Question

A favorite aunt gives her two nephews three cookies and encourages them to share. The older child takes two cookies for himself and offers his brother the other cookie broken in half. Both children are happy with this arrangement. Label each child's stage of cognitive development. Explain the concept that explains the older brother’s actions.

Answer 1

The older child is in the concrete stage of development, while the younger child is pre-operational.

Younger child is in the pre operational stage as he does not understand class inclusion problem. He does not understamd the conservation of things. Younger child does not understand that two whole cookies are more than two half of one cookie.

In concrete operational stage childrens thinking tends to be very concrete, children become much more logical. They start thinking how other people view and experience the world. Thats why older child takes the advantage of younger by showing him the same number of cookies as the younger does not understand the size difference of it.