A psychologist, Jean Piaget, observed the way his children would operate and make sense of the world around them. As a result, he stipulated a developed a four stages model theory, famously stated as cognitive theories, to explain that all children progress through them. In my study, I chose Juan to do my analysis, a boy aged approximately 8 years. In a group of three children, he seemed interesting though they were of the same age. The study occurred in a room, in the presence of books and other play materials. In the concrete operational stage, a child has the capability to conceptualize, start to think abstractly, and make logical connections between objects.
Juan had the capability to look at books as a self-initiated activity. He could go through the pages and mostly identify pictures I thought maybe were interesting to him. In a room, I did observe the behavior in the presence of his teacher, who allowed me to do so after consultation. Therefore, his teacher, Jane, was also interested in what I was doing, so I had to involve her in the study, which occurred from 9 o’clock to 10 o’clock in the morning. In the company of three children, Juan elicited interesting study prospect, as they continued to play in a group.
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At one point, they were asked to read some portion of the book, Juan together with his group members, listens as part of a group, tuning out distractions that may pose a problem to their uniformity. It was during a reading session, so the children were placed in a group of three so that they can read in unison. At an instance, Juan would join the group during reading voluntarily without being forced. Even though the book did not feature as his favorite, I noticed that he had exploratory manipulation. Moreover, Juan had no idea about the logical pagination of the books. He could look at them from left to right without noticing the logic; however, he could manage to pinpoint the exact required page. Another crucial observation is that he could accurately repeat some storylines and at the same time he could read signs, and labels out of context.
Juan categorically falls in the third development stage of Piaget’s theory. It is a crucial phase since, at this point, he is expected to develop a logical thought while doing things, a logic mostly applied to physical objects ( Moon, 2013) . Concerning literacy skills, there is no doubt that a child does not have the capacity to properly read and write; however, there is an urge to let them develop the building blocks for literacy, which entail capability to listen, speak, comprehend, watch things, and draw ( Siegler et al. , 2014) . Based on Juan’s behavior reviews discussed above, pictures and objects, sounds, and letters and words are crucial as part of the growth. Another crucial thing is communication. Through constant conversation, a child can develop listening, speak, and understanding ability.
Notably, my study was not exhaustive enough since the samples of the study were fairly from the same neighborhood. I would consider it a thorough one if at all the subjects of the study would have been from different cultural contexts or even environment; let us say poor neighborhood versus rich ones. In my class, I would also try to understand why children behave differently from one another based on cultural contexts or backgrounds.
Generally, the child’s third developmental stage is crucial and should be supported where necessary. It prepares one for the last cognitive phase. The concrete operations phase of growth is characterized by the ability to conceptualize things, and even make logical links between objects. However, this may vary depending on the environment, something my study did not capture. Even though the child cannot fully think abstractly, one can solve a problem logically.
References
Moon, J. A. (2013). Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and practice . Routledge.
Siegler, R.S., Eisenberg, N., Deloache, J.S., & Saffran, J. (2014). How Children Develop (4 th ed). Macmillan.
