Glossary / Lexicon

- Pre Operational Stage (2 - 7 years) (Piaget) : Pre Operational Stage refers to the 2nd of the four (4) stages Piaget uses to define cognitive development. This stage is divided into: (1) Preoperational Phase (2-4 years) when the child increases the use of verbal representation but speech is egocentric; its the beginnings of symbolic rather than simple motor play; transductive reasoning when a child can think about something without the object being present by use of language; and (2) Intuitive Phase
(4-7 years) when child's 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; and in moral-ethical realm, the child is not able to show principles underlying best behavior.