Child development Child Development Theories Cognitive Developmental Theory
Piaget thought that babies are born with some schemas without learning them. These schemas are sensorimotor actions. The schemas are very simple. Schemas get more complex as the child gets older. The child starts to think before acting. When the child does this, it uses mental representations, or pictures in the mind that are representative of different things. The mental representations can be changed in the mind into new ideas. Piaget thought that the two most powerful mental representations are images and concepts. Images are pictures in the mind of objects, people and spaces.