The concrete operational stage occurs from the ages of 7 to 11 and is described as “logical, flexible and organised” (Berk, 2003, p.227). At this stage a child’s cognitive knowledge has progressed quite a bit and children are now able to consider other people instead of the egocentric view they had in the previous stages. The key concept in this stage is that of its title, concrete, as children still rely on concrete experiences to develop knowledge. This is because they “generalise only from concrete experiences” (Snowman, et al., 2009, 32).
Piaget believed the biggest indicator that children had reached this developmental level was the fact that children could now solve conservation problems logically and correctly (McInerney & McInerney, 2002). As well as this, children at this level tend to have moved away from using their senses to solve problems and will more then often rely on their new found logical reasoning skills to achieve an answer. Another typical characteristic of Concrete Operational children is the ability to classify. Classifying involves a child placing items in a group dependent on a common factor that they all possess. The main way children at this stage can be seen to group items is through a seriation process (McInerney & McInerney, 2002). Or in other words in size order.
Piaget believed the biggest indicator that children had reached this developmental level was the fact that children could now solve conservation problems logically and correctly (McInerney & McInerney, 2002). As well as this, children at this level tend to have moved away from using their senses to solve problems and will more then often rely on their new found logical reasoning skills to achieve an answer. Another typical characteristic of Concrete Operational children is the ability to classify. Classifying involves a child placing items in a group dependent on a common factor that they all possess. The main way children at this stage can be seen to group items is through a seriation process (McInerney & McInerney, 2002). Or in other words in size order.
