Title: A Piaget Primer: How a Child Thinks
Author: Dorothy G. Singer and Tracey A. Revenson
Publication Year: 1996
Website: childstudycenter.yale.edu
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Review: I learned of Piaget from one of my favorite early childhood authors, Burton White, who claimed that much of what we know about how babies and children develop was discovered by this man, who remarkably based much of his insight on his own children. Looking into Piaget further, I discovered that he spent most of his life trying to understand how children learned to comprehend everything that they would eventually understand.
Piaget was particularly interested in all the wrong ideas young children believe initially and the process by which they eventually corrected their reasoning. The problem is that Piaget wrote in French and was so prolific that it is apparently difficult to find a concise, easy to understand English description of his findings. This book is the best I have found so far. It is easily accessible to all non-child psychology specialists.
While I’m sure much of the descriptions are extremely simplified, they are still fascinating. It describes some of Piaget’s conversations with children, such as ones on dreams. Out of curiosity, I asked my own 3 year old where dreams come from and his answer was “In my mouth.” I look forward to experimenting a little more with my children by pouring water from short fat glasses to tall skinny ones and showing them a bunch of different colored wooden beads and asking if there are more wooden beads or ones of a certain color.
Also, I had so much fun with the dream question I’m hoping to find another resource that would have a bunch of similar questions. I feel like this is a great resource for learning to fully appreciate all it is your child has to discover in the world and for gaining acceptance and respect of the inaccuracies and misunderstandings that are a natural part of the process. (Personal Rating: 8/10)
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