Q.

1 Differentiate Between Sensory Operational stage and

Pre operational stage of a typical Nigerian child.
Introduction:
Jean Piagets theory on cognitive development is arguably the best-known, most
widely discussed theory of adolescent cognitive development. Piaget (1952, 1972)
believed that children actively try to make sense of their environment rather than
passively soaking up information about the world. To Piaget, many of the cute
things children say actually reflect their sincere attempts to make sense of their
world.
According to Piaget, children progress through four distinct cognitive stages: the
sensorimotor stage, from birth to 2years; the preoperational stage, from
2years to 7years; the concrete operational stage, from 7years to 11years; and
the formal operational stage, which begins during adolescence and continues
into adulthood. As a child advances to a new stage, his thinking is qualitatively
different from that of the previous stage. In other words, each new stage represents
a fundamental shift in how the child thinks and understands the world.
Piaget (1971) believed that these stages were biologically programmed to unfold at
their respective ages. He also believed that children in every culture progressed
through the same sequence of stages at roughly similar ages. However, Piaget also
recognized that hereditary and environmental differences could influence the rate at
which a given child progressed through the stages.
Thus for this paper we shall be looking at the differences between the Sensory
Motor stage and the Pre operational stage of a typical Nigerian child (Igbo). I shall
try to explain the various stages and then highlight the differences at the end of the
paper.
The Sensorimotor Stage
The sensorimotor stage of a Nigerian (Igbo) infant extends from birth until about 2
years of age. During this stage, he acquires knowledge about the world through
actions that allow him to directly experience and manipulate objects. He/she
discovers a wealth of very practical sensory knowledge, such as what objects look
like and how they taste, feel, smell, and sound.
At this stage he/she also expands their practical knowledge about motor actions
reaching, grasping, pushing, pulling, and pouring. In the process, they gain a basic
understanding of the effects their own actions can produce, such as pushing a
button to turn on the television or knocking over a pile of blocks to make them
crash and tumble.

At the beginning of the sensorimotor stage between 5 and 6 months, his motto
seems to be Out of sight, out of mind. An object exists only if she can directly
sense it. For example, if Emeka knocks a ball underneath the couch and it rolls out
of sight, he will not look for it. Piaget interpreted this response to mean that to the
infant, the ball no longer exists.
However, by the end of the sensorimotor stage 8months- 2years, He acquires a new
cognitive understanding, called object permanence. Object permanence is the
understanding that an object continues to exist even if it cant be seen. Now Emeka
would actively search for the ball that he has watched roll out of sight. Infants
gradually acquire an understanding of object permanence as they gain experience
with objects, as their memory abilities improve, and as they develop mental
representations of the world, which Piaget called schemas (Perry & others, 2008).
During the sensorimotor stage, Emeka relies on his basic sensory and motor skills to
explore and make sense of the world around him. Piaget believed that infants and
toddlers acquire very practical understandings about the world as they touch, feel,
taste, push, pull, twist, turn, and manipulate the objects they encounter.
Emeka at this stage begins to feel attached to the parents, especially the mothers.
They exhibit certain refusal attitude to strangers, this is usually characterized by
crying.
The Preoperational Stage: 2 to 7 Years. An important development during the
preoperational stage is the use of language. Emeka at this stage develops internal
representational systems that allow him to describe people, events, and feelings.
Although children use more advanced thinking in this stage than they did in the
earlier sensorimotor stage, their thinking is still qualitatively inferior to that of
adults.
The hallmark of preoperational thought is Emekas capacity to engage in symbolic
thought. Symbolic thought refers to the ability to use words, images, and symbols
to represent the world. One indication of the expanding capacity for symbolic
thought is the childs impressive gains in language during this stage. He even uses
symbols in playing, pretending, for example, that a book pushed across the floor is a
car. The childs increasing capacity for symbolic thought is also apparent in her use
of fantasy and imagination while playing. A discarded box becomes a spaceship, a
house, or a fort as children imaginatively take on the roles of different characters.
Some children even create an imaginary companion (Taylor & others, 2009).
Still, the preoperational childs understanding of symbols remains immature. A 2year-old shown a picture of a flower, for example, may try to smell it. A young child
may be puzzled by the notion that a map symbolizes an actual location as in the
cartoon below. In short, preoperational children are still actively figuring out the
relationship between symbols and the actual objects they represent.

