Piaget's Preoperational Stage

According to Piaget, the preoperational stage lasts from 2-7 years of age. This is now believed to be incorrect; we now believe it is over by the age of 6 in most children. This stages are not concrete however and a child is usually in more than one stage at a time, as this image illustrates. This chart is from the IEApedia online education oriented encyclopedia, the chart is from 1977. Since then we have come to realize that children develop faster than is shown in the chart. Although the time may be a little bit off, this chart does a great job illustrating how children are typically in more than one stage at a time, and the stages are not concrete.


During the preoperational stage children start to use symbols to represent the world, and understand the principals of conservation.This is a video that shows a study that illustrates how children in the beginning of the preoperational stage do not understand the principals of conservation.


The example with the coins really caught my attention. I thought it was really interesting that the child counted the coins the first time around to see if they were the same, but when they were spread out she didn't bother to count. She was very sure that there were more in the line where they were spread apart.

Another thing I found interesting about this video on youtube is that some of the comments on it are people saying that this kids are stupid. The children are in fact not stupid; they just do not yet understand the principles of conservation. To adults this seems so obvious that some people may look at these children and think they are unintelligent, because we can't imagine how someone could not have these basic understandings. It is sometimes hard to wrap our heads around this concept.


Piaget also said that children in this age group are egocentric and have trouble seeing things through other people's view points. He says that at this age children do not understand that other people have feelings too and they believe the world revolves around them. Through my own experience working at a daycare, I do not believe this is true:
One day I was working in one of the toddler rooms and a little girl was crying because she wanted her mommy. A boy who was only a little older than 2 made a bracelet out of the toys to make this little girl feel better. This shows that even toddlers understand that other people have feelings and care about their friend’s happiness.
Another example of this from my daycare experience is when I was working in a daycare room with 3 and 4 year olds and I overheard one of the boys asking his friend "Are you curious?" This seems like a funny question but it shows that he is starting to understand that other people have thoughts and things on their minds as well as him. This same boy also asked me later on that day if I ever miss my mommy. He was missing his mommy and he was becoming aware that other people could relate to this and he was not the only one who had these types of thoughts.