An Observation of My Niece in Her Preoperational Stage

Observing a three year old was very amusing to me. I observed my niece, Cece. She is always surrounded by her grandparents, parents, aunt, and uncle. She is rarely ever exposed to children that are her own age. She is very talkative, smart, and playful. She started to walk and talk very early in age probably around the age of one. Her memory is so strong, she will remember things from days ago and even months.

I would say that my niece is more at the stage of preoperational stage.

For example, she loves her pacifier but her mom wanted her to not want it anymore because she got so addicted to it. So her mom told her there’s “peppers” on the pacifier. Till this day she doesn’t ever want to use her pacifier because she’s afraid of the “peppers”. Therefore she hasn’t really wrapped her finger around appearances/reality. Another reason I believe Cece is at the preoperational stage is because she only focuses on one thing at a time.

Get quality help now

Doctor Jennifer

Verified writer

Proficient in: Psychology

5 (893)

“ Thank you so much for accepting my assignment the night before it was due. I look forward to working with you moving forward ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

For example, if she was watching tv she wasn’t playing with her toys and while she was with the toys she wasn’t dancing. In the second stage preoperational stage, children begin to animate things in their mind, use their imagination much more. For example, she would tell me a broom fell on her foot and it hurt so I would act like i’m hitting the broom so it can feel hurt too.

In terms of speaking language Cece is highly skilled for her age.

She speaks two languages around the house punjabi and english. She understand both and can speak both. She calls her family names in punjabi and knows all their names. She can speak in sentences but sometimes forgets a couple words. She can have a conversation with someone although some of her stuff may not make sense. For example, she will say that a pig was barking at her even though she knows it isn’t true. She also understand to throw the trash away and the difference from yes and no.

A major activity in a child’s life is how they play. Cece plays a lot and as I watched her play with her toys she was observing everything as well. Cece is the type of child that does one thing and gets tired of it and moves on. She will go from coloring and talking about all the crayons she has to talking about animals in her animal book. While she is playing with these toys she is learning the colors, animals, alphabet, how to share, how every toy works, etc. She also does not like to play alone she always needs people around her to talk too. Cece isn’t around a lot of kids so it’s more difficult when she plays with children. You can say a little rough. When she is around adults she is way more bossy. This connects with Vygotsky’s theory about social development. Without the society she is living in, she wouldn’t be the person she is today. Talking to adults that can teach her on a everyday basis helps Cece learn faster. She always has adults around her to talk to her and help her memorize certain songs as well.