h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have to disagree with the age limits on the concrete phase. Most teenagers see things in black and white, with no grey areas in between. This is definitely a sign of concrete thinking...even if they are starting to form "what if" dialogues.

The fixed 'timebands' for development seem to ignore the fact that enviromental factors can affect the development of individuals.

THese bands are best taken as a "most likely" period when developmental phases will occur. Some children mature early due to the loss of a parent ot the availability of some form of stimulus, ie membership of a youth organisation.

Others can go into their early twenties without developing formal, concrete reasoning skills. (Ask any human resource manager!)

I think I stated that the stages were Piaget's... a lot of his work has been debated and some even proven wrong (he basically stated that infants didn't think at all), but I still thought his description would be the easiest and most useful chart, and it's still pretty accurate. As Researcher 55245 stated, it's impossible for charts like those to take into account everything that affects individual cases, and are very general.

Piaget says that children
can not have abstact thought
before about 12.
I remember writing meany storys
when I was younger then 12
what is that but imagining what
would happen in ceertian cituatuions
abstractly, with out the aid of concrete
things?
Any child can tell u how to fight
a imaginary dragon.

Vygotsky referred to 'the stage of proximal development' which may account for the degree of development within each stage. He sais that as a child reaches the point at which he/she can develop no further within a specific stage alone, they can be 'pushed' a little further with assistance from the major care giver or 'vertical' relation, be that teacher or any other adult who has achieved formal operational thinking. This may also contribute towards people appearing to develop stages of cognition before their time.