Is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even though its appearance changes.

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    1. Is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even though its appearance changes.

      Figure 1. A child pretending to buy items at a toy grocery store. (Photo Credit: Ermalfaro, CC BY SA 4.0.)

      Pretending is a favorite activity during the preoperational stage. A toy has qualities beyond the way it was designed to function and can now be used to stand for a character or object unlike anything for which it was originally intended. A teddy bear, for example, can be a baby or the queen of a faraway land!

      Watch this Preoperational Stage example video. Note that children in the Preoperational Stage exhibit symbolic play, egocentrism, lack of understanding conservation tasks, and inability to understand reversibility.

      Table 1. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

      Name of StageDescription of Stage
      Sensorimotor Stage During the sensorimotor stage, children rely on the use of the senses and motor skills. From birth until about 2 years, the infant learns by tasting, smelling, touching, hearing, and moving objects around. This is a hands-on type of knowledge.
      Preoperational Stage In the preoperational stage, children from ages 2 to 7 years become able to think about the world using symbols. A symbol is something that stands for something else. The use of language, whether it is in the form of words or gestures, facilitates knowing and communicating about the world. This is the hallmark of preoperational learning and it typically occurs in early childhood. However, these children are preoperational or pre-logical. They still do not understand how the physical world operates. They may, for instance, fear that they will go down the drain if they sit at the front of the bathtub, even though they are too big.
      Concrete Operational Stage Children in the concrete operational stage, ages 7 to 11 years, develop the ability to think logically about the physical world. Middle childhood is a time of understanding concepts such as size, distance, and constancy of matter, and cause and effect relationships. A child knows that a scrambled egg is still an egg and that 8 ounces of water are still 8 ounces no matter what shape of glass contains it.
      Formal Operational Stage During the formal operational stage children, at about 12 years of age, acquire the ability to think logically about concrete and abstract events. The teenager who has reached this stage is able to consider possibilities and to contemplate ideas about situations that have never been directly encountered. More abstract understanding of religious ideas, morals, or ethics, and abstract principles such as freedom and dignity can be considered.

      Is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even though its appearance changes.
      Modern Therapy

      Piaget discovered that all children’s cognitive development progressed through four stages, beginning in infancy and are completed by adolescence. Thinking becomes more and more complex as the child ages. Each stage of thinking causes the child to see the world in a different way.

      About

      Jean Piaget (August 1896 – 16 September 1980) was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology".

      Piaget's 4 Stages of Cognitive Development

      Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development which reflect the increasing sophistication of children's thought:

      1. Sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2) - The main achievement during this stage is Object Permanence - knowing that an object still exists, even if it is hidden. It requires the ability to form a mental representation (i.e., a schema) of the object.
      2. Preoperational stage (from age 2 to age 7) - During this stage, young children can think about things symbolically. This is the ability to make one thing - a word or an object - stand for something other than itself. Thinking is still egocentric, and the infant has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others.
      3. Concrete operational stage (from age 7 to age 11) - Piaget considered the concrete stage a major turning point in the child's cognitive development because it marks the beginning of logical or operational thought. This means the child can work things out internally in their head (rather than physically try things out in the real world). Children can conserve number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9). Conservation is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even though its appearance changes.
      4. Formal operational stage (age 11+ - adolescence and adulthood) - The formal operational stage begins at approximately age eleven and lasts into adulthood. During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts, and logically test hypotheses.

      Paiget indicated that a child must ‘master’ one stage before they can move onto the next stage. Each child goes through the stages in the same order, and child development is determined by biological maturation and interaction with the environment. If they cannot master a stage, they will never reach their full potential. Piaget believed that intellectual development controls every other aspect of development. He believed that there is a pattern to the way children learn to think and this pattern goes in stages.

      Piaget’s Theories in Practice

      • Educator's nurturance (comfort, teaching, and play) should be suitable for the individual child's stage of thinking.
      • We need to develop an understanding of what children can and cannot do based on their age and intellectual ability.
      • We should offer tasks that enable a child to achieve and to challenge their skills. If they are given tasks that are too difficult for them, they will not be able to succeed, which may affect them negatively, psychologically and emotionally.
      • See children as active learners, listen to their ideas
      • Help children find their own answers
      • Know that babies will use materials in a different way to toddlers; toddlers differently to preschoolers
      • Look for children’s interest and plan to build on them
      • Let children repeat an activity, sometimes many times, when we can see that it is still interesting to them
      • Children learn in different ways at different ages. Children are little researchers. They learn by using their senses to explore how things work. Piaget says that telling children lots of facts about a thing, without letting them find out about the thing for themselves, is not very helpful. They need to be able to see, touch, taste, smell, move, and hear the things they are learning about. This is called ‘concrete learning’.

      References:
      McLeod, S. A. (2018, June 06). Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Simply Psychology.
      Child Theorists and Their Theories in Practice, Aussie Childcare Network, 03 May 2020

      Created On May 12, 2020 Last modified on Tuesday, May 12, 2020

      What is Piaget's theory of conservation?

      Conservation, in child development, is a logical thinking ability first studied by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. In short, being able to conserve means knowing that a quantity doesn't change if it's been altered (by being stretched, cut, elongated, spread out, shrunk, poured, etc).

      What refers to a quantity remaining the same despite changes in the container?

      Conservation refers to a logical thinking ability that allows a person to determine that a certain quantity will remain the same despite adjustment of the container, shape, or apparent size, according to the psychologist Jean Piaget.

      What are the 4 stages of Piaget's cognitive development?

      Sensorimotor stage (0–2 years old) Preoperational stage (2–7 years old) Concrete operational stage (7–11 years old) Formal operational stage (11 years old through adulthood)

      What is the concept of conservation?

      Conservation is the act of protecting Earth's natural resources for current and future generations.