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Definition
Piaget believed that operations were required by children beyond the sensorimotor stage to enable mental activity as opposed to purely physical actions. Pre-operation because the child has not yet mastered these operations. The preoperational child makes a shift from physical action of sensory motor period to the use of symbol systems such as words, images, and signs. The most important milestone of this period, is the development of language. It is estimated that the vocabulary of children between 2-4 expands from 200-2000 words.
Definition
The label preoperational emphasizes that the child does not yet perform operations (which are internalized actions) that allow children to do mentally what they could formerly do only physically. Operations are reversible mental actions. Mentally adding and subtracting numbers are examples of operations. Preoperational thought is the beginning of the ability to reconstruct in thought what has been established in behaviour. The preoperational stage, which lasts from approximately 2 to 7 years of age, is the second Piagetian stage. In this stage, children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings. Symbolic thought goes beyond simple connections of sensory information and physical action. Stable concepts are formed, mental reasoning emerges, egocentrism is present, and magical beliefs are constructed. Preoperational thought can be divided into sub-stages: the symbolic function sub-stage and the intuitive thought sub-stage.
Santrock, J. (2000). Child Development: An Introduction
Symbolic Function Sub-stage 2-4 years Intuitive Thought Sub-stage 4-7 years
Filders University (2010). Mental development and Education: Faculty of Education, Humanities and Law Retrieved from: http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/DLiT/2000/Piaget/stages.htm
Anna at Age 4 Years 11 Months scribbling stage, has drawn a tricolored house.
In Piagets theory, failing the conservation-ofliquid task is a sign that children are at the preoperational stage of cognitive development. The preoperational child fails to show conservation not only of liquid but also of number, matter, length, volume, and area. According to Piaget, preoperational children also cannot perform operations (mental representations that are reversible). For example, a young child may know that 4+2=6, but may not understand that the reverse 6-2= 4 is true.
-Santrock, J. (2011). Child Development: An Introduction
It has been found that some children often vary in their performance on different conservation tasks. So that different children at different ages in this stage may have attained conservation skills of mass, volume and length at different ages from their peers. Thus, a child might be able to conserve volume but not number. Some developmentalists do not believe Piaget was entirely correct in his estimate of when childrens conservation skills emerge. For example, Rochel Gelman (1969) showed that when the childs attention to relevant aspects of the conservation task is improved, the child is more likely to conserve. Gelman has also demonstrated that attentional training on one dimension, such as number, improves the preschool childs performance on another dimension, such as mass. Thus, Gelman suggests that conservation appears earlier than Piaget thought and that attention is especially important in explaining conservation.
-Santrock, J. (2011). Educational Psychology
4. Give children experience in ordering operations. This will help them with sequencing story elements later on. 5. Have children draw scenes with perspectives (or feelings) from different characters in a short story or rhyme 6. Ask children to justify their answers when they draw conclusions about a character or prediction from a short story or rhyme. This will help them to think logically. 7. Observe the students interests and natural participation in activities to determine the course of learning.