Volunteer experience in Building Block

Piaget’s cognitive development theory regards how children want to fit among other people. According to Piaget, children either assimilate into the new group or they accommodate. Assimilation involves a child’s attempt to use their existing values on new settings. In some cases, this method does not succeed. In that case, the child results to accommodation. Accommodation is the change of behaviors and values to fit into new situations (Cook and Cook).

In my fourth week in voluntary work, I came upon a certain situation which was rather uncommon in my opinion. At one point, a parent came to the school and spoke to the teachers for some time. This prompted me to ask one of the children who the lady was. The child was prompt in answering the question. Swiftly, the child answered that that was a teacher. In response, I told him that was not a teacher. I then showed who the teachers were and told him that the lady was apparent to Ann. He understood that regardless of the fact that the lady was speaking with the teachers (and even sitting in their midst), he was a parent. I further pointed out that this was the reason why Ann was with her. This was well understood. After two days when another parent visited, the child came and told me that was the parent to Simon. Initially, the child had used the knowledge that those who sit at a certain point are the teachers. I informed him and he eventually changed his belief and adopted another belief which says that when parents visit, their children visit, their children go to them.

Question 2

The boy with whom I was interacting is named Andrew. Andrew is only three years old. I have been working in a toddlers’ classroom. He has only been in the school for the past three months. Unlike some of the other kids, Andrew’s parents have not visited the school and sat with the teachers. While Andrew had seen other school visitors, he had not attempted to connect them to any of the other children. While the question would have seemed rather simple to an adult, this was not the case for Andrew. Andrew thought his prior knowledge was sufficient.

If Andrew had been older, he would probably have been able to relate the child with the parent more easily. This would have been on a basis of exposure to such knowledge in the way Andrew got exposed eventually or just by the use of his own cognitive capabilities. On the other hand, someone who does not have prior knowledge of the teachers, for example, a visitor, would have found it just as difficult to resolve the question.

Question 3

Volunteering in Building Block Center has shown me how the things I have leant in class can be applied. While I have mainly focused on the Piaget’s theory here, I have met with a variety of other concepts on the ground that I would not have considered realistic.  The concept of Piaget’s theory applied to the letter in the case I have narrated. I have found that most of the children first attempt to use their priory held knowledge to resolve a situation. It is only after the situation fails that they turn to other methods.

Works Cited

Cook, Greg, and Joan Littlefield Cook. The World Of Children. 3rd ed. Pearson, 2013. Print.