Describe Piaget's four stages of cognitive development. Based on this understanding, describe how you would adapt a coaching session to the needs of a 6-year-old child. “The influence of Piaget's ideas on developmental psychology has been enormous. He changed the way people perceived the world of children and their methods of studying children. He was an inspiration to many who came after and took up his ideas. Piaget's ideas have generated a considerable amount of research that has improved our understanding of cognitive development. (McLeod 2009). Piaget proposed that we go through stages of cognitive development. He noticed that children showed different characteristics throughout their development. The four stages of development are the sensorimotor stage, the preoperational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage. The sensorimotor stage – this stage occurs from the child's birth until the child is two years old. Piaget described this stage as being where the infant makes sense of the world and, at this stage, their knowledge is limited. This is where the main senses come into play, such as touch, taste, smell, etc. At this stage, sport for an infant is a sensory experience, with the use of a ball for example for exploration. The permanence of objects was highlighted by Piaget as one of the most important achievements of the sensorimotor stage. Object permanence is a child's understanding that objects exist even though they cannot be heard or seen. For example, with the game Hide and Seek, a young child will simply believe that the person hiding has completely disappeared and will be shocked once that person is visible again whereas an older child who understands the object in the middle paper. ..... evaluate the talent of athletes” (Potrac, Gilbert and Denison, 2013). It is inevitable that there will be expectancy effects that any coach will experience, but by improving certain aspects the team or an individual athlete can achieve higher standards than expected.Reference ListMcleod, s. (2009). Jean Piaget. [online] Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.htmlPotrac, P., Gilbert, W. and Denison, J. (2013). Sports coaching routine manual. 1st ed. New York: Routledge. Manley, A. (2009). Expectations and their consequences in the coach-athlete relationship: an athlete-centered investigation. [online] Available at: http://eprints.chi.ac.uk/816/1/507136.pdf.Buscombe, R. (2010). Expectation effects in tennis training. [online] Available at: https://moodle.uel.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/273966/mod_resource/content/1/Expectancy%20Effects%20in%20Tennis%