True Facts About the Preoperational Human

            Between the ages of two to seven, the stage of cognitive development that Piaget calls preoperational, children are experience many changes both cognitively and behaviorally. Elementary school-aged children are trying to navigate their place in social situations and what the things they encounter represent in the world around them. Significant changes in the way a child thinks takes place during these years and perhaps this is why this stage begins at the terrible twos and closes with a self-sufficient, ever charming, first grader. Children at the preoperational stage are engaging in make-believe play that will further their social skills, and even their memory, attention span, and logical reasoning. These skills are important moving forward as they enter school and encounter an increasing amount of social environments. Imagining various scenarios based on what they have watched parents or other adults do is crucial to develop their sense of self, and begin to realize the way other people are thinking.

            Preoperational children that are around two and a half years still lack the ability to dual represent. They are unable to make the connection between a real place or object and a picture or model of that thing. At two years, children do not yet recognize that a stick figure drawing of a toy, the drawing being an object in itself represents a toy that exists in real-life. The inability to make the correlation between the two begins to fade around age six. However, even when a child is as young as two or three, they are able to realize that a picture is a symbol for a real-life object because a picture’s sole purpose is symbolic and meant to be a representation of something that actually exists. By exposing young children to symbolic objects, such as drawings, maps, and photos, the child will become increasingly familiar with the concept of dual representation.

            Many Piagetian problem-solving questions were not always the most accurate approach to representing a child’s cognitive ability. More recent research has shown that when you conduct the same type of tests with objects that are familiar to the child, the results differ from Piaget’s observations. An updated version of Piaget’s mountain test showed that even a four year old is able to notice that his or her vantage point is different from someone else’s.  Piaget also noted that preoperational children are rather oblivious to the fact that other people’s thoughts and intentions differ from their own. In fact, children, even as toddlers, are much less egocentric than Piaget believed.

            Preoperational children are not only going through various cognitive developments but emotional changes as well. Children of this age are learning how to redirect their attention to manage their emotions and regulate stress levels. The better a two or three year old is at distracting themselves from sources of frustration, the more cooperative and behaved they will be towards the end of this stage and further into their school years. Children are increasingly capable to recognize other’s emotions during this time as well. They are able to compare their own emotional state to that of others around them and from this, make assumptions about what others want and how they might react. Young children use this knowledge to determine their own safety in their surroundings. By age four or five children are able to determine not only someone else’s emotions but also why they might be feeling that way. A couple years later they are even capable of distinguishing between conflicting emotions cues. For example, if a child towards the end of the preoperational stage were shown a picture of a kid who is smiling next to a broken bicycle they would make assumptions such as “He is happy because his dad promised to fix his bike.” As children continue to pick up on different emotions and their affects on other people and themselves, they are able to navigate society with increasing ease.

            Children, typically, between the ages of two and seven are making assumptions about the people and places around them. By developing their sense of emotions and how different objects and people operate in the world around them, children are on their way to constricting a more accurate mental view of the world they live in. The more comfortable a child is with what they see and experience, the better they will navigate future interactions and settings. The preoperational stage is the bridge between infancy and school age children. This makes this stage crucial in preparing children mentally for the next big step in life and how to approach it with more confidence than ever before.

Giving Away Science

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek argues that there is a great deal of reliable science and facts in the Psychology field that could positively and significantly impact our society if such facts were common knowledge. If certain aspects of child development and childcare were more widely distributed to the population, it is possible that we could teach, learn, and foster children’s growth more effectively. As a society, we have become so fixated on the idea of success that we have even let it affect the way we school our children. Increasingly more schools are doing away with recess and unstructured playtime to allow for more time to work towards academic achievement. Montessori schools that are more capable of instilling children with practical life skills and catering to each child’s individual development as opposed to focusing on the achievement of the masses such as other schools may be true. Schools that give kids more time to develop socially and experiment with their environment are not always more effective in furthering a child’s developmental process than traditional schooling, however it would be beneficial to make society aware of the importance of encouraging all aspects of a child’s development in school, a large part of which comes from interacting with people and places.

Parents and teachers alike take an approach to learning that they believe is marginally better for the child’s future academic endeavors, when in fact this is not entirely the case. Although children who attend Montessori schools often perform just as well as children who attended standard public or private educational facilities, attending to a child’s well roundedness through both academics and social interaction is crucial in their developmental process. I think it’s important for society to take note to the overwhelming, and increasing amount of pressure that is being put on children to succeed and perform at a higher level. Parents and teachers are so eager to create extraordinarily talented children that their approach actually results in diminishing their child’s desire to learn at a later age. This information may not be received as well by society due to the fact that this educational outlook stems from a parent’s concern with their child’s future, which is only natural. Parents want to prepare their kids for a world they have not yet experienced and armoring them with an excellent education is an important part to this process. However, sharing this material is beneficial to preparing today’s youth for a more enjoyable, stress-reduced educational experience during their school years.

