Piaget's Periods of

Concept Development

Khawla Ali
H00369214
 Definition of Constructivism

Constructivism is basically a theory based on observation and scientific study

about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding
and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on
those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile
it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or
maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant.
 sensorimotor period

• from birth to age 2

• It is the time when children begin to learn about the world. They use all their sensory
abilities touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell, and muscular. They also use growing motor
abilities to grasp, crawl, stand, and eventually walk.

• By the end of this period children have developed the concept of:
1. object permanence that is, they realize that objects exist even when they are out of
sight.
2. object recognition learning to identify objects by using the information they have
acquired about features such as color, shape, and size.
3. representational thought that is, instead of acting impetuously, they can think
through a solution before attacking a problem.
 preoperational period

• From 2 to 7 ages.

• During this period, children begin to develop concepts that are more like those of
adults, but these are still incomplete in comparison to what they will be like at
maturity. These concepts are of-ten referred to as preconcepts.

• During the early part of the preoperational period, language continues to

undergo rapid growth, and speech is used increasingly to express concept
knowledge. Children begin to use concept terms such as big and small (size), light
and heavy (weight), square and round (shape), late and early (time), long and
short (length), and so on.
 concrete operations period

• From 7 to 11 years old

• children are becoming conservers. They are becoming more and more skilled at
retaining the original picture in mind and making a mental reversal when
appearances are changed.

• The time between ages 5 and 7 is one of transition to concrete operations. A child’s
thought processes are changing at his or her own rate, and so, during this time of
transition, a normal expectation is that some children are already conservers and
others are not.

• they will be able to mentally manipulate groups that are presented by number
symbols with a real understanding of what the mathematical operations mean.
 operations period

• approximately ages 11 through adulthood.

• During this period children can learn to use the scientific method
independently, they learn to solve problems in a logical and systematic
manner.

• They begin to understand abstract concepts and to attack abstract

problems. They can imagine solutions before trying them out.