Preoperational (2nd Stage of Cognitive Development)

Artificialism

Artificialism is a term coined by Jean Piaget that refers to the religiously-oriented perspective that all things were created by an intelligent entity that has complete control over their qualities, movements, and behaviors. Piaget contrasted this artificialistic perspective to animism, a view that embraces a greater self-determinism. Piaget's examination of these points of view were part of his description of the preoperational stage in children's development. He proposed that small children are actually capable of points of view such as artificialism and animism.

Parallel play

At the beginning of this stage you often find children engaging in parallel play. That is to say they often play in the same room as other children but they play next to others rather than with them. Each child is absorbed in its own private world and speech is egocentric. That is to say the main function of speech at this stage is to externalize the child's thinking rather than to communicate with others.

Egocentrism

Egocentrism refers to the child's inability to see a situation from another person's point of view. According to Piaget, the egocentric child assumes that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same as the child does.

Centration (Piaget)

In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the second stage is called Preoperational Thought. During this stage, which occurs from age 4-7, the child begins to develop logic or reasoning. One of the processes that develops is that of Centration, which refers to the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation, problem or object. For example, a child may complain that there is little ice cream left in a big bowl. The child will be satisfied if the ice cream is transferred to a little bowl, even though nothing is added, because he only considers how full the bowl appears to be.

Irreversibility

Irreversibility is a stage in early child development in which a child falsely believes that actions cannot be reversed or undone. For example, if a three-year-old boy sees someone flatten a ball of play dough, he will not understand that the dough can easily be reformed into a ball. Children typically develop past this stage by age 7.

Symbolic Representation

The early preoperational period (ages 2-3) is marked by a dramatic increase in children's use of the symbolic function. This is the ability to make one thing - a word or an object - stand for something other than itself. Language is perhaps the most obvious form of symbolism that young children display. However, Piaget (1951) argues that language does not facilitate cognitive development, but merely reflects what the child already knows and contributes little to new knowledge. He believed cognitive development promotes language development, not vice versa.

Animism

This is the belief that inanimate objects (such as toys and teddy bears) have human feelings and intentions. By animism Piaget (1929) meant that for the pre-operational child the world of nature is alive, conscious and has a purpose. Piaget has identified four stages of animism: 1) Up to the ages 4 or 5 years, the child believes that almost everything is alive and has a purpose. 2) During the second stage (5-7 years) only objects that move have a purpose. 3) In the next stage (7-9 years), only objects that move spontaneously are thought to be alive. 4) In the last stage (9-12 years), the child understands that only plants and animals are alive.

Pretend (or symbolic) Play

Toddlers often pretend to be people they are not (e.g. superheroes, policeman), and may play these roles with props that symbolize real life objects. Children may also invent an imaginary playmate. As the pre-operational stage develops egocentrism declines and children begin to enjoy the participation of another child in their games and "lets pretend " play becomes more important. For this to work there is going to be a need for some way of regulating each child's relations with the other and out of this need we see the beginnings of an orientation to others in terms of rules.