PIAGET'S STAGES & TOYS

The age range of sensorimotor development is birth to 18-24 months old. The senses and motor actions are combined to develop new skills. This is a period of time when babies and infants use listening, seeing, sucking, and grasping items to learn.

Appropriate toys for children in Sensorimotor developmental stage include rattles, balls, crinkle books, and various toys for the child to grasp and explore. Musical toys and gadgets that light up can bee used to help develop hearing sense and touch connections.

This stage of preoperational development ranges from 18-24 months to 7 years old. Language skills advance and children are beginning to use symbols, or objects, of play. Egocentrism is also a big part of this stage as the child can only see things from their own perspective and not from other people's perspectives.

Appropriate toys for children in Preoperational Stage developmental stage are action figures, dolls, barbies, dress up, and other pretend play types toys. Goal is to develop symbolic understanding and imagination.

The concrete operational is from 7 to 12 years old. This stage is when a child begins to develop logical thought, comprehend conservation, and understand weight, volume, mass, and numbers. They begin to understand "conservation" - or that the same item can take different shapes. For example, they grasp that the amount of water in a tall glass is the same in a smaller glass if they are both the same ounces. Problem solving skills are developing in this stage.

Appropriate toys for Concrete Operational stage are number games, logic games, crosswords puzzles, remote control toys, STEM toys. The aim is to develop logical thought processes and learn about how things work.

The age range of formal operational development is from adolescence (12 years of age) to adulthood. The child can comprehend hypothetical or abstract scenarios. They can do more abstract mathematics, use abstract reasoning, and determine outcomes of particular actions. Problem-solving can include logical thought and hypothetical thought.

Appropriate toys for this Formal Operational Stage include games that involve strategy and thought. Sudoku puzzles, Rubik's cube, chess, remote control toys, and video interactive games. The child might also like bikes, skates, or hover boards - or toys that help to improve dexterity, balance, and coordination.

Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist who explored the acquisition of understanding in children. He was a major figure in 20th-century developmental psychology and his theory of cognitive development highlights how children develop intellectually throughout the course of childhood. Before Piaget's theory, children were often thought of simply as mini-adults. His developmental stages can help us see that toys and educational lessons need to align with the brain's readiness - and cognitive development happens in stages.