Have you ever walked in on a mess involving your child and asked, “What were you thinking?”

Your little girl may be the spitting image of her mother. Your little boy may be a chip off his father’s block. But children are not just little versions of adults. And that goes for the way they think, too.

Jean Piaget  was one of the first to systematically study children’s cognitive development. Before Piaget, most people believed that children thought like adults, but because of their age, they just weren’t as good at it.

Piaget concluded there are four stages of development:

1.  Sensorimotor

From birth to approximately 2 years old, children learn through trial and error.

 2.  Preoperational

From approximately 2 through 7 years old, children begin to use language to communicate. They also use begin to use their imagination. But at this stage they do not yet clearly understand cause-and-effect, and they struggle with logic. Children in this stage are often egocentric. Their approach to life is “It’s all about me.”

 3.  Concrete operational

School-age children through approximately 11 years old begin to learn logic. They have an increased awareness of external events and they are beginning to process abstract ideas.

4.  Formal operational

Children 11 years and older, entering adolescence, have the potential for moral reasoning. They are developing the ability to process abstract logic and they can understand cause-and-effect relationships.

Why should these stages matter to us?

As we work with children (our own or others), we want to teach them in ways they can understand. For example:

– Preschoolers learn through exposure to shapes, textures, colors, sounds, and above all, doing. Their play is learning.

– Children 2 through 7 need to be continuously encouraged to think of others.

– Children aged 7 through 11 are beginning to process theological concepts such as the truths that we are made in the image of God or that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

– Adolescents and teens need to be taught a biblical worldview of themselves, their family, and how to view their culture.

 Leading and teaching children requires us to know, not just what they are thinking, but how they are thinking!