Jean Piaget's Four Stages

Jean Piaget describes the four stages that children go through; Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, and Formal Operational. As I have watched my younger cousins grow up I have witnessed the changes and it now makes a lot more sense as to why they would act in a sort of way depending on their age. For instance when they are a baby they are in the sensorimotor stage and it kinda makes sense as to why they are always putting stuff in their mouth and feeling everything and anything. They're trying to get a sense of their surroundings. Then when they hit the Preoperational stage you see that they recognize that their caregiver is there mom an they actually begin to call them mom. They speak very little but they seem to know certain words that they have been able to put with that object or symbol. Then as they got a little older and hit the concrete operational stage you see that they are able to figure certain things out and actually distinguish different patterns or classify certain objects. And I would notice this when say my 9 year old cousin was playing with a game in which they had to match up certain objects she was able to perform the task. However, when she would get her younger brother to try he was unable to complete the same task. Same goes for the fourth stage, Formal Operations, you see this in older children in their school work when they are planning out what they are going to do before actually doing it. So now that I have learned the stages set forth by Jean Piaget, it makes more sense, and is more obvious when I look at the way my younger cousins act or have acted through the different years of child growth.