Embraceliving

My three year old son, insists that my younger brother must me older than I because he is taller. Young children, especially preschooler, tend  to confuse age with height. This is one  of te perceptions of children between ages 2-8 years old, also known a the “preoperative” stage.

The preoperative child sees things differently from an adult. A classic book which illustrates this thought process is Exupery’s Little Prince, where flowers talks and drawing include a hat, which is after all a boa constrictor that had swallowed an elephant

The most common characteristics of young children is their “egocentric” wy of thinking. Children see things from their own  perspective and are not concerned with logical justifications or other points of view. They cannot imagine, for example, that other people live the way they do. And this is when they start asking ” why” questions.

Yong children think that everything they see is theirs which is why we often see young children quarreling over the same toy and shouting ” This is mine!” at the top of their lungs. With  time and some coaxing, they will learn to share with others.

A second characteristics of this stage is “animism”. very young children think that anything that moves must be alive, have feelings and have reactions. Have you ever wondered why your little girl clung to you when she saw the life sized mannequin in the department store?

The moon holds the wonders for the young at heart-many fairy tales and stories are woven around its shining beauty. Children often think someone is moving the moon around and they ask why the moon is following them.

Children are often anxious about unfamiliar places and things but this fear and anxiety disappear in time, as the child discovers the physical properties od such objects the mannequin made of plaster and the moon  which moves around the earth on its axis.

Young children also think that when two events occur in succession, the first one causes the second. Putting on his pajamas makes it night time. Putting on pajamas midday makes him ask, ” Is it night time already?” they later understand that two things occurring together may not be casually related.

Leave a Reply