The thinking of preoperational children often displays egocentrism. By

egocentrism, Piaget did not mean selfishness or conceit. Rather, egocentric children
lack the ability to consider events from another persons point of view. Thus, the
young child genuinely thinks that Grandma would like a new Lego set or video game
for her upcoming birthday because thats what he wants. Egocentric thought is also
operating when Emeka silently nods his head in answer to Grandpas question on
the telephone. Preoperational children think that everyone shares their perspective
and knowledge. Thus, childrens stories and explanations to adults can be
maddeningly uninformative because they are delivered without any context. For
example, a preoperational child may start a story with, He wouldnt let me go,
neglecting to mention who he is or where the storyteller wanted to go. We also
see egocentric thinking when children at the preoperational stage play hiding
games. For instance, 3-year-olds frequently hide with their faces against a wall and
covering their eyesalthough they are still in plain view. It seems to them that if
they cannot see, then no one else will be able to see them because they assume
that others share their view.
The preoperational childs thought is also characterized by irreversibility and
centration. Irreversibility means that the child cannot mentally reverse a
sequence of events or logical operations back to the starting point. For example, the
child doesnt understand that adding 3 + 1 and adding 1 + 3 refer to the same
logical operation. Centration refers to the tendency to focus, or center, on only one
aspect of a situation, usually a perceptual aspect. In doing so, the child ignores
other relevant aspects of the situation. The classic demonstration of both
irreversibility and centration involves a task devised by Piaget. An experiment was
conducted on Laura who was 5. First, she was shown two identical glasses, each
containing exactly the same amount of liquid.
Laura easily recognized the two amounts of liquid as being the same. Then, while
Laura watched intently, the liquid was poured from one of the glasses into a third
container that was much taller and narrower than the others. Which container,
she was asked, holds more liquid? Like any other preoperational child, Laura
answered confidently, The taller one! Even when the procedure was repeated,
reversing the steps over and over again, Laura remained convinced that the taller
container held more liquid than did the shorter container.
This classic demonstration illustrates the preoperational childs inability to
understand conservation. The principle of conservation holds that two equal
physical quantities remain equal even if the appearance of one is changed, as long
as nothing is added or subtracted (Piaget & Inhelder, 1974). Because of centration,
the child cannot simultaneously consider the height and the width of the liquid in
the container.
Instead, the child focuses on only one aspect of the situation, the height of the
liquid. And because of irreversibility, the child cannot cognitively reverse the series

of events, mentally returning the poured liquid to its original container. Thus, she
fails to understand that the two amounts of liquid are still the same.

Main differences between the two Stages.

S/N
o
1.

Sensory motor stage

Pre operational stage

Gains knowledge from the physical

actions they perform on it.

2.

Infants
coordinates
sensory
experiences with physical objects
(toys)
Trial and error experimentation
with physical objects exploration
and manipulation of objects to
determine their properties
Object permanence: realization
that objects continue to exist even
when removed from view
Symbolic thought: representation
of physical objects and events as
mental entities (symbols)

Child
begins
to
use
mental
representation to understand the
world.
Symbolic thinking is reflected in the
use of words and images is used in this
mental representation
At this stage the child is egocentric and
centration is high

3.

4.

5.

Language:
rapid
expansion
of
vocabulary
and
grammatical
structures.
Intuitive thought: some logical thinking
based on hunches and intuition rather
than on conscious awareness of logical
principles especially after 4 years.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, sensorimotor stage In Piagets theory, is the first stage of cognitive
development, from birth to about 2years; this the period during which the infant
explores the environment and acquires knowledge through sensing and
manipulating objects. And develops object permanence which is the understanding
that an object continues to exist even when it can no longer be seen.
While the Preoperational stage In Piagets theory, is the second stage of cognitive
development, which lasts from about 2years to 7years; it is characterized by
increasing use of symbols and pre logical thought processes. symbolic thought The
ability to use words, images, and symbols to represent the world.

Q.2 State the differences between Concrete and Formal operational stages.
Concrete Operational Emerges at about age 6 or 7 Adult like logic appears but is
limited to reasoning about concrete, real-life situations.
Class inclusion: Ability to classify objects as belonging to two or more categories
simultaneously

 Conservation: Realization that amount stays the same if nothing is added or taken
away, regardless of alterations in shape or arrangement
Formal Operational stage Emerges at about age 11 or 12b
Logical reasoning processes are applied to abstract ideas as well as to concrete
objects and situations. Many capabilities essential for advanced reasoning in
science and mathematics appear.
Reasoning about hypothetical ideas: Ability to draw logical deductions about
situations that have no basis in physical reality
Proportional reasoning: Conceptual understanding of fractions, percentages,
decimals, and ratios
Separation and control of variables: Ability to test hypotheses by manipulating
one variable while holding other variables