Study GuideDevelopmental Psychology–Physical, CognitiveDevelopment: Age 7–111.Cognitive Development: Ages 7–11As children enter the school years, roughly ages 7 to 11, their thinking abilities grow in exciting ways.They can think about many things at once, solve problems more effectively, and develop a betterunderstanding of their own thoughts and feelings. Let’s break this down step by step.1.1 Thinking Skills of School-Age ChildrenDuring these years, children move beyond the magical thinking of preschoolers. They begin to thinklogically about concrete, real-world situations, though abstract or purely hypothetical thinking isstill difficult. For example, a child now knows that they can’t just fly like a bird, no matter how muchthey wish it were possible.Jean Piaget called this stage theconcrete operations stage. In this stage:•Operationsare mental actions that can be reversed. For instance, children understand that ifyou reshape clay, the amount stays the same.•Children canthink logically, but only about things they can see, touch, or experiencedirectly.1.2 Key Cognitive Abilities1. ConservationSchool-age children understandconservation, the idea that some properties of objects stay thesame even when their appearance changes.•Example: Five golf balls are the same number as five marbles, even though the golf balls arebigger.•Example: Clay reshaped into a new form still has the same amount.Preview Mode
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