Page 9 - LESSION 7.pmd

Domains of Development

z z z z z Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)
The concrete operational stage starts from seven years of age and continues till
11 years. The limitations of the pre-operational stage come to an end at this Notes
stage. Children develop logical thinking but they still find difficulty in applying
logic to hypothetical situations. Their logic is limited to concrete observable
characteristics of the objects and situations. Children are now capable of
understanding others’ viewpoints.

One of the most important characteristics of the concrete operational stage
children is decentering. At this stage, children’s thinking is not centered on one
aspect of an object only. They can take into account more than one aspect when
categorizing objects. They also have reversibility of thought where they can carry
a thought or operation backward and forward.

They can now arrange objects in a serial order depending on the object’s defining
features. This is called seriation. For example, they can arrange a set of pencils of
different sizes in ascending or descending order.

All these characteristics make them better problem solvers than children in the
pre-operational stage of cognitive development.

z z z z z The Formal Operational Stage (11 years and above)

The formal operational stage begins around 11 years of age.
Here, children are able to perform higher order mental operations. Their thought
is flexible and they can deal effectively with the complex problems involving
reasoning. One of the defining characteristics of formal thought is the ability to
perform hypothetic co-deductive reasoning. Adolescents can make hypothesis
and find all the possible solutions to any abstract problem and then apply the best
suited to solve.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 7.4

1. Match Column A and Column B.

Column A Column B
(a) If something is moving, it is alive (i) Infancy

(b) Grasping, sucking, blinking (ii) Animistic thinking

(c) Hypothetic co-deductive reasoning (iii) Piaget
(d) Deferred imitation (iv) Adolescence

(e) Cognitive theory (v) Reflex action

EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION 97