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The sensorimotor stage, which lasts from birth to about 2 years of age, is the first Piagetian stage. In this stage, infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences (such as seeing and hearing) with physical, motoric actions - hence the term sensorimotor. .
The preoperational stage, which lasts from approximately 2 to 7 years of age, is the second Piagetian stage. In this stage, children begin to represent the world with images and drawings. Preoperational thought is more symbolic than sensorimotor thought. In preschool years, children begin to represent their world with words, images, and drawings. For one thing, they sill cannot perform operations, by which Piaget meant mental representations that are "reversible." At the end of this stage, the child will be able to understand more symbols and after understanding more about the way things work, they are ready to move on into the next stage. .
The next stage is called the concrete operational stage. The concrete operational stage, which lasts from approximately 7 to 11 years of age, is the third Piagetian stage. In this stage, children can perform operations and logical reasoning replaces intuitive thought as long as reasoning can be applied to concrete examples. In sum, concrete operational thought involves operational thinking, classification skills, and logical reasoning in concrete, but not abstract contexts. As soon as all of these come together on a more advanced level, they are prepared to go into the last stage of Piaget's theory. .
The formal operational stage, which appears between the ages of 11 and 15, is the fourth and final Piagetian stage. In this stage, individuals move beyond concrete experiences in abstract and more logical terms. Piaget's cognitive development theory combined all these stages to prove that a child's world is the way they process information and represent it all.
