Famous developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget, was one of the first to examine children's thinking closely and ask questions about how they think. Through his examinations of children's reasoning, he created a theory of how our thought processes develop. Piaget argued that our thinking develops in stages or steps. Perhaps the most interesting stage is that of young children, the preoperational stage of reasoning, in which children make a number of fascinating mistakes.
From the time when they can speak to about 6 or 7 years of age, children display preoperational reasoning. Now children have the representational skills to use symbols. According to Piaget, language is not possible until children are capable of symbolic thought; we must understand that one thing can stand for another before we can use words to represent objects, events, and relationships. During the preoperational stage, children become capable of using language and mental imagery. For the first time, the child is able to think about past and future events. Despite these abilities, Piaget noted the preoperational child's thought is characterized by several limitations.
Egocentrism
Egocentrism refers to the inability to take another person's perspective, or the inability to separate one's own perspective from those of others. Preoperational children believe that everyone sees what they see, hears what they hear, and knows what they know. For example, a child might cover her eyes and say, "You can't see me!" Egocentrism lies in the belief that because she cannot see anyone else, they cannot see her.
Animism
Animism refers to the tendency of children to believe that all objects, animals, and things are living and capable of having feelings, intentions, and emotions. Objects are personified. For example, a preoperational child may explain that it is raining because, "the sun is sad and it's crying." When a child accidentally falls into a wall, he or she may hit it afterwards, as if the wall intended to hurt him or her.
Lacks Conservation Skills
Conservation tasks require children to observe a transformation in physical quantities that are initially equivalent and to reason about the impact of the transformation. For example, a child may be shown to identical balls of clay. When asked whether the two balls of clay are the same size, she will agree. Then one ball of clay is flattened out and the child is again asked whether the two pieces of clay are the same. The preoperational child will not understand that the amount of clay remained the same and instead will believe that because the flattened out piece of clay is wider, it is a larger piece of clay.
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