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"In spite of their many advances, preschoolers can be illogical, egocentric, and one-dimensional in their thinking," observe Heather Tomlinson and Marilou Hyson in Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age Eight.   Piaget referred to these years as a 'preoperational' stage of development, emphasizing that children ages 2 to 7 are less capable in their thinking compared with older children.  More recent research indicates that preschoolers have greater cognitive abilities than has been sometimes assumed, at least when children are in familiar situations and tasks are clearly explained to them."

"Preschool children can appear to know or understand more — or less — than they actually do.  At times they seem mature and relatively advanced in their thinking, and then later seem limited and inflexible.  As preschoolers move from and between simpler to more complex thinking skills, it is helpful to remember that they are not merely functioning less effectively than older children or adults; their narrow focus on a limited amount of information at any given time is actually useful while they are learning so many things so rapidly.  That is, because they are just on the cusp of grasping a variety of concepts, words, and skills at a new level, they learn best when they can attend to just one thing at a time... rather than attending to multiple things."

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