cognize the child's development of the mind and at what stages it is able to conceive abstract and concrete ideas. In order to utilize conceptual understanding of death, Piaget's developmental stages are applicable to how a child views the absence due to death. Piaget dealt mostly with qualitative changes in the mind and explained changes in the physical world, which also makes him a suitable model to follow since the loss is physical. Most humans, at some point in their lives, come to recognize that death is constant, inescapable, and omnipresent, which is naturally evolved by their ability to think rationally and maturely; some learn this harsh fact at an unfortunately early age. There are many stages of the development of a child from birth which deal with needs and the methods by which new ideas and information are collected and assimilated to the knowledge they already know. This also provides a future backdrop for future situations and possibly survival. In Piaget's first stage of development, the sensorimotor period, which occurs from birth until the age of two, deals with infants discovering the world through their five senses; the infants learn also through applying their motor skills and polishing them. They can also only distinguish things that are present--which a...
