The pre-operational stage (2-7)
Piaget’s second period of cognitive development, the pre-operational period, lasts
from approximately age two to age seven.
What happens to the child’s intelligence at this stage?
Children show considerable cognitive development during the five years covered by
the pre-operational stage.
Piaget, in fact, sub-divided the stage into two.
, 1. The pre-conceptual (2-4)
In the pre conceptual period children begin to make more use of symbols (sounds, objects,
or actions to stand for another thing) and language, which is especially important for the
child’s developing sense of self-awareness.
How?
The child arranges toys in new ways to represent other objects.
For example.
o The child might represent a horse by making galloping movements with the feet.
But
Beyond the accomplishment of symbol use, Piaget’s descriptions of pre-operational
intelligence in this period focused mainly on children’s limitations.
How is intelligence limited at this stage?
At the pre-operational stage children have a kind of logic, but it can’t be used as a basis of
understanding how the world really works.
This lack of logic-based reasoning means that children rely on what they see.
Why is this?
This is because Piaget believed that children could not yet perform what he called
operations.
The child’s world is still fundamentally concrete- things are very much as they seem, and the
child tends to be influenced by how things look.
Why is it called the pre-operational stage?
Piaget argued that before 7 years the child is not yet successful with all mental operations
such as arithmetic, they cannot logically manipulate information characteristic of later
stages.
Hence, he described younger children as “pre-operational”
The pre-operational stage ends with the child starting to think operationally.
, Egocentrism
This represents a major feature of the pre-operational period.
Piaget considered egocentrism to be the most serious deficiency in pre-operational
children’s thoughts.
What is egocentrism?
Egocentrism is the inability to take another person’s perspective.
The child assumes that their way of thinking about things is the only possible way
and cannot understand that other people might see things differently nor that other
people might feel or think differently from themselves.
The child is not being selfish.
How is the child’s intelligence limited?
Essentially what the child is unable to do it put itself psychologically in other people’s
shoes in order to realise that other people don’t know or perceive everything they
themselves do.
Examples?
When the child is asked why does the sun shine, a typical answer would be “to keep
ME warm”.
Piaget’s second period of cognitive development, the pre-operational period, lasts
from approximately age two to age seven.
What happens to the child’s intelligence at this stage?
Children show considerable cognitive development during the five years covered by
the pre-operational stage.
Piaget, in fact, sub-divided the stage into two.
, 1. The pre-conceptual (2-4)
In the pre conceptual period children begin to make more use of symbols (sounds, objects,
or actions to stand for another thing) and language, which is especially important for the
child’s developing sense of self-awareness.
How?
The child arranges toys in new ways to represent other objects.
For example.
o The child might represent a horse by making galloping movements with the feet.
But
Beyond the accomplishment of symbol use, Piaget’s descriptions of pre-operational
intelligence in this period focused mainly on children’s limitations.
How is intelligence limited at this stage?
At the pre-operational stage children have a kind of logic, but it can’t be used as a basis of
understanding how the world really works.
This lack of logic-based reasoning means that children rely on what they see.
Why is this?
This is because Piaget believed that children could not yet perform what he called
operations.
The child’s world is still fundamentally concrete- things are very much as they seem, and the
child tends to be influenced by how things look.
Why is it called the pre-operational stage?
Piaget argued that before 7 years the child is not yet successful with all mental operations
such as arithmetic, they cannot logically manipulate information characteristic of later
stages.
Hence, he described younger children as “pre-operational”
The pre-operational stage ends with the child starting to think operationally.
, Egocentrism
This represents a major feature of the pre-operational period.
Piaget considered egocentrism to be the most serious deficiency in pre-operational
children’s thoughts.
What is egocentrism?
Egocentrism is the inability to take another person’s perspective.
The child assumes that their way of thinking about things is the only possible way
and cannot understand that other people might see things differently nor that other
people might feel or think differently from themselves.
The child is not being selfish.
How is the child’s intelligence limited?
Essentially what the child is unable to do it put itself psychologically in other people’s
shoes in order to realise that other people don’t know or perceive everything they
themselves do.
Examples?
When the child is asked why does the sun shine, a typical answer would be “to keep
ME warm”.
