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Chapter 31: Child Psychiatry
Table 31.1-4
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Period of Development
Cognitive Spatial Stages
Cognitive Achievements
Gestational
Fetus can “learn” sounds and respond differentially to
them after birth
Infancy: Birth–2 yrs
Sensorimotor
Includes concepts:
Infants “think” with their eyes, ears, and senses
Birth–1 mo
Reflective; egocentric (newer research refutes this)
Newborns can learn to associate stroking with
sucking
4–8 mos
Secondary circular: looks for objects partially
hidden
Newborns can learn to suck to produce certain visual
displays or music
8–12 mos
Secondary circulation coordinated: peek-a-boo,
finds hidden objects
Can remember for 1-mo periods
Can play with parent by looking for partially hidden
objects
12–18 mos
Tertiary circular: explores properties and drops
objects
Memory improves
18 mos–2 yrs
Mental representation, make-believe play;
memory of objects
Body parts used as objects
Can stack one object within another
Remembers hidden objects
Drops objects over crib
Knows animal sounds; names objects
Knows body parts and familiar pictures
Can understand causes not visible
Early Childhood: 2–5 yrs
2–7 yrs
Preoperational
Includes concepts:
Egocentrism: “I want you to eat this too.”
Animistic: “I’m afraid of the moon.”
Lack of hierarchy: “Where do these blocks go?”
Centration: “I want it now, not after dinner.”
Irreversibility: “I don’t know how to go back to
that room.”
Preschoolers use symbols
Development of language and make-believe
No sign of logic
3-yr-olds can count 2–3 objects; know colors and age
4-yr-olds can fantasize without concrete props
2–5 yrs
Transductive reasoning: “We have to go this way
because that’s the way Daddy goes.”
5- to 6-yr-olds get humor; understand good and bad;
can do some chores
7- to 11-yr-olds have good memory; recall; can solve
problems
Middle Childhood: 6–11 yrs 6 yrs onward 7–11 yrs
Concrete operational
Includes concepts:
Hierarchical classification—arranges cars by types
Reversibility—can play games backward and
forward (e.g., checkers, triple kings)
Conservation—lose two dimes and look for same
Decentration—worry about small details,
obsessive
Spatial operations—likes models for directions
Horizontal decalage—conservation of weight,
logic
Transitive inference—syllogisms; compare
everything, brand names important
Children begin to think logically
Understand conservation of matter
Frozen milk same amount as melted
Can organize objects into hierarchies
Children seem rational and organized
Adolescence: 11–19 yrs
11 yrs onward
Formal operational
Includes concepts:
Abstraction and reason
Hypothetical-deductive reasoning; adolescent
quick thinking or excuses
Can think of all possibilities
Imaginary audience—everyone is looking at them
Personal fable—inflated opinion of themselves
Propositional thinking—logic
