Preschoolers’ Symbolic and Intuitive Thinking

There are two (2) substages of Piaget’s preoperational thought, namely:

Symbolic Substage (ages 2-4) – preschool children show progress in their cognitive abilities
by being able to draw objects that are not present, by their dramatic increase in their language
and make-believe play.
Intuitive Substage (ages 4-7) – preschool children begin to use primitive reasoning and ask a
litany questions.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage 2. Pre-operational Stages – the preoperational stages cover from about 2-7 years old,
roughly corresponding to the preschool years. Intelligence at the stage is intuitive in nature.
Developmental Tasks
1. Symbolic Function – This is the ability to represent objects and events. A symbol is a
thing that represent something else.
2. Egocentrism – This is the tendency of the preschooler to only see his point of view and
to assume that everyone also has his point of view.
3. Centration – this refer to the tendency of the preschooler to only focus on one aspects.
This is also refers to as UNIDIMENSIONAL THOUGHT.
4. Irreversibility – Preschooler children still have the inability to reverse their thinking. They
can understand that the juice in each glass can be poured back into the juice box from
which it came.
5. Animism – This is the tendency of the preschooler to attribute human like traits or
characteristics to inanimate objects.
6. Transductive Reasoning – this refers to the preoperational children type of reasoning
that is neither inductive nor deductive reasoning appears to be from particular to
particular.

References:

Cognitive development of the preschoolers. (n.d.).

https://www.slideshare.net/BSEPhySci14/cognitive-development-of-the-preschoolers1
Preoperational Stage | PGpedia. (n.d.). Picture Perfect Playgrounds, Inc.
https://www.pgpedia.com/p/preoperational-stage#:~:text=The%20preoperational
%20stage%20is%20divided,without%20the%20object%20being%20present.