Cognitive development - created from Mind Map

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Formal operational

Sensorimotor

Preoperational

Concrete Operational

Adolescence to adulthood

Scientific reasoning

This stage sees the emergence of scientific thinking, formulating abstract theories and hypotheses when faced with a problem.

Birth to 18-24 months

Object permanence

Towards the end of this stage the general symbolic function begins to appear where children show in their play that they can use one object to stand for another. Language starts to appear because they realise that words can be used to represent objects and feelings.

2 to 7 years old

Symbolic thought

Thinking is still intuitive (based on subjective judgments about situations) and egocentric (centered on the child’s own view of the world).

Ages 7 to 11 years

Logical thought

But operational thought is only effective here if the child is asked to reason about materials that are physically present. Children at this stage will tend to make mistakes or be overwhelmed when asked to reason about abstract or hypothetical problems.