Index IntroductionComparison of opinionsArgumentsConclusionReferencesIntroductionChild cognitive development is a field of study in psychology that focuses on a child's development in terms of information processing, problem solving, knowledge learning, and understanding of the world. The result of the study on child cognitive development is recognized as an important reference and guide for society, educator and parents to help children grow as expected and adapt to society. There are two main academic views regarding the cognitive development of the child, one is maturation developed by Jean Piaget and the other is Lev Vygotsky's theory of socialization. This article will examine both theories by comparing the differences and similarities between them. Then I will evaluate them critically and conclusions will be drawn to establish what is the best way to explain this phenomenon. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Comparing Views Piaget is credited with being the first to conduct a systematic study of cognitive development. His main contribution is stage theory, in which he separates life from birth to adult maturation into four phases: sensorimotor phase, preoperational phase, concrete operational phase, and formal operational phase (HaySlip, 2012). He believes that a child can learn through active self-discovery and that cognitive development is guided by his biologically innate tendency to maintain balance between his existing schemas and the new environment. In this case, it states that a child will not learn until he or she is biologically mature and in the right stage (Piaget, 1985). In contrast, Vygotsky considers social interaction as the main driver of cognitive development, which however is treated as an important but not crucial factor by Piaget. With Vygotsky's theory, adults are an important factor as children could learn through instruction and guidance. Compared to Piaget, Vygotsky believed that development could be accelerated with proper scaffolding within the zone of proximal development (Yasnitsky, 2018). In addition to the identification of several major factors in terms of developmental processes, as summarized by Duncan (1995) that Piagetian and Vygotskian paradigms also differ markedly in general patterns of human ontogeny. The two theories provide different explanations for the phenomenon of the decline of egocentric speech: for Piaget, egocentric speech was speech in the process of being socialized while Vygotsky thinks it was an original social phenomenon before being gradually internalized. The different underlying views of the principal factor also lead to the different relative importance of adult influences compared to peers. Piaget believes that peers play a more important role in terms of disequilibrium of the internal environment as children will view adults as categorically different individuals, while Vygotsky believes that it is the adult who guides and pulls the child forward. Despite the difference, there are still similarities between Piagetskian and Vygotskian. For example, both agree that learning is gradual for children and that new knowledge becomes more complex as they get older, both recognize that nature (maturation of the brain and body) and nurture (social interaction, culture, etc. ) are fundamental and coexist in learning and development, although the relative importance is considered differently (Taylor, 2019). Topics The growing emphasis on education globally means that Vygotsky's theories are widely adopted. It is less plausible thatadult and social interaction should be treated only as extrinsic factors. Indeed, they play a significant role in the mental development of the child and should be included in the cognitive model. First, Vygotsky believes that cognitive development varies from one culture to another, while Piaget believes that it should be universal (Duncan, 1995). Since different personalities and psychological characteristics are found in children from various countries, this suggests that culture influences some parental knowledge and practices, in turn, the mental health of the child from a very early stage, thus influencing the creation of beliefs, values and future relationships (Bornstein, 2013). Further study conducted by Super and Harness (1986) examining the substantial influences of three main cultural aspects 1) The general physical social context, 2) the child's care habits and, 3) the psychological conditions of those who care for him on the child development. Second, their different emphasis on the roles of adults and peers suggests that Piaget would agree that the child would learn more through interaction with his peers, while Vygotsky would argue the opposite. While it is agreed that interactions with peers are an important arena in which the foundations of future relationships are established, a recent study finds that children as young as 3 years old are more engaged with adults in selective learning than peers, suggesting that the child could learn more from the interactions. with adult educators rather than with their peers (Rakoczy, Katharina, Warneken, & Tomasello, 2010). However, there are still examples that could be better explained through Piaget's theory. According to Piaget there could still be development while Vygotsky thinks there would be no development since the child cannot advance beyond the area closest to his ZPD without the help of external experts. Although it is difficult to design experiments based on this hypothesis, we may still obtain some supporting data from the psychological study of the feral children in the Genie case (Fromkin, Krashen, Curtiss, Rigler, & Rigler, 1974). Genie was a victim of severe abuse, neglect and social isolation, and was kept in a locked room from the age of 20 months without being exposed to a significant amount of language. Genie was rescued at the age of 13 and her mental age was only assessed as 13 months. Special language programs have since been conducted on Genie and he has been found to have made substantial progress in his overall psychological development. It was recorded that Genie's mental age rose to 5 years in 10 months. Then, for some reasons, the programs were discontinued and it was discovered that the newly acquired skills regressed very quickly. The case of the feral child probably supports Vygotsky's theory as interaction with adults seems to be the main factor driving Genie's psychological development. However, we must admit that the main factor that she was able to acquire social skills quickly is because she built a mature internal stage ready for rapid learning. With the same interactions with adults we may not be able to teach a 13 month old to speak like a 5 year old in 10 months. Indeed, one of the key findings of the feral child study is the identification of critical periods during which humans learn to understand and use language. It could be explained that language and social interaction are fundamental to be involved in at a certain age of man, which could not be sufficiently learned later. Therefore Piaget's stage theory could be used to effectively explain the case of the feral child. Keep in mind: this is.