A child’s development begins flourishing at infancy, and for this reason it is understandable as to why parents go to great lengths to try to provide their baby with the most comfortable environment as possible. However, I believe more parents should be aware of what an infant likes to see, hear, and smell in order to adjust their approach to their baby’s everyday life. Many parents fall victim to the pastels and plush animals that companies market to expecting parents. While these items may be adorable and aesthetically pleasing to a nursery, parents should know that what truly stimulates an infant’s environment is extremely different from plush, light blue, zoo creatures. Because vision is the least developed of the senses at birth, infants respond best to high contrast colors, mainly black and white, in a checkerboard layout. Babies have very poor vision up until they are a few months old, making things such as checkerboards that don’t require much interpretation preferable. Making sure a child’s living space is reflective of the their developmental state is necessary to elicit a child’s full interest. Black and white play mobiles, toys, and stuffed animals with simple patterns on them are most appealing to babies. I believe it is important for parents to be conscious of their child’s abilities and interests at each age to know how to best construct the environment around them. Ensuring adults don’t become susceptible to marketers false advertising and get distracted by cute toys would perhaps allow more babies to be more comfortable and content with the things around them. Society would benefit from the knowledge that the products that companies who’s key demographic is new parents, aren’t always best suited for providing for the needs of the child.

            By equipping society with scientific findings, we are able to counteract the many lies and myths that are present surrounding aspects of development. Spreading knowledge that could potentially impact the way a child is raised or how to educate a population is extremely important. Not all of what we are led to believe is truly beneficial to our lives. I think it is important to acknowledge that the traditions of many practices are not always conducive to effectively carrying out various processes. Things such as infant care or the education system are critical in shaping the people we are and how we live our lives. We are neglecting the opportunity to better our community and ourselves in ways that are supported by scientific data. Society’s focus on arguably trivial things such as good test scores, or cute baby toys drive our lifestyles when in fact it should be driven by scientific fact and reasoning. There are many aspects of our lives that could be positively, and dramatically altered by basing our actions off of science rather than cultural norms or personal agendas.

Ken Robinson's TED Talk

Ken Robinson's concept that we should assign the same importance to creativity in schools as we do literacy is something I agree with. The school system should be fostering student's talents and unique intellectual and artistic abilities rather than squandering such eccentricity. Robinson mentions that today we are teaching children to fear imperfection and greatly magnify the consequences of a single mistake. Our education system runs on the notion that making all of the right decisions at the right time and executing them perfectly will lead to a future worth aspiring to. This, however, is not the case. By teaching kids that there is right and wrong in every aspect of life results in "growing out of creativity." We become more and more concerned with the idea that what we are creating or showing to the world is defected, or exhibits a weakness of some kind. The lack of education of the arts is an out growth of the education system's desire to foster the mind and produce people that are prepared to take on common careers. This focus ignores the ability to create widely-cultured, intellectually-rounded, and culturally-aware individuals that would be able to take on the world at a much higher level of intellect and understanding. Robinson makes the point that throughout school you may have been exposed to some arts or sports that you may have gotten great enjoyment out of but were given the impression that these facets of education were not grounds to build a career on. School makes the mistake of teaching children that things that they are interested in that do not lead to 9 to 5 desk jobs are not worth pursuing, even if it is at the expense of one's happiness. Academic ability dominates our sense of success in today's society and unfortunately this is largely in part to the structure of education.

Locke's Tabula Rasa, Rousseau's Noble Savage, and Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory

John Locke suggested that children come in to the world with nothing but a clean slate to create and navigate their own life experiences. We learn from the environment around us and have an unlimited potential for success. Children are in the process of a continual developmental growth. By establishing a system of rewards, and giving effective instructions and examples from parents, children are able to be shaped through good role models and proper life experiences. Children’s intelligence will gradually amount to that of a well-functioning adult. Locke’s philosophy was nurture rather than nature. He believed biological influences were not as prevalent in a child’s development as exploration of the world around them. First-hand experiences are what frame a child’s understanding of their environment. Locke theorized that this type of growth in children leads to their ability to better adapt to their surroundings as an adult. Also, this approach to development allows for children to enter the world and be prepared to mold to any setting, culture, or disabilities they may encounter. Children act out and explore in the way that they do simply because they are curious about their surroundings. Locke’s theory of a child’s passive development is

A child is inherently good, in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s opinion. The changes a child goes through are all based on the notion that they entered this world with a strong knowledge of right and wrong. Parents, teachers, and guardians only tamper with a child’s built-in sense of morals. A child has a unique, pure way of thinking that stand only to be tarnished by disciplinary interactions with adults. There are certain milestones that children reach that are symbols of their developmental progression, theorized Rousseau. Along with this, Rousseau believed that a child’s maturation was “naturally unfolding,” yet genetically decisive; a balance of both nature and nurture.  He argued children are not set up to be successful or disastrous, rather they choose their own destiny or path in life.

Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory acknowledges that their ever-changing brain limits a child’s understanding of the world around them. The developments that take place years after birth are crucial in shaping the child’s future and view on people, objects, and places. Due to Piaget’s beginnings in the biology field, he was able to better understand that the mind is always adapting and learning. He made the case that one’s initial view of the world is only temporary until we are able to accommodate for the aspects of the world we don’t understand. This is a cycle of learning and realization that occurs well into young adulthood. Each stage of Piaget’s theory is a new level of competence. He argued that these stages are biologically based however require the correct environment to foster such growth. A child is not born naturally good or empty, said Piaget; he simply is born with the capabilities needed to learn fundamental facets of life.

The behaviors of newborns, toddlers, and young adults are merely an expression of his or her cognitive development. Piaget was able to separate the developmental turning points into four main stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. At each stage we acquire new pieces of knowledge such as object permanence, class-systems, and mental representation, which allow us to navigate the world to the best of our ability. Through this, Piaget was able to make sense of the timeline that is child development. Our capability to process new information as we get older is important for us to be able to reason, problem solve, speak, write, and interact with all of the people, situations, and environments we encounter.