PIAGET PRE-OPERATIONAL STAGE: MAIN FEATURES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The preoperational phase Piaget is one of the four stages of cognitive development experienced by children from birth until they reach full maturation of her brain. Being the second of the four, this stage appears at approximately 2 years of age and extends more or less until 7.

The beginning of the preoperational stage of Piaget occurs with the acquisition of speech. Children are beginning to understand symbols and practice symbolic play, but are not yet able to understand and apply concrete logic. Studying the four stages of cognitive development helps psychologists understand more about the maturation of the human brain.

In addition, these studies allow psychologists to better understand the phases children go through on their way to becoming adults. This makes it possible to generate the most optimal conditions to promote a development full of well-being.

Main features

Although the acquisition of spoken language is the most striking characteristic of children who are in this stage of cognitive development, it is not the only one. Some of the most notable are the following:

- Lack of understanding of concrete logic.

- Increasing use of symbols, especially in the game.

- Inability to understand the other person's point of view (self-centeredness).

- Centering, or difficulty focusing on more than one aspect of a situation at the same time.

- Animism, or the belief that all objects are alive or have a purpose.

- Irreversibility.

Lack of use of concrete logic

The use of logic first appears in the third stage of cognitive development, so that children in the preoperational stage are still unable to use it.

This means that a child at this stage will not be able to use deduction to draw conclusions. One of the experiments in which this characteristic can best be seen is in the conservation of mass.

In this experiment, several children between the ages of 2 and 7 were shown a ball of modeling clay. After asking them to look at its size, the researcher crushed it with her hand, giving it an elongated shape. The children were asked when there was more play dough, in the ball or in the "churro".

Without exception, all the children in the preoperational stage answered that there was more clay in the churro, since it took up more space. This experiment was one of many that were done to demonstrate the lack of logic in children at this stage.

Use of symbols

Symbols are objects, words, or actions that are used to represent other concepts. The clearest example of a symbol used during the preoperational stage is language, which is nothing more than a set of sounds used to refer to other elements of the world.

However, children at this stage also use symbols during play. It is at these ages when children will use a cardboard box saying that it is a spaceship, or they will pretend to be superheroes or knights.

The use of symbols allows them to intuitively understand their surroundings; thus, at this stage, memory and the first explanations of the world also appear for the first time.

Egocentrism

One of the most interesting characteristics of Piaget's preoperational stage is that children in it are not able to distinguish between their own thoughts and emotions and those of others.

For example, a child who is in this stage and whose favorite food is pizza will believe that it is also everyone's favorite food. Due to this characteristic, children between the ages of 2 and 7 are extremely selfish, as they do not understand that their needs can interfere with those of others.

On the other hand, they are not capable of putting themselves in other people's shoes, so if they know something they will think that everyone else knows it too. This feature has been demonstrated by various classical experiments in psychology, the best known of which is the three mountains experiment.

In this experiment, the child is placed in front of a table with three mountains, and he is asked what another person will see moving at different angles. The child will always respond taking into account the view that he himself has, without taking into account the other person.

Centering

Because their brains are still developing, preoperational children are unable to focus on several aspects of the same task at the same time. Rather, they need to look at just one part of what they are doing at a time.

This characteristic becomes even more pronounced in social situations such as gaming. In this type of task it can be seen that children can only think of one idea at a time, quickly switching between them but without being able to keep several in their mind at the same time.

Animism

Another typical characteristic of Piaget's preoperational stage is animism, or the belief that all inert objects are alive or fulfill a specific function.

However, unlike the rest of the characteristics of this stage, animism is transformed during the years that it lasts and extends until the following stages.

- Up to 4 or 5 years, children consider that almost all objects and things are alive and have a specific purpose.

- Up to the age of 7, more or less, children believe that only moving objects are alive.

- In the next stage and until the age of 9, the child believes that only if an object moves spontaneously is it alive.

- Finally, in the last stage of development (between 9 and 12 years old), the child realizes that only animals and plants have life.

Irreversibility

Irreversibility is the inability to find the initial starting point of a situation by looking at the final results of it. Children do not develop reversibility of thinking until a later stage of cognitive development.

An example of a task that involves reversibility of thought is to give a child a number (for example, 13) and ask him to find two numbers that add up to that result. According to Piaget, children in the preoperational stage would not be able to perform this task.

References

1. "Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development" in: Very Well Mind. Retrieved on: February 19, 2018 from Very Well Mind: verywellmind.com.
2. "Preoperational Stage" in: Simply Psychology. Retrieved on: February 19, 2018 from Simply Psychology: simplypsichology.com.
3. "Piaget Cognitive Stages of Development" in: Web MD. Retrieved on: February 19, 2018 from Web MD: webmd.com.
4. "Psychology Classics: Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development" in: Psychology in Action. Retrieved on: February 19, 2018 from Psychology in Action: psychologyinaction.org.
5. "Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: February 19, 2018 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.