If the child can use words to describe the action, it is accomplished mentally and symbolically through the use of words. One of the major accomplishments during this period is the development of language, the ability to think and communicate by using words that represent objects and events. Egocentrism is the inability to take the perspective of another, to imagine the other person's point of view. Children get upset, for example, when they cannot convince their mother not to wash their dirty rag doll. They gain security from it, and that is the important thing to them, whereas to the mother the important thing is that the doll is dirty.
Children are also egocentric in their attitudes about other things.
Animism is ascribing lifelike qualities to inanimate objects. Centration Part of the reason that preoperational children can't think logically is that they focus attention on one aspect of a situation, or on one detail, and are unable to take into account other details. This tendency is called centration - meaning to center on only one idea at a time. Or, the other day he wanted to go to the beach. When told it was cloudy, wet and misty, he insisted it was not and that we should go to the beach.