Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget theorized in the pre-operational stage between two and seven years, children start using objects or actions to give meanings other than literal ones like using a pasta strainer as a hat. This is symbolic play and marks the beginning of creativity and conceptual learning. The following article provides the three main phases of symbolic play in the preoperational stage from 18 months to 5 years old and how educators can support their learners in each phase.

John Dewey is often seen as the proponent of learning by doing – rather than learning by passively receiving. He believed that each child was active, inquisitive and wanted to explore. He believed that children need to interact with other people, and work both alone and cooperatively with their peers and adults. The following provides information about John Dewey, Definition Of The Curriculum, Main Features Of Dewy's Theory of Education, Progressive Education and Dewey's Theories In Practice. 

There are 6 different types of play that children participate in over the course of their development.

Gardner proposed a theory of multiple intelligences that suggests there is more than one intelligence – He considers children and adults to be individuals who all have skills and areas that we enjoy and excel at and that these fit into our major intelligence.

Piaget discovered that all children’s cognitive development progressed through four stages, beginning in infancy and are completed by adolescence. Thinking becomes more and more complex as the child ages. Each stage of thinking causes the child to see the world in a different way.

Erik Erikson developed a psychosocial theory to understand how we each develop our identities through eight stages of psychosocial development from infancy to adulthood. The following article provides information on Erikson's Eight Stages, Eriksons Theories In Practice and more.