| 2–7 years | Preoperational period |
| 2–4 years | Preoperational phase: increased use of verbal representation but speech is egocentric. The beginnings of symbolic rather than simple motor play. Transductive reasoning. Can think about something without the object being present by use of language. |
| 4–7 years | Intuitive phase: speech becomes more social, less egocentric. The child has an intuitive grasp of logical concepts in some areas. However, there is still a tendency to focus attention on one aspect of an object while ignoring others. Concepts formed are crude and irreversible. Easily believes in magical increase, decrease, disappearance. Reality not firm. Perceptions dominate judgment. In the moral-ethical realm, the child is not able to show principles underlying best behaviour. Rules of a game not developed, only uses simple do’s and don’t’s imposed by authority. |
| 7–11 years | “Middle childhood”: concrete operational period. Evidence for organised, logical thought. Can perform multiple classification tasks, order objects in a logical sequence and comprehend the principle of conservation. Thinking becomes less transductive and less egocentric. The child is capable of concrete problem-solving. Class logic-finding bases to sort unlike objects into logical groups where previously it was on superficial perceived attribute such as colour. Categorical labels such as “number” or “animal” now available. |