CFD 1450 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Logical Reasoning, Egocentrism, Magical Thinking
CHAPTER 9- COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
Piaget’s Preoperational Stage
• Ages 2 to 7
• Sensorimotor activity leads to internal images of experience; which children then
label with words.
• Advances in mental representation:
o Development of make-believe play
o Gains in understanding of symbol–real-world relations
Development of Make-Believe
• With growing symbolic mastery, play
o Detaches from real-life conditions associated with it.
o Becomes less self-centered.
o Includes more complex combinations of schemes.
o By the end of the second year, children engage in sociodramatic play with
peers.
Benefits of Make-Believe
• Leads to gains in social competence.
• Strengthens cognitive capacities:
o Sustained attention
o Inhibition of impulses
o Memory
o Logical reasoning
o Language and literacy
o Imagination, creativity, perspective taking
• Imaginary companions enhance pretend play.
Enhancing Make-Believe Play in Early Childhood
• Provide sufficient space and play materials.
• Encourage children’s play without controlling it.
• Offer a variety of realistic materials as well as materials without clear functions.
• Ensure that children have many rich, real-world experiences to inspire positive
fantasy play.
• Help children solve social conflicts constructively.
Dual Representation
• Viewing a symbolic object as both an object in its own right and a symbol
• Mastered around age 3
• To support children’s dual representation,
o Point out similarities between models and real world spaces.
o Expose young children to symbols (picture books, drawings, make-believe,
maps)
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Document Summary
Piaget"s preoperational stage: ages 2 to 7, sensorimotor activity leads to internal images of experience; which children then label with words, advances in mental representation, development of make-believe play, gains in understanding of symbol real-world relations. Development of make-believe: with growing symbolic mastery, play, detaches from real-life conditions associated with it, becomes less self-centered, includes more complex combinations of schemes, by the end of the second year, children engage in sociodramatic play with peers. Benefits of make-believe: leads to gains in social competence, strengthens cognitive capacities, sustained attention, inhibition of impulses, memory, logical reasoning, language and literacy, imagination, creativity, perspective taking. Limitations of preoperational thought: egocentrism, animistic thinking. Inability to conserve: centration, irreversibility, lack of hierarchical classification. Egocentric and animistic thinking: egocentrism, animistic thinking, failure to distinguish others" symbolic viewpoints from one"s own, demonstrated by piaget"s three-mountains problem, belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities, magical thinking: assigning human purposes to physical events.
