Preoperational Stage

In the preoperational stage, the preschool child begins to represent these

permanent objects by internal processes or mental representations. Now

the development of mental representations of useful objects proceeds at an

astounding pace. In symbolic play, blocks may represent cars and trains. Capable

of deferred imitation, the child may pretend to be a cowboy according

to his or her memory image of a motion-picture cowboy. The most important

of all representations are the hundreds of new words the child learns to

speak.

As one might infer from the word “preoperational,” this period, lasting

from about age two through ages six or seven, is transitional. The preschool

child still lacks the attention, memory capacity, and mental flexibility to employ

his or her increasing supply of symbolic representations in logical reasoning

(operations). It is as if the child remains so focused upon the individual

frames of a motion picture that he or she fails to comprehend the

underlying plot. Piaget calls this narrow focusing on a single object or salient

dimension “centration.” The child may say, for example, that a quart of

milk he or she has just seen transferred into two pint containers is now “less

milk” because the child focuses upon the smaller size of the new containers.

Fido is seen as a dog, not as an animal or a mammal. The child uncritically

assumes that other people, regardless of their situation, share his or her own

tastes and perspectives. A two-year-old closes his eyes and says, “Now you

don’t see me, Daddy.” Piaget calls this egocentrism.