Pre-operational period: Langauge development greatly occurs. Thinking in this phase is described as egocentric and animistic. Egocentric refers to the child’s tendency to regard everything in the world as endowed with feeling thoughts and wishes. The child also believes that every event has a preceding cause, rejecting the concept of chance coincidence. Compete operational: Thinking becomes more logical. Conservations of no, volume and mass is successively achieved during this period. The child becomes less egocentric and is capable of seeing events from another persons standpoint. Formal operational: (12 years onwards) This stage represents the most complex mode of thinking. Person has the ability to think, to formulate general laws and principles, to devise and test hypothesis and even an scientific investigation.
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