Basics of Preoperational Stage
This is the age range for the Properational Stage.
Ages 2-7
The preoperational child’s difficulty in seeing a situation from another person’s perspective.
What is egocentrism?
When a child believes a taller glass has “more water,” they fail this concept.
What is conservation of liquid?
Believing the sun is “smiling” at them is an example of this.
What is animism?
The type of play where children pretend, like playing “house.”
What is pretend play (symbolic play)?
Children in this stage are learning to use these to represent objects and experiences.
What are symbols? Like words and images.
In Piaget’s “Three Mountains Task,” this limitation is demonstrated.
What is the inability to take another person’s viewpoint?
The idea that properties like number, mass, and volume stay the same even when appearance changes.
What is conservation?
Believing their teddy bear feels sad when left alone shows this kind of thinking.
What is animistic thinking?
During this stage, children rapidly expand this aspect of language.
What is vocabulary?
Piaget believed the biggest cognitive advancement in this stage was the development of this ability.
What is symbolic thought?
A child covering their eyes and believing you can’t see them is an example of this.
What is egocentrism?
A child thinks spreading out coins makes “more coins.” This is an error in what?
What is conservation of numbers?
Believing their bad thoughts caused their sibling’s accident is an example of this preoperational tendency.
What is magical thinking?
Using a stick as a “sword” shows this ability.
What is symbolic representation?