSLY OF STIMULUS” language in the same sequence of
structures and rules despite their steps
other variations Although each child goes through
All languages have similar Children develop language in a Humans learn complex
very similar way and in a short this stage at a different rate, but
elements, for example adjectives, languages with complicated rules
period of time without much effort they are all going through the same
nouns and verbs and grammar without receiving sequence of language development
All language use structures that because they are generally
explicit instructions
repeat themselves, for example, already exposed to language
formation since they are born Humans in tend to increase their Children’s specific language
“She wore an itsy-bitsy, teeny- mastery of complex language development stage:
weeny, yellow polka dot dress.” Children will observe and match
sentence structure with the developments
The richness of recursive 1. Infant absorb and produce speech
language allows humans to language used in their Children automatically sounds
expand sentences by placing environment understand the correct way to 2. Infant babble with a consonant-then-
repeating structures inside each Children have a natural arrange sentence structure vowel pattern
other, for example, “She believed understanding of how words work 3. Children begin to speak first basic
without being taught
Ricky was innocent” almost even if they themselves do not words
endlessly: “Lucy believed that know the words, this may be 4. Children develop vocabulary over
happen because they have heard time and learn to classify things
Fred and Ethel knew Ricky had
people around them use the 5. Children build two-word sentences
insisted he was innocent.” and then increase the complexity of
language
their sentences
Implications of teaching and learning
Since young children are primed for natural language acquisition, so learning a second language may be more effective in early childhood. Teachers should encourage
students to learn many languages. This can be done by pronouncing words in various languages so that they become accustomed to the words they always hear.
Teachers can use flash cards to show them new words. This needs to be done regularly so that they can recall the words that we show them.
Based on Chomsky’s theory, the idea that all languages contain similar structures and rules (a universal grammar), and the fact that children everywhere
acquire language the same way, and without much effort, seems to indicate that we are born wired with the basics already present in our brains.
