by Michele Van Pelt

Created on: March 07, 2010   Last Updated: March 10, 2010

Most would agree that children develop through a series of stages until they reach adulthood.  As children make this progression from infant to adult, they are continuously strengthening their thought processes which include the ability to remember information, solve problems and make decisions.  According to the Encyclopedia of Children’s Health, cognitive development “refers to how a person perceives, thinks, and gains understanding of his or her world through the interaction of genetic and learned factors. Among the areas of cognitive development are information processing, intelligence, reasoning, language development, and memory.”  (2007, para. 1)

 Out of what behaviorists began to understand as cognitive development came cognitive development theories.  Now considered archaic, babies were once thought to not have the ability to think or process thoughts until they had the ability to communicate and understand language.  We now know that this statement is not true.  Infants from the time of birth are using their senses to gather and process information around them and this process continues through adulthood.  Cognitive development theories are “theories based on the belief that human development progresses smoothly and gradually from infancy to adulthood.”  (Slavin, p. 31)  Humans, infants through adults, naturally follow a set of internal steps that allow them to process different information at different points in their lives; our thinking abilities change as we age and progress through these steps.  Two important contributors to this theory are Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky.

 Both influential contributors to the theories of cognitive development, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky share some similar beliefs as to the development of intelligence.  Both theorists believe that a child most work through a series of steps as he or she gains knowledge in their journey to adulthood.  To Piaget “cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes…”  (McCloud, 2007, Piaget’s Theory of Development, para. 7)  Likewise, Vygotsky “claimed that infants are born with the basic materials/abilities for intellectual development… (and) are curious and actively involved in their own learning…”  (McCloud, 2007, Vygotsky’s Theory of Social Development, para.  13)  Each believed

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