Dr. Covill
Stacking Cups
02.17.2012

Stacking Cups

Cognitive development is very crucial in the development of a child. The way a child thinks and interacts with their environment can predict the way they would handle an interaction as an adult. This maturity of the child’s mind also effects how well they do on certain tasks. They mature their individual knowledge and ability to problem solve as well. Imagine your child has the typical “stacking cups” toy, which has different sizes and colors. As a child continues to grow mentally, the ability to accomplish the task of stacking the cups will become easier for them. According to the psychologist Piaget, their cognitive development really takes off in the first three stages of his Cognitive Development theory: Sensorimotor stage, Preoperational stage, and Concrete Operational stage. The Sensorimotor stage of a child’s life is the first two years of life. Despite what people may think, this is when the child does an enormous amount of maturing cognitively. Within the first substage of this main stage, the child, from birth to one month, begins to modify their reflexes. They become more aware of sucking and grasping things, and these schemes change depending on the stimulus that is activating this reaction. They will try and grab the blocks with both hands, they may try with one hand, and they will most definitely put it in their mouths. Now none of this is weird or abnormal. This is the only way a baby knows how to its environment at this stage. The second substage, aged 1 to 4 months, deals with primary circular reactions. During this substage, the child tries to repeat an inadvertent action that produced an interesting outcome. For example, if the child has a rattle and shakes it, the sound and appearance of the rattle will excite them and they will try and get the same result each time they have their