Introduction
Child development is one of the most important topics for any parent and for researchers who focus on studying the human psyche. Cognitive development is the evolution of all the mental processes by which the individual receives information about the world around him (Cavanaugh & Kail, 2015). These processes include the whole range of feelings that a person has – vision, hearing, as well as such a powerful tool as human language.
Main body
Theories describing these procedures originated at the beginning of the previous century and were created by Jean Piaget. Child development refers to one of the four steps of a person’s cognitive evolution, namely the sensorimotor stage (Cavanaugh & Kail, 2015). This period itself is also divided into six phases: reflexes produced in the first six weeks of life, primary, secondary, and tertiary circular reactions, as well as mental representation (Cavanaugh & Kail, 2015). The process of cognitive development is carried out using two tools, namely assimilation, and accommodation. Assimilation is a change in the new information received to adapt it to existing knowledge. An example of that is the child’s study of the word “cat” and the association of this concept with four-legged animals. Accommodation is the process of changing existing information following certain conditions. For example, changing the design of “cat” so that it does not apply to everyone, but only to specific four-legged animals so that they cannot be confused with dogs.
Conclusion
All these concepts form a model of action and decision-making, which are called schemes. They organize the available information about the world around them, establish links between particular ideas, and process new incoming ideas according to existing principles (Cavanaugh & Kail, 2015). In the beginning, a person acts exclusively with the help of reflexes, but patterns replace them. These are stereotypes or worldviews that even children can have, albeit in a simplified form. Piaget suggested that the construction of schemes and the process of cognitive development is carried out using logical structures. However, this approach is not the only one and can be challenged by so-called Naive theories. One of the main points that contradict Piaget’s philosophy is the estimated time it takes to develop an understanding of the physics of objects. As practice shows, children can acquire such knowledge much earlier, which leads to the idea of coherence of knowledge of young infants about the concepts of the world.
Reference
Cavanaugh, J. C., & Kail, R. V. (2015). Human development: A life-span view. Cengage Learning.