A Longitudinal Study of Piaget's Developmental Stages and the Concept of Regression I

Analysis of 65 children, ages 5-9, followed longitudinally over a four year period with tests of operational and causal thinking offers support for Piaget's notions of constant, irreversible succession of stage progression. By Grade II (ages 7-8) the majority of children had attained the terminal stage on all but 2 of the 9 tests given. By Grade III terminal stages had been achieved for all tests although progress was comparatively slowest on tests measuring causality. True regression was found in only 6.5% of the total number of regressions which is less than 1% of the total possible number of regressions. The highly regressing children were not less intelligent (WISC) than those who showed few or no regressions.