Question

Describe the two stages of preoperational thought. Provide an example of children's thinking at each stage. (10marks)

Answer 1

Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist pioneered the cognitive development theory that attempts to illustrate the gradual expansion of the human intelligence.

The development phenomenon is categorised into four stages- sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage and formal operational stage.

Out of these, the preoperational stage (around 2 to 7 years of age) further classified into the two sub- types- Preconceptual thinking stage (two to four years) and intuitive stage (four to seven years).

Preconceptual thinking stage (two to four years)- In this stage, the objects are represented mentally by the child. The similarity between or among the objects is treated as if they tend to be identical. Thus, the entire class properties cannot be distinguished and can reflect the incomplete comprehension.

Example- More and better social expression, role plays, acting like a typical/ specific person/ being an imaginary doctor and check/ treat friends, considering them as patients.

Children may have a belief like- sound of leaves of a tree indicates that the leaves talk with each other/ they whisper.

Intuitive stage (four to seven years)- The transductive reasoning takes a halt here. Better logic initiates and cultivates the thought process in this stage. But the logical capability is yet not at par. The quantitative facets like volume, number, area and weight can be misunderstood and expressed in a wrong manner.

Example- If children are shown the same levels of water in two different glasses, they are capable of recognising that the water level in both glasses was exactly the same. But when the water from one glass is poured in another container wherein the water level seems to be more because of the thin tube, children may conclude and assert that water in the tube is more.