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Sub Stage In Children

Decent Essays

The symbolic function sub stage is marked by the limitations of egocentrism (Santrock, 2014). Egocentrism is described as the lack of the ability to adopt another’s viewpoint or perspective (Mcdonald & Stuart-Hamilton, 2002). For a child this means only seeing the world from their point of view and disregarding others. Piaget originally studied children’s egocentrism by using a three mountain task (Santrock, 2014). A model of three different sized mountains is placed upon a table. Each side of table presents a different view of the mountains some with houses and trees. A young child may be asked to visit each side of the table to grasp a general understanding of what each side looks like. Then the child is asked to sit on one of the table …show more content…

Children around the age of four will start to use primitive reasoning, and question everything around them (Santrock, 2014). This sub stage is often called the ‘why’ stage because children will often many ‘why’ questions, such as “why is the sky blue”, or “why do I have to go to sleep” throughout the day. These questions can help children learn more about their environment. Matilda questions the actions of her parents and attempts to understand her environment. She often asks her parents why she is being …show more content…

Children present centration when they center their attention on one characteristic while excluding all other factors. Centration is evident in children who will not eat a certain food, such as broccoli, because it is green. Centration can be linked to egocentrism; if a child is already lacking the ability to see another’s perspective, he or she may not be able to see the full picture and only attend to what he or she deems as important. Matilda understands the big picture and does not focus on only one aspect of her life. Conservation, or being aware that altering an object’s shape or appearance does not change its properties, is the second limitation (Santrock, 2014). It can be tested using Piaget’s conservation test, the beaker test. A child is presented with two identical beakers full of water, the experimenter will then pour the water from one beaker to another of a different size. The experimenter questions the child about the amounts of water in each beaker. The beakers have the same amount of water despite their different sizes, but it may not look like it to a young child. He or she might say that the taller beaker has more water in it. The way the question is worded may also have an effect on the results. If an experimenter was to ask “which glass has more liquid”, the child is free to draw their own conclusion, however, if asked “does this beaker have more, does this beaker

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