Piaget's Stages and Parental Interaction
Piaget’s Stages and Parental Interaction
Considering the differences in Piaget’s theory of preoperational thought, concrete operational thought and formal operational thought, there are certain things a parent should keep in mind as they interact with their children.
Preoperational thought occurs between the ages of 2 and 7. At this stage, children are able to center on a single aspect of a problem, rather than two or more dimensions at once. Understanding is driven by how things look rather than derived from logical reasoning. (p.217) Young children use words to refer to things, people and events that are not physically present. (p.217) Children, at this stage, have what Piaget refers to as egocentrism: Children have difficulty seeing things from others perspectives and assume that what is in their mind is also what others are thinking, Parents can interact in several different ways with their 4 year old child. One way is by offering family affection, warmth and friendship. Playing with building blocks provides time where children can control things and themselves. Playing with other children gives them active interaction, exploration and observation of their environment. Parents should encourage an imaginary companion because it is associated with advanced cognitive and social development, as well as higher levels of creativity and imagery. (p.217) At this age, parents should focus less on language development and more on learning colors, symbol identification such as the alphabet, numbers and shapes.
Concrete operational thought occurs between the ages of 7 and 11. (p.221) This stage involves mastering the logical operations missing in the preoperational stage. Children begin to retain the understanding of quantity, length or numbers associated with an object or process. They can mentally reverse or undo an action. The child can understand the process of change from one state to another. (p.221) The concrete operational child understands that
Considering the differences in Piaget’s theory of preoperational thought, concrete operational thought and formal operational thought, there are certain things a parent should keep in mind as they interact with their children.
Preoperational thought occurs between the ages of 2 and 7. At this stage, children are able to center on a single aspect of a problem, rather than two or more dimensions at once. Understanding is driven by how things look rather than derived from logical reasoning. (p.217) Young children use words to refer to things, people and events that are not physically present. (p.217) Children, at this stage, have what Piaget refers to as egocentrism: Children have difficulty seeing things from others perspectives and assume that what is in their mind is also what others are thinking, Parents can interact in several different ways with their 4 year old child. One way is by offering family affection, warmth and friendship. Playing with building blocks provides time where children can control things and themselves. Playing with other children gives them active interaction, exploration and observation of their environment. Parents should encourage an imaginary companion because it is associated with advanced cognitive and social development, as well as higher levels of creativity and imagery. (p.217) At this age, parents should focus less on language development and more on learning colors, symbol identification such as the alphabet, numbers and shapes.
Concrete operational thought occurs between the ages of 7 and 11. (p.221) This stage involves mastering the logical operations missing in the preoperational stage. Children begin to retain the understanding of quantity, length or numbers associated with an object or process. They can mentally reverse or undo an action. The child can understand the process of change from one state to another. (p.221) The concrete operational child understands that