A friend with a three-year-old child has decided to try to accelerate the child's cognitive development by teaching him how to conserve and handle hypothetical problems.The friend's attempts are:
A) a waste of time, since the child will not develop faster than the Piagetian stages dictate
B) potentially harmful to the child's self-esteem and psychological well-being
C) going to work only if she is a skilled teacher of preschoolers
D) plausible, because preoperational children have been able to do such problems after simplification of instructions

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Piaget's theory suggests that children progress through cognitive stages in a fixed order, and development cannot be accelerated. However, research has shown that preoperational children can perform conservation tasks with simplified instructions, suggesting that cognitive development can be modified. Therefore, it is plausible that the friend's attempts to teach conservation and hypothetical problems to her child could work if simplified instructions are used.

A Friend with a Three-Year-Old Child Has Decided to Try