Preoperations - The Preschooler

The Preoperational Period (2-7 years)

Developmental Stage
& Approximate Age

Characteristic Behavior

Preoperational Phase
(2-4 years)

Increased use of verbal representation but speech is egocentric. The beginnings of symbolic rather than simple motor play. Transductive reasoning. Can think about something without the object being present by use of language.

Intuitive Phase
(4-7 years)

Speech becomes more social, less egocentric. The child has an intuitive grasp of logical concepts in some areas. However, there is still a tendency to focus attention on one aspect of an object while ignoring others. Concepts formed are crude and irreversible. Easy to believe in magical increase, decrease, disappearance. Reality not firm. Perceptions dominate judgment.

In moral-ethical realm, the child is not able to show principles underlying best behavior. Rules of a game not develop, only uses simple do's and don'ts imposed by authority.

Summary of PREOPERATIONS:

• Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words 
• Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others
  
• Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of color.