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Jean Piaget was born August 9th 896 in Neuchatel Switzerland. He was the son of a historian and professor in natural sciences. When Piaget was just eleven years old, his notes were published on a rare albino sparrow. At age fifteen he got a job offer from Genevas natural-history museum because of an article he wrote but he turned it down in order to finish his education (‘Jean Piaget.’ Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale, 998). He received a PhD. from the University of Neuchatel in 98 in zoology. He later became interested in psychoanalysis when he worked in a boys institution for a year and helped score IQ tests. He realized how rigid these tests were and became interested in the thinking behind their answers, not just if they were correct . He married a woman named Valentine Chatenay, a psychologist, in 923. He became even more interested in psychology after studying his own three children. He then created his four stages of mental development based on these studies. (‘Jean Piaget’s Life And Contributions To Psychology). Throughout his long career he published many books on his findings. He was also the founder and director of the International Center of Genetic epistemology, Geneva, 955-80 (‘Jean Piaget.’ DISCovering Authors, Gale, 2003).
Through his extensive research on children’s cognitive development, Jean Piaget was able to split mental growth into four distinct stages. When he

studied his own children and interviewed others, he saw that cognitive development was seen in four distinct stages where certain skills were obtained. The first stage is called the sensorimotor stage, you are in this stage from birth to two years old. In this stage babies figure out the world through their senses and motor movement. Babies in this stage develop stranger anxiety and object permanence. This means that they fear people who are not usually around them, and are able to understand that hiding an object does not make it disappear. His next stage is preoperational, children ages two to six. This stage is characterized by pretend play, egocentrism and language development. Piaget’s third stage is the concrete operational stage. Kids in this stage are between seven and eleven years old. In this stage, kids are able start thinking logically and are able to grasp concrete analogies. They are also able to perform more complicated math operations. His last stage is the formal operational stage. This stage is age twelve and up. In this stage, children develop abstract reasoning, and potential for higher moral reasoning. His extensive research and interviews with children were the basis for these stages. He was able to see these skills develop at each stage. Piaget was able to split children’s cognitive growth into four distinct stages with certain skills and characterizations for each one.