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.
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