Preoperational Thought (Pre-Operational Thought)

In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the second stage is called Preoperational Thought. During this stage, which occurs from 4-7, the child begins to go beyond recognizing and is able to use words and images to refer to objects. For example, around the age of 2, a child starts to refer to specific toys as doll or bear, or even have names for them. They also begin to understand that they can physically do things to objects, like dropping a ball will make it roll away from their view.