Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development:
Early Childhood
This stage is characterized by the:
• Beginning of logical mental actions
(operations)
• Difficulty with 2 principles: decentering
and conservation
• Egocentrism: tendency to see the
world from one’s own point of view
• 1. Use concrete props and visual aids whenever possible.
• 2. Make instructions relatively short, using actions as well as words.
• 3. Don’t expect the students
to be able consistently to see the world
from someone else’s point of view.
• 4. Be sensitive to the possibility
that students may have different
meanings for the same word or different words for the same meaning.
Students may also expect everyone to understand words they have
invented.
• 5. Give children a great deal
of hands-on practice with the skills that
serve as building blocks for more complex skills like reading comprehension.
• 6. Provide a range of experiences
in order to build a foundation for concept
learning and language.
