Piaget and Wallon: Cognitive and Motor Development

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

The Sensorimotor Period (0-2 Years)

The Sensorimotor period ranges from 0-2 years. During this time, sensorimotor capacities appear, including perceptual and language skills. Habits appear, specifically locomotor and manipulative skills. Sensory information is organized and arranged. The child recognizes the invariant functional objects, developing an intentional act. A primitive notion of self, space, time, and causality appears. The motor IRAs exist and are made of genuine independent thought or cognitive processes as directors (Williams, 1983).

The Preoperational Period (2-7 Years)

The Preoperational stage ranges from 2-7 years. This stage involves the conceptualization of cognitive processes and operations for the first time. Imitation, symbolic play, and language appear as characteristic features. "The action is thought and thought is action" (Williams, 1983). T - 2 9.

The Concrete Operational Period (7-11 Years)

The Concrete Operational period covers from 7-11 years. The advent of abstract thought predisposes the child to perform basic logic operations and elementary groupings of classes and relations. The concepts of conservation (number, weight, volume) and reversibility appear. "The thought may already precede and guide action, but independent of it functioning normally" (Williams, 1983).

The Formal Operations Period (11-12+ Years)

The Formal Operations Period starts from 11-12 years onwards. Thought can operate independent of the action. Abstraction appears, along with the ability to operate with hypotheses.

Summary of Piaget's Theory

• Piaget discussed the role of action in the evolution of intelligence.
• He revitalized the role of children in the construction of intelligence.
• He formulated stages for the different age groups.
• He noted the possibility of more adequate teaching based on the child's real development.

Wallon's Concept of Psychobiological Development

The Role of Tone and Motor Functions

According to Wallon, the motor part in the first years is involved in the making of all psychological functions, later to accompany and support the mental processes. He identified two components in the motor system:

• Tonic or plastic function: The perceptual ability and motor function is common tonic. It weaves the attitudes that are in relation with accommodation and interpretation of perceptual and emotional life. The tone is set in relation to motor skills, perception, and knowledge, hence the relationship between motor skills and intelligence.
• Phasic or clonic function.

Wallon's Stages of Development

Wallon's Impulsive Stadium (tonic-emotional, 6-12 months).