Jillian's Concrete Operational Stage Of Cognitive Development

Jillian is a 9-year-old female of average height and weight. When Jillian was asked to do a round-off, she had to do many cartwheels before being able to successfully complete a round-off. She also stumbled a few times and her landing was uncertain. This is to be expected of children between the ages of 8 to 10 years. Their motor skills are much more precise than younger children but, still need some “fine tuning” as they mature into later childhood. This is also seen as she threw a ball to her friend. She was able to catch the ball but still occasionally had to catch it with her body to make sure she did not drop the ball. “Increased myelination of the central nervous system is reflected in the improvement of fine motor skills during middle and late childhood” (Santrock, 2014, p.149).
She did this by passing two tests of conservation, the first was to test if she could recognize that the volume of water stayed the same if it’s appearance was altered. She passed, also explaining that even though one appears to be holding more, it is only because it is “skinnier”. She also was able to recognize that if she had two sticks of equal length in front of her, and one moved slightly to the left, it was still the same length as the other stick even if it moved. This is evidence that she is in the concrete operational stage because a child in the preoperational stage would not have been able to pass the tests because they do not understand conservation of objects and their appearance. “Concrete operations allow children to coordinate several characteristics rather than focus on a single property of an object” (Santrock, 2014, p.