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=Jean Piaget= Jean Piaget (9th August 1896 - 16th September 1960) was a Linguist known for his work in Psychology, focusing on the development of how children use language at different stages throughout childhood. Piaget discusses the stages at which he believes children begin using a new part of language that they have not previously used.

Jean Piaget was a highly influential voice in the language development of children analysis. His book, The Psychology of a Child which he co-wrote with Bärbel Inhelder, a fellow psychologist and former student of his, "offers a definitive presentation of the developmental psychology he has elabourated over the last forty years." This book of theirs explores the psyche of Children, but one of Piaget's other books; "The Language and Thought of the Child, published 1923 discusses in great detail the many stages that Piaget believed to exist when children are experimenting with and improving their knowledge of language.

Piaget's Theory
Jean Piaget based his entire theory on the idea that children do not think like adults do; saying that as they interact with their environment, children will construct their own idea of the world. During this time, from infancy to adulthood Piaget believes children go through stages of language development dependent on their age.

Sensory Motor Stage
"According to Piaget’s theory, children are born with basic “action schemas,” such as sucking and grasping. He described the sensory-motor stage (from birth to 2 years) as the time when children use action schemas to "assimilate" information about the world." Piaget describes this stage as being 'egocentic', as children will only talk for themselves.

Pre-Operational Stage
This occurs during 2 to 7 years of age and is where a child's language development progresses intensely. This development allows them to quickly understand new words and situations; from singular words to simple sentences. Piaget describes this as "symbolic", going past the present and being able to talk about the past, the future, feelings, people and events. This is where Piaget would describe children's use of language as containing both 'egocentrism' and 'animism' - the latter referring to how children can consider everything to be alive (including inanimate objects).

Operational Stage
This stage is split into two parts by Piaget, the 'period of concrete operations' which he believes happens between 7 to 11 years of age, and the 'period of formal operations' which takes place between the ages of 11 to adulthood. During these periods Piaget believes this os where a child's language becomes 'socialised', meaning they begin to be able to see a different perspective other than their own. During the later part of this stage things such as abstract thought and considering the idea of ones own mortality begins to take place in a child's thought process and their language.

Personal Life
As a young child, Piaget gained an intense interest in Mollusks and would spend hours studying them at the local museum of natural history. By his mid teens his papers on these organisms were being widely published, his readers considering him an expert as they were unaware of his age. Piaget studied Zoology at the University of Neuchâtel, and once graduating he spent a small time studying under psychologists Carl Jung and Paul Eugen Bleuler, gaining an intense interest in psychoanalysis. After this, Piaget lived in Paris for a while, conducting experiments exploring the thinking and use of language in children of all ages. Throughout his life he called his work with cognitive stages in children 'genetic epistemology'.

Piaget is responsible for creating groundbreaking research in the psychoanalysis of a child's psyche and their use of language throughout development that has influenced many ever since. Jean Piaget died of unknown causes in Geneva, Switzerland in 1980 and left a son and two daughters to live up to his legacy.