In this article, we will Explain Piaget’s Concepts of Cognitive Development during Middle Childhood.
Piaget’s Concepts of Cognitive Development during Middle Childhood:
Children’s thought processes change dramatically in between the ages of 5 and 7 years old. A primitive form of logic replaces pre-operational thought using Piaget’s terms. The change is sometimes referred to as the 5 to 7 shift. It is “the time during which the child makes a cognitive transition from the preoperational stage to the stage of concrete operations or from induction to logic” (Harris).
In the middle ages, the child was assigned adult status at age 7 when she/he was considered to be capable of being without his mother (Aries). Impressive changes in brain development set the stage of 5 to 7 shifts (Fishbein). Cross-model zones (nerve networks that permit information flow from one part of the brain to another) are well developed between the ages 5 and 6. These interconnections bond together different sensory events and modalities. For example, a child might associate a mango with its colour. Later on, associations will also be formed between the mango and its distinctive flavour, smell and its spelling.
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Throughout the development, a reciprocal relationship forms between cognition and brain maturation. Brain maturation may support cognitive changes and cognitive activity can also accelerate brain activity.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development: Concrete Operation
Concrete Operation is the third stage in Piaget’s Cognitive Theory. The ability to think logically about concrete or real-world events and experiences is the hallmark of this stage. Concrete logic becomes possible when the children understand operations.
Operations “are flexible mental actions that can be combined with one another to solve problems” (Morgan).
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Operations can be understood as the “set of powerful rules that can transform information from one form to another” (Harris).
These rules include mathematical operations (identity, addition, division etc.) and relations among categories (class inclusion, seriation etc.).
The operations are concrete in the sense that they are limited to concrete and objects. Abstract concepts are difficult at this stage to be understood.
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