Jean Piaget's Four Stages Of Cognitive Development In Children

One of the most well recognized studies of child development is that of Jean Piaget. He found that children think differently than adults and have four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor (birth through 2 years) preoperational (2-7 years), concrete operational (7-12 years) and formal operational (12- adulthood). Understanding these stages and the way the child’s mind is working is not only beneficial to the psychologist bust also to anyone working with children including the children’s librarian. as it allows for better understand and leads to a successful meeting of the information needs of the various stages.
Kay Bishop and Anthony Salveggi, have reviewed the literature on children in the library and the ways that librarians use this knowledge in the children’s room in a public library in Florida. In their article, Responding to Developmental Stages in Reference Services to Children, state that “by being aware of the characteristics of the child development stages, youth services librarians can adjust their interactions with children who are seeking information” (2). The authors discuss different tactics the children’s librarian can use with the preoperational children and concrete operational, that is children from 2-12 years old, when answering reference questions. The authors discuss characteristics that are common in a child at the stage of development and issues they may have while using the library. For example, a preoperational child is egocentric so relying on logical reasoning may not work with this age.
1. In order to be better children’s’ librarians remember that under 8 they take pride in helping find a book while the 9-12 group wants to find it on their own but may let you