{"id":76,"date":"2017-10-06T14:50:38","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T14:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/happychildren.life\/?p=76"},"modified":"2021-02-05T15:35:03","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T15:35:03","slug":"children-at-age-2-7-years-9-features-of-their-preoperational-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happychildren.life\/children-at-age-2-7-years-9-features-of-their-preoperational-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Jean Piaget Theory: 9 features of thinking in preschool kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children at age 2-7 years old are on the preoperational stage of cognitive development and they have preoperational thinking. This stage and thinking are described by the famous psychologist, Jean Piaget<\/a>. Therefore, this article about 9 features of preoperational thinking is actually an explanation of the theory of Jean Piaget. It will help you to better understand kids at age 2-7 years, what they think about the world and how they observe it. <\/p>\n

\"features1. Egocentrism as the main feature of preoperational thinking<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Egocentrism is the core of all other features of children’s preoperational thinking. It is the non-differentiation of the subjective (what is in the kid’s mind) and the objective (what really exists). For children at age 2-7 years, the world is like they see it, not what it objectively is. Kids think that their subjective truth is the only possible and only right. Therefore, it’s difficult for a child to put him\/herself in the position of another subject, to realize that other people may think differently. Also, children’s understanding of the world depends on observation. For example, on the question of why is the moon moving, a child concludes that it moves to follow him\/her.<\/p>\n

2. Realism<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Do you know that children at age 2-7 years have the idea that other people can read their thoughts? That is realism, one more feature of preoperational thinking. It means that internal experiences have characteristics of external, physical reality. I will explain it by examples of children’s beliefs about thoughts, dreams, and names.<\/p>\n

At the preoperational stage, kids believe that they think by the mouth or voice. Then follows the period when kids believe that they are thinking by mouth or a voice in the head. Finally, when kids overcome preoperational thinking, they start to understand that thoughts aren’t observable.<\/p>\n

Kids don’t make difference between sleep and reality at the preoperational stage. In the stage of deep realism, children think that dreams come from the outside. For example, when a kid with preoperational thinking dreams mom and dad, he\/she think that mom and dad make that dream. If a kid dreams forest, the kid thinks that the dream comes from the forest and that the dream is in the forest. Also, at this stage, kids believe that people can see dreams. Gradually, kids realize that sleep is an internal phenomenon and that their dreams are only in their heads.<\/p>\n

Similarly, children at age 2 to 7 years think that the name is a physical and unchangeable feature of the object that signifies. They are convinced that names exist from the beginning of the subject. Also, they think that the name can’t be changed, or if the name is changed, the subject will changes itself. The illustration below explains nominal realism as a feature of children’s preoperational thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n

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