From having studied children, I have realized a lot of things. For example, a child is always creating and re-creating his own model of reality. Yes, I agree children do not always get questions most adults or young adults would usually get right, but that is because the children have a limited life experience. The child has not been exposed to the world long enough, therefore the child has not been able to process enough information about the social and natural world. I think that a child's reasoning power in no way flawed, and I think that it is as good as many adult scientists!
I have traced four staged in the mental development of children. The first stage is the sensorimotor stage. This is the stage where children 0 to 2 years old lack concept of object permanence. The second stage, preoperational stage, is where children 2 to 7 years old exhibit egocentric thinking, lack concept of conservation, and use symbols to solve simple problems or to talk about things not present. The third stage, concrete operations, is where children 7 to 11 years old begin to understand the concept of conservation, but still have trouble with abstract ideas. Also, their classification ability improve. The last stage is the formal operations stage. In this stage, children 11 years and on understand abstract ideas and hypothetical situations. They are capable of deductive and logical reasoning. This is what I have concluded from my studies.
