How children think

I have recently been reading some books by Jean Piaget, and researching his theory. Piaget is a phycologist who specialises in the cognitive development of children. I found two books specifically interesting.

The first book ‘Children’s Cognitive Development’ I found particularly helpful, I liked this book as it clearly stated the stages of development and was very informative when discussing how children progress their ability to learn as they age. This has helped me discover the target age range for my product, 6-12 years old. This age range is identified by Piaget as the ‘concrete operational period’. At this point in a child’s cognitive development they have gained three different mental processes that Piaget refers to as ‘operations’. These ‘operations’ allow children to focus on the process and not only the end result and understand that there may be multiple effective ways to achieve a solution. Children younger than around 6 are likely to still be in the 'pre-operational stage' of cognitive development and therefor it may be difficult for them to focus on something such as cooking as this activity is based largely on the process . However the concrete operational child has not yet completely grasped the concepts or changing quantities of liquid, mass and length. Although it was explained in Piagets findings that it is rare for a child to reach the next stage of their cognitive development ('formal operational period') before the age of 11, cooking could address these conversations by measuring, weighing and making and help children advance their mental capabilities.