pre-operationalstage(2-7years)（预operationalstage（2-7））.docVIP

Cognitive Development Pre-operational stage (2-7 years) Preconceptual thought (2-4 years) Intuitive thought (4-7 years) (Piaget notes and Sroufe, Ch. 9) Characteristics of preschooler’s thinking according to Sroufe: Children continue to be active participants in their own development A continual interplay between children’s developing capacities and the environment Specificity vs. generality – domain and cultural specificity – acquisition of concepts and skills in specific domains. Cognitive limitations – difficulty integrating multiple pieces of information, centration, appearance-reality problem, difficulty managing attentional and memory processes, egocentrism (not as serious as Piaget thought). For Piaget, stage is marked by transition from egocentric to social behavior, sociocentric speech and conceptual thought. Onset of symbolic thought and functions. First indication of symbolic thought involves representing one thing by means of something else. Less context-bound - extracts concepts from experience. Lid of box symbolized by opening and closing hand, or eyes, or mouth - use of different mediums. Carry it with us. Reference to box when absent. Focuses attention of others on a particular characteristic Malleable - can experiment with form of reality. Imaginative play now possible. We also see the onset of delayed imitation. Detaching thought from action – more efficient thinking. Language is the following step - reconstructing past, planning, think of distant objects, talk of things not immediately present. Piaget did not believe that language plays a major role in cognitive development. Sensorimotor activity does, and provides the foundation for language. Language is not necessary for logical categories – these appear before language. The child still cannot, however, form a whole representation. 4-5 year olds still cannot reconstruct their way to school when asked. Reasoning is characterized as transductive - reasoni