... Babies start out with minimal in-built schemas for things such as sucking and grasping and moving limbs. As the baby grows its schemas are refined and combined to create more complex schemas such as for walking. This development takes place through the processes of ‘assimilation’, ‘accommodation’ and ‘equilibrium’. A baby will try and apply its schema of sucking its mother’s nipple to obtain nutrients to sucking a cup of juice; this is the baby’s attempt to assimilate the task of drinking from a cup into its existing schemata. The sucking schema is inadequate for the task and the child will be in a state of disequilibrium. In order to restore balance the child must modify its existing schemas to accommodate the new task or experience. This is the process of ‘adaptation’. Piaget identified four main stages of cognitive development through which all children pass as they grow older. Each stage is ...

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