Child psychology is one of the many branches of psychology and one of the most frequently studied specialty areas this particular branch focuses on the mind and behavior of children from prenatal development through adolescence child psychology deals not only with how children grow physically but with their mental emotional and social development as well. This lecture explores issues and ideas related to the branch of psychology known as cognitive development it begins with an introduction of piaget who interested in the emergence of knowledge in general studied children and the way they learn about the world in order to formulate his theories of cognitive development. The second stage in thought development runs from about two to seven years of age the child in this stage is action oriented his understanding and thought processes are based on physical and perceptual experiences the child begins to use symbols or representations of events and form images about everything he encounters. The developing ability to formulate ideas of others thought processes is reflective of childrens overarching desire to develop theories to explain the world around them