Child Life And Theory Exam 1 Practice

Active discovery through doing and exploring is at the heart of Piaget's theory. He argued that children are active learners who construct knowledge by interacting with their surroundings, not by passively receiving information. In the sensorimotor stage, for example, infants learn about the world by grasping, mouthing, and manipulating objects, and they gradually develop object permanence as they explore. As children grow, they refine their thinking by creating and adjusting mental schemes through assimilation and accommodation, driven by a natural drive to achieve balance or equilibration. This emphasis on self-directed exploration and the internal construction of knowledge is what makes Piaget the best fit for learning through actions and exploration. In contrast, Skinner’s idea centers on learning shaped by consequences and reinforcement, while Erikson focuses on psychosocial development across stages. The named theorist John Robertson is not the figure most closely associated with this hands-on, exploratory approach.