Sensorimotor Stage and Object Permanence
Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight. This crucial cognitive milestone is primarily developed during Jean Piaget's first stage of cognitive development.
Piaget's Stages of Development:
- Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to ~2 years): Infants learn about the world through their senses and actions. Object permanence develops during this stage. A child realizing that a hidden toy still exists is demonstrating object permanence.
- Pre-operational Stage (~2 to ~7 years): Children begin to think symbolically but may struggle with logic.
- Concrete operational Stage (~7 to ~11 years): Children develop logical thinking about concrete events.
- Formal operational Stage (~12 years and up): Adolescents and adults develop abstract reasoning skills.
Therefore, a child who has just developed object permanence is in the Sensorimotor stage.