Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are two great psychologists who have tried to explain how cognitive development in children takes place. Piaget identifies four stages that children’s cognitive development follows. These stages are sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operations, and formal operations (Babakr, Mohamedamin &Kakamad, 2019). At each stage, the child can perform different tasks. Vygotsky does not classify the stages of a child’s cognitive development. Instead, he says that the cognitive development of children takes place as they interact with the environment (Vasileva & Balyasnikova, 2019). Vygotsky emphasizes social interactions as the basis for cognitive development, while Piaget says that the child’s inbuilt capabilities play a significant role in the cognitive development of the child.
One of the similarities between these two theories is that they both agree that children learn from simple to complex tasks. Piaget classifies children at the lowest level of cognitive development as belonging to the sensorimotor stage. Senses are the primary avenues through which the child learns about his environment (Babakr et al., 2019). On the other hand, Vygotsky says that children at early stages learn through their interaction with the environment (Vasileva & Balyasnikova, 2019). The parents or older siblings communicate with the child what is expected of him by way of action or how they handle him.
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The two theorists emphasize nature vs. nurture as playing a significant role in the cognitive development of the child. By this, it means that heredity and the environment in which a child grows play a role in the cognitive development of the child (Vasileva & Balyasnikova, 2019). They both agree that heredity sets the limits of cognitive functioning. However, the environment may dictate or may modify the conditions under which cognitive development takes place. Piaget says that at the concrete operations stage, the child needs to be given a tangible object for learning to take place (Babakr et al., 2019). If a child is denied these materials at this stage, very little learning is likely to take place. Vygotsky says that if the cultural socialization is unsatisfactory, then the cognitive development of the child may also be interfered with, something that may lead to retardation.
References
Babakr, Z. H., Mohamedamin, P., &Kakamad, K. (2019). Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental
Theory: Critical Review. Education Quarterly Reviews, Vol.2 , No.3, 517-524.
Vasileva, O., & Balyasnikova, N. (2019). (Re)Introducing Vygotsky's Thought: From
Historical Overview of Contemporary Psychology. Frontiers in psychology , 10 , 1515. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01515
