"Jean Piaget", a Swiss psychologist, is famous for his work on child development. He made a systematic study of cognitive development in his theory that is categorized in four stages. Key Points 'Preoperational period' lasts around 2 to 6 or 7 years of age. In this stage, the child assumes that other people feel, see, and hear exactly the same as the child does. It refers to the child's inability to infer the perspective of other people or to see a situation from other's points of view. In this stage, the child faces problems with the irreversibility of thought, the concept of conservation, and struggles with the idea of centration. Due to lack of conservation, the child can't understand that a thing remains the same even if it changes in shape or appearance. Due to the Centration in thought, the child can focus his attention only on one aspect of the situation at a time and cannot reverse the direction of his thought. Due to irreversibility, the child can't understand that things that have been changed can be returned to their original state. They begin to think symbolically. During the Symbolic play, children can create mental images of objects and store them in their minds for later use. For example, such a child can draw a picture of or pretend to play with a puppy that is no longer present there. At the end of the Pre-operational stage, the child begins to reason logically. Hence, it could be concluded that according to Jean Piaget, Meena is in the Pre-operational stage. Important Points Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development: Stages of Development Characteristics Sensorimotor (birth to 2 yr) Experiences the world through senses and actions (looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping) Cognitive development begins with the baby's use of senses and movements Develops object permanence Pre-Operational (2-7 yr) Learns to use language to represent objects by images and words Classifies objects by a single feature. Thinking is ego-centric; has difficulty taking in the point of view of others. Develops symbolic thought Concrete-Operational (7-12 yr) Perform concrete arithmetic operations Achieves conservation of number (age-6), mass (age-7), and weight (age-9) Develops operational thought Formal Operational (12 yr and above) Potential for more mature moral reasoning Becomes concerned with hypothetical, future, and ideological problems Develops abstract concepts.