According to Piaget, children know nothing when they are born. However, periods of mental development should be examined in order to explain their ability to reach a superior level of knowledge. In each period, the individual has developmental processes in different periods. Expert support can be obtained when there are differences.
What is mental development?
The development of regulation and thought systems in the brain is called mental development. These systems include imagination, thinking, problem solving, reasoning, memory and language development. For the development of a healthy mental process of children, it is important that families support their children in these processes. Problems to be experienced in these stages may affect other systems as well. For example, kindergarten-age children play and ask questions. These features are important in the development of children. Different features come to the fore in every period and children who are supported as parents grow up as healthy individuals in terms of self-confidence. All of the processes that help the acquisition and subsequent use of information that enables to understand and interact with the world around us constitute mental development processes. Emotion, personality traits, motivation, processes are acquired during infancy. And it begins to develop.
Theories of mental development
Although children do not know anything when they are born, they reach a superior level of knowledge in their later years. There are stage rules that explain this developmental process. These stages can be evaluated on four basic theories.
1) The order of the phases never changes in the process.
2.) In the phases forming a hierarchy, the next period includes the achievement of the previous period. This
According to the theories, periods of cognitive development may be transitive.
3.) There are differences in the rates of mental development. Different individuals have different rates of development within the same stage.
can show.
4.) These theories have typical developmental characteristics for each stage. Defined features are generally related to that stage.
characteristics acquired and encountered.
Mental development features
The child has different developmental characteristics at each stage. In order to support these developments correctly, the child should be given the opportunity to dream, be encouraged to discover new things, and symbolic and concrete games should be played according to the age level. Especially for language development, children should be listened patiently and their questions should be answered in an age-appropriate way. Encouraging children to find activities that will enable them to realize their own skills, to use books, to enjoy the book and to explore the subjects they are curious about will also provide positive support to their mental development processes.
Periods of mental development
Babies go through a developmental process from the moment they are born. Until he becomes an adult individual, his different characteristics develop. We can classify these periods as follows:
* 0-2 years (motor) period: In this period, children are reached with their sense organs and senses. It is important not to interfere with the free movements of the child who communicates by touch in order to support this period. During this period, some concepts begin to become clear for the child who establishes environmental relations.
* 2-7 years (before the operation) period: In this period, children generally depend on symbols. experiences. It also gains ideas from these experiences. He learns through symbolic operations, especially in games.
* 7- 11 years (concrete action) period: Children provide the principles related to the protection of the substance in this period. Especially in this period, it may be more permanent to provide education with models, lesson plates and experiments in the activities of the students regarding the lessons.
* 11 years and over (abstract processing): After this period, children begin to think abstractly. Adolescent individuals, who acquire the ability to think with inductive and deductive methods, learn to look at events like an adult.
