Which of the following is NOT typically a developmental issue during the Piagetian preoperational stage?

• A. Object permanence
• B. Egocentrism
• C. Animism
• D. Centration

Answer: (A)

In the preoperational stage, thinking is expanding into symbolic play and language, but remains fragile in logical reasoning. A key feature here is egocentrism—children have trouble taking another person’s point of view. They might assume everyone sees the world the way they do and can be surprised when others don’t.

Animism is another common trait at this stage: children may believe that inanimate objects have feelings, intentions, or lifelike qualities. They also exhibit centration, meaning they tend to focus on one aspect of a situation at a time, such as height without considering width, which leads to conservation errors.

Object permanence, by contrast, is a skill established during the sensorimotor stage. Infants learn that objects continue to exist even when they’re out of sight. By the time children reach the preoperational stage, object permanence is typically in place, so it’s not a developmental issue characteristic of this stage.