Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Concrete Operational Thinking in preschool

DH and I were having dinner out last night, discussing what to do about DD's preschool. I relayed a story about DD describing her reasons for being naughty and how that might affect me, and DH said, "She's into concrete operations." Maybe this is the thing I've been struggling to identify in her.

Does anyone have any good understanding of concrete operational thinking in preschoolers? I've been poking around, but thought I'd ask here.

Do you mean as in Piaget's stages of development?

Yes! Concrete operations are going strong age 7-11, normally.

Oh, were you wondering if I knew Piaget at all? Yes, I do, I just don't know much about children who reach his milestones early. I figured someone else might.

Alright, well, I found this, although it's old:

Article: Piaget's Equilibration Theory and the Young Gifted Child: A Balancing Act.(Jean Piaget)
Article from:Roeper Review Article date:February 1, 1999Author:Cohen, LeoNora M.; Kim, Younghee M.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-54245839.html

Am I the only one interested in this? lol Well I've learned a lot, reading to figure this out, but I'd still love some other parents' perspectives.

Okay, No I don't know much about reaching it early. I would look at the stuff for the 'normal' concrete opperations and see if you can adapt it. Sorry I can't help.

I'm no expert when it comes to Piaget's stages of development but what I did learn is his age categories are generalizations. Take the "Formal Operations" which aligns with adolescence, a lot of teenagers don't meet this stage until much later and this is partly why they struggle so much in college classes. But most will full fill this stage by the time they are sophomores in college. So it stands to reason that if many are later in development than others can be earlier.

DD is advanced in the stages.

Yes, I don't see much here on this issue. DD is definitely advanced - into concrete operations, but not formal operations. (Her answer to a formal operations test I gave her was pretty funny, though.)

The big thing for DD may be having the ability to undersand others' perspectives.

Today we were sitting across from each other at the kitchen table, drawing. I said, Will you draw me a picture of you? DD drew hair, eyes (3 concentric circles for each), a head, a mouth, ears, a thick, dark neck (??)... all upside down so I could see it right-side up from my position across the table. "It's you," she said.

Then she drew a belly wih a circle in it, and drew herself in the circle as a tiny baby. "That's me when you were pregnant." She added stick arms and legs with fingers and toes. Lastly, along the bottom of her paper she colored in a thick line, saying it was the roof. All upside down - so thoughtful of her lol

"Piaget in a nutshell"
http://www.telacommunications.com/nutshell/stages.htm


Well someone tried to tell me once that not everybody sees in 3D. He said that to describe why i can see several ways to rearrange a room without using a tape measure. I thought that was a weird way to put it. I Didnt know I see things in 3-D. But how could you not? Is it depth-perception? Maybe that's true. Might be that left brain, right brain (visual-spatial, audio-sequential) thing.�

Today I was looking at that EPGY thing just to see what it is (maybe some other year after we finish the workbooks I've already bought). I looked at the scale drawing grid because I learned that in art class and EPGY is teaching it as math.�
Ds has got this imaginary giant that he carries around that somehow is too big to come in the house but rides in the car with us, and I've seen ds pick up his giant in the palm of his hand and toss him over the fence. �Ds watched me watching this scale sizing demo and started talking about making his giant small.
Is that related? Are we talking about photoshoping, cropping, and reversing the scenery in our mind?

Tex, I love the story of your DS and his giant. I don't know what to say, with respect to resizing, though. Are you saying your DS is tinkering with the concept of conservatism? Are you familiar with that classic test with the glasses of water?

My story about my DD's drawing was a feeble attempt to say she is past egocentric thinking. Maybe I should have used a different example (I was pretty excited she would think to accommodate my view from across the table lol). Egocentrism is one aspect of her thinking that is conspicuously absent.

Okay, maybe these are better examples: DD on the phone with her grandmother says, "Granny, do you want to talk with your baby son? Okay, hold on. DADDY! Your mom is on the phone and she wants to talk with you! Ok, Granny, here's your son, John." Or, DD is playing with a barbie in one hand and a mermaid in the other (this particular barbie has articulated legs and came with a bicycle). DD has barbie say to the mermaid, "Hi! Wanna go for a bike ride with me?" Mermaid answers, "No thanks. I have a tail. I'm going to swim lessons now."

My original question was whether it was possible for a child of 3 to be in concrete operational thinking. So I contacted an expert, David Elkind. He said yes, it's possible if the child's IQ is over 150.

I'm not ready to state DD's IQ is over 150, but it has been a lot of fun reading up on Piaget. It's led to reading about Vygotsky, supervised play, and his concept of "scaffolding." Interesting stuff.