Child development concepts and applications

¶ … Operational Thought

Jean Piaget is known for his development of the Theory of Cognitive Development, a theory that involves a series of developmental stages, wherein each is within a range of ages and is characterized by qualitatively different ways of thinking. The four stages are identified as follows: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. The Sensorimotor Stage occurs from the infants' birth up to 2 years old and is characterized by reflexes brought about by the drive to explore the world. The Preoperational Stage, meanwhile, covers the early phase of the children's development - 2 to 7 years old. Children at this stage represent objects through words and images, referring to symbolic thinking; they still are egocentric, finding it hard to grasp another's perspective. They demonstrate animism or the attribution of life-like characteristics to inanimate objects. Moreover, their reasoning is primarily intuitive. Middle to late childhood, 7 to 11 years old, corresponds to the Concrete Operational Stage, the third stage. Children at this stage begin to reason logically about events. They demonstrate classification (ability to classify objects according to several properties), and seriation (ability to sort objects in increasing or decreasing order of a property). They, too, have a grasp of reversibility (understanding that an object can be changed and returned to its original state), and conservation (belief in the permanence of certain attributes of objects or situations in spite of superficial changes). They have moved past centration (tendency to focus attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others) and egocentrism. However, their understanding is limited to concrete objects and/or events. Finally, the last stage, Formal Operational, starts at 11 years old and lasts up until adulthood. Individuals at this stage can understand abstract concepts and can process hypothetical situations. Furthermore, their thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving is systematic and logical (Santrock, 2004).

For a day, I kept track of the things I did and found out that I employed formal operational thinking even on seemingly mundane tasks. For example, this morning as I was about to bathe, the shower was not working. I had to find out why, but more importantly, I had to find a way to fix it. So I started with plan a: I checked if other faucets in the bathroom were not working too, so to know if the problem is with the connection. And the other faucets were working. I proceeded with plan B: I turned the valves again and inspected if something was wrong with the shower's parts, such as lose or incised parts. And I saw none. Time for plan C: I called my husband and asked him to find what was wrong with the shower and to fix it if he could. He could not fix it too. That called for plan D: we decided to call a plumber. For the meantime, I bathed in the kid's bathroom.

I wanted today's breakfast to be special, so I cooked pasta since my kids love it. I am no expert in cooking, but I surely know the basics. At first, I was not satisfied with the sauce's taste. I was trying to make it sweet, sour, spicy - a bit of each. But the result was bland - boring enough to ruin my kids' morning. I thought of which ingredients were best to add. I thought of adding more sweetener, cheese, and pepper. I tried to approximate the amount of each ingredient that I would put in to make the outcome what I envisioned it to be. I carefully thought of the ingredients to add and at which amount to avoid wastage. Fortunately, I achieved the sweet-sour-spicy taste I was looking for. As I was preparing breakfast, I thought of passing by the grocery later in the afternoon before heading home. I thought of the items I should buy - which stocks ran out, which products come with which, products needed in my menu for the week, and other items that the kids asked for. I listed all these to ensure that I would not miss any, and then I calculated how much I would be spending.

Come nighttime, I helped my kids with their homework. My eldest has an exam the next day so I also helped him review his lessons. Their teacher did not specify which type of exam it would be, so I helped him prepare for multiple-choice, identification, and even essay-type exams. I scanned his notes and books, and asked him about the items that might come out in the multiple-choice or identification types of exam. For the essay type, I thought of situations and let him explain its relevance to the topics they have been discussing in school. After helping my kids with their schoolwork, it was time for me to deal with my own schoolwork. I tried to recall how my day went - my activities - in order to pick out those in which I used formal operational thinking. But I was not able to focus. It has been a stressful day, and during that time I did not know if I was mad, irritated, or just tired. I took time to reflect, and realized that I cannot be mad. Mad with what or with whom? It must be that I was just tired, so I decided to rest for a while, and then got on with this paper.