6.2 Cognitive Development

• There are two substages of Piaget’s preoperational thought: symbolic substage and intuitive substage.
• Symbolic substage is characterized by preschool children showing progress in their cognitive abilities by being able to draw objects that are not present, and by their dramatic increase in their language and make-believe play.
• Intuitive substage is characterized by preschool children beginning to use primitive reasoning and asking a litany of questions.
• Theory of Mind refers to an individual’s thoughts about how mental processes work, and is developed markedly between social experience.
• Social experience is very important for the development of Theory of Mind, and includes early forms of communication, imitation, make-believe play, language, and social interaction.