Cognitive Development of a Preschooler Piagets Preoperational Stage

Cognitive Development of a Preschooler

Piaget’s Preoperational Stage • Preschool children are in Piaget’s Preoperational stage of cognitive development. • Toddlers and preschoolers form attitudes about learning that can last a lifetime. • Children learn from concrete (hands-on and tangible) evidence.

Egocentric • Still think in terms of their own activities and their perceptions at the moment. • Struggle with abstract terms. • Continue to learn through make-believe play • Learning that objects and words can be symbols and represent an idea. • Limited view on ideas because these are based on the child’s perceptions.

How Preschoolers Learn • Children are inquisitive and ask many questions because they are curious and want to understand the world around them. • Preschoolers learn by participation and involvement in everyday experiences.

Four and Five Year Olds • Four Year Olds – Learn colors and shapes – Sort and identify the differences between objects – Have an expanded vocabulary • Five Year Olds – Begin problem solving

Reality and Fantasy • Preschoolers can differentiate between reality and fantasy or make-believe. • The imaginary life of kids is powerful and sways their perceptions of the real world until they master adult rationality and logic. • Jean Piaget said that kids in the preoperational stage of cognitive growth use magical thinking until they learn the properties of physics and reality.

Cognitive Development Terms • Conservation – Even though one property of an object changes, the other properties remain the same. – Examples: • A ball of play-dough smashed into a pancake is still the same even though it looks different • Liquid is the same amount even though it is poured into differently shaped glasses.

Cognitive Development Terms • Classification – Putting objects into sets based on common traits. • Examples: – Cats and dogs – Toy blocks and toy trucks

Cognitive Development Terms • Sorting: – Placing classified objects into smaller groups based on how they are alike and different. • Examples: – Sorting cats by color – Sorting blocks by size or shape

Cognitive Development Terms • Seriation – Putting objects in a particular order based on size, weight, etc. • Examples: – Lining crayons up in order from shortest to longest.

Cognitive Development Terms • Transformation – The change of an object from one state to another. • Examples: – Popcorn kernel to popcorn – Bread dough to bread – Jell-O powder to Jell-O

Cognitive Development Terms • Reversal – What can be done up can also be undone. • Examples: – A sand castle can be built and knocked down – A jacket can be zipped up and unzipped – A mistake can be made and fixed

Cognitive Learning Centers • You will participate in six learning centers: – Conservation – Classification – Sorting – Seriation – Transformations – Reversal • Fill out the worksheet and turn in before leaving class today.