n is in Piaget’s preoperational stage. This would be age appropriate according to Piaget.The other Piagetian task was to observe the child for concrete operational thinking. I took nine index cards and stuck pictures of food onto them. There were three pictures of different meat, three pictures of different vegetables and three pictures of different desserts. I then instructed the child to make as many meals as possible by mixing up the cards as often and however they wished. The only limitation was that each meal had to have meat, vegetable and a dessert. I was hoping that the hands on approach would make it a true test of the concrete operations level.Kari identified twenty-seven different meals. This is the maximum combination for the limits set. Kari was very methodical in moving the index cards around the floor. Kari looked at the cards for a moment and then started rotating through the possibilities very systematically. She performed this task quite rapidly. It seemed obvious that she viewed the situation, used abstract thinking to decide how to handle it and continued with the task. The results indicate that Kari has reached the stage of formal operations as would be age appropriate according to Piaget. Meghan identified three meals. Prior to handling the index cards Meghan talked about her favourite foods. She picked her three favourites from among the index cards. The cards were placed on the floor. Meghan moved the index cards around and made one meal. She then slid the cards around some more and created another meal. She moved the index cards around again and created the final meal. I asked if she could think of any other meals but she said no. I noticed that in each meal she had placed her favorite from each category. Meghan did not make a meal with all her favorites as I thought she would. The results indicate that Meghan has not reached the concrete operational stage yet. She was unable to crea...
