Developmental Stages in Children
By Rick Piercy, Special to the Daily Press
Jean Piaget, psychologist and scientist of the last century studied his own "normal" children and came up with the "cognitive-developmental theory". Not only is his study often cited as the definitive work on child developmental theory, it was also probably one of the least expensive studies in history.
After twenty-five years in education and years of graduate classes you would think I would automatically rely on Piaget's "preoperational" stage of development when working with my almost three-year-old grandson, Eli. But alas I did not. I had the most altruistic of motives, not wanting my grandchildren to be shunned by society because of a lack of knowledge concerning America's fastest growing sport, NASCAR.
I felt that I needed to enlighten Eli on the subject of NASCAR. We sat on the couch a few Sundays ago and watched the race. He was excited as I pointed out my favorite driver, Jeff Gordon and car 24 every lap. My heart swelled as he said that Jeff Gordon was his favorite too and he began to recognize the number 24 and other cars on the track. He began to point out the cars and was very excited. For several hours we watched as the race progressed building to the spectacular finish. How proud I was with the work I'd accomplished, all that teacher training had paid off and a few days later I returned home.
A couple of weeks ago my daughter called and suggested that I had some remedial work to do with Eli concerning his NASCAR education. I was, of course shocked. It seems that he hadn't actually gotten the concept of car and driver. My daughter discovered this when she complimented him on a baseball cap he was wearing and asked if that was the same kind of hat Jeff Gordon would wear? Eli responded with, "No, mommy. Jeff Gordon doesn't wear a hat". "Why not?" she asked. "Jeff Gordon, no have a head", he said. "He doesn't have a head?" My daughter questioned. Eli was indignant, "Mommy! Jeff Gordon a car!" In Eli's frame of reference he only has a limited experiential history to rely on when putting together new information. In other words, he can only relate what he knows with new experiences in order to make sense out of his world.
Eli loves Thomas the Train. Thomas and the other trains, all have names and faces, they talk and have feelings. When I pointed out car 24 on television, I followed it by saying, "there is Jeff Gordon". Eli, only saw the car, and if a train engine can have a name, then so can a racecar. Eli was excited because I was excited and he was doing something with an adult. I had a great teaching opportunity but forgot about the basics of child development and thus didn't relate to his developmental stage.
It is a good lesson for all of us to remember that every day our children are ready and willing to learn, but we need to reach out to where they are developmentally in order to be effective teachers. Personally, I have a lot of work ahead of me to change Eli's NASCAR misperceptions, and I think that sounds like fun.
Rick Piercy, President/CEO of the Lewis Center, has been in education for 24 years as teacher, principal and administrator. Rick is grandfather to Eli, age 2 and Emma, age 4.
Used with permission by the Daily Press, Freedom Communication, 2004