By a year of age, children develop object permanence. Now they can use mental representation and can think about objects that are not physically present. Preoperational Reasoning From 2 to about 7, the child is in the preoperational stage of development. Now they can use mental representation to think. They begin to use pretend play.
Children are now capable of symbolic representation, can use a symbol to represent an object.
Because of this, children learn language, a system of symbols. Piaget emphasized that during the preoperational period, children's abilities are limited. One pervasive limitation of children's reasoning during the preoperational period is egocentrism, the inability to take the perspective of another person. A child may assume that everyone has the same knowledge, experiences, and perspective that he or she has. Concrete Operational Reasoning The concrete operational stage lasts from about age 7 to 11.