ced in cognitive structures. Accommodation is the process of changing cognitive structures in order to accept something from the environment. Both processes are used simultaneously and alternately throughout life. In his work Piaget identified the child's four stages of mental growth. In the sensorimotor stage, occurring from birth to age 2, the child is concerned with gaining motor control and learning about physical objects. In the preoperational stage, from ages 2 to 7, the child is preoccupied with verbal skills. At this point the child can name objects and reason intuitively. In the concrete operational stage, from ages 7 to 12, the child begins to deal with abstract concepts such as numbers and relationships. Finally, in the formal operational stage, ages 12 to 15, the child begins to reason logically and systematically. All of these four stages are very important to the developmental growth of a child. There are many exercises and games that you or your spouse can do with your child to improve the cognitive development of children. Smells: Infant Activity (up to 15 months) Save old spices containers with shaker tops and put a variety of "smelly" materials into these. Break up pieces of orange peel, save some whole cloves, soak a cotton ball in perfume, and break up some onion or garlic. Put each "smell" item in a separate container. Label each and talk about the type of smell. Be sure to name each object several times and encourage infants to try to vocalize sounds. Model smelling the different containers and encourage infants to try to smell each container. Let them explore the containers by touching and manipulating them."Oh, smell this one. This is an orange peel. It smells fruity!" "This perfume has a strong smell. Do you smell it? It smells like a flower." "This is an onion. It has a really strong smell. It makes my eyes water." This activity also helps children develop communication skills in receptive language and percept...
