Piaget describes how cognition develops from an autistic to an intellectual state of mind.
Piaget’s description of the development of the thought processes is interesting to me because of its implications to language development. He describes how cognition begins at birth in an autistic state, and then progresses toward an intellectual state.
The name “Autistic,” here does not refer to the disability of Autism, but instead to a time of life when consciousness is totally centered on the self, with no awareness or interest in the events of the outside world.