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Prenatal and Childhood Development MODULE 10 165Children assimilate and accommodate all the time. Consider a 2-year-old, whose simple schema for dog is four-legged animal. This concept works wonderfully for all the dogs in the neighborhood but not for cats. The toddler must accommodate or modify this schema to account for four-legged animals that are not doggies (Figure 10.5).In addition to explaining how we form plans to organize and interpret information, Piaget proposed that we all pass through four separate stages of cognitive development on our journey from childhood to adulthood. Table 10.1 outlines Piaget%u2019s sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages.Sensorimotor StageAccording to Piaget, during the sensorimotor stage (from birth to about age 2), infants learn about the world through their sensory impressions and motor activities. Infants gain information by mouthing, grasping, looking, hearing, and touching%u2014and this is how they develop their schemas.Infants focus on things they can perceive through their senses. At first, the things they couldn%u2019t see or hear did not exist. But eventually, infants develop object permanence, the awareness that things continue to exist even when you cannot see or hear them.Piaget assumed object permanence was not possible until a child is approximately 8 months of age, but research indicates that he underestimated a young child%u2019s abilities. Piaget did not think infants could think or deal sensorimotor stage In Piaget%u2019s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants learn about the world through their sensory impressions and motor activities.object permanence The awareness that things continue to exist even when you cannot see or hear them.TABLE 10.1 Piaget%u2019s Stages of Cognitive DevelopmentTypical Age Range Description of Stage Key Developmental EventsBirth to nearly 2 years SensorimotorExperiencing the world through senses and actions (looking, touching, mouthing, and grasping)%u2022 Object permanenceAbout 2 to 6 or 7 years PreoperationalRepresenting things with words and images but lacking logical reasoning%u2022 Pretend play%u2022 Egocentrism%u2022 Language developmentAbout 6 or 7 to 11 years Concrete operationalThinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations%u2022 Conservation%u2022 Mathematical transformationsAbout 12 through adulthood Formal operationalAbstract reasoning%u2022 Abstract logic%u2022 Potential for mature moral reasoning%u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.