What is the preoperational stage?
Preoperational Stage
During this stage (toddler through age 7), young children are able to think about things symbolically. Their language use becomes more mature. They also develop memory and imagination, which allows them to understand the difference between past and future, and engage in make-believe.
The preoperational stage is the second stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development. This stage begins around age two as children start to talks and last until approximately age seven. During this stage, children begin to engage in symbolic play and learn to manipulate symbols.
- Centration. Centration is the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation at one time. ...
- Egocentrism. ...
- Play. ...
- Symbolic Representation. ...
- Pretend (or symbolic) Play. ...
- Animism. ...
- Artificialism. ...
- Irreversibility.
Piaget's stage that coincides with early childhood is the Preoperational Stage. According to Piaget, this stage occurs from the age of 2 to 7 years. In the preoperational stage, children use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas, which is why children in this stage engage in pretend play.
Preoperational stage (2–7 years old) Concrete operational stage (7–11 years old) Formal operational stage (11 years old through adulthood)
: of, relating to, or being the stage of cognitive development according to Jean Piaget's theory in which thought is egocentric and intuitive and not yet logical or capable of performing mental tasks.
The name of this stage hints to what's happening here: “Operational” refers to the ability to manipulate information logically. Yes, your child is thinking. But they can't yet use logic to transform, combine, or separate ideas. So they're “pre” operational.
Children also begin to use language in the preoperational stage, but they cannot understand adult logic or mentally manipulate information. The term operational refers to logical manipulation of information, so children at this stage are considered pre-operational.
In the preoperational stage, children use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas, which is why children in this stage engage in pretend play. A child's arms might become airplane wings as she zooms around the room, or a child with a stick might become a brave knight with a sword.
Thus, it is concluded that one characteristic of pre-operational thought is Centration. Conservation: It refers to the idea that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance.
Which of the following is true of the preoperational stage?
In the context of Piaget's stages of cognitive development, which of the following is true of the preoperational stage? It is characterized by egocentric thought in children.
- Use concrete props and visual aids whenever possible.
- Make instruction relatively short-- not too many steps at once.
- Use actions as well as words.
- Help children develop their ability to see the world from someone else's point of view.

The formal operational stage is characterized by the ability to formulatehypotheses and systematically test them to arrive at an answer to a problem. The individual in the formal stage is also able to think abstractly and tounderstand the form or structure of a mathematical problem.
Centration Includes characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a young child focuses (centers) on one idea, excluding all others; may include egocentrism Focus on appearance Characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a young child ignores all attributes that are not apparent Static reasoning Characteristic ...