|| Date: 20-12-20 || Back to index ||
|| Tag: book-summary ||
|| Author: Jean Piaget ||

Language and Thought of the Child - Jean Piaget

Goodreads link

function of language in two children of six

You will marry me! No, I won’t Yes, I will No!

Conclusions

On egocentrism of children

Verbal Syncretism

Conclusion

For example, a child was asked to compare the two sentences “to each according to his works” and “some people get very excited and they don’t do anything” and find why are they similar. The child did not understand the word “according”. They replaced it with the word “coming to” in their minds. Their answer to why the two proverbs are similar was “because people went and did nothing. The proverb people went and did something”.

Verbal syncretism is a state in-between a dreamlike“symbolism” and a very rational and logical state. It mixed things when it needs to without regard for structure and discards that things it can’t handle or process. This is, in the long term, very economical.

Only at the ages of 11 or 12 does the child answer “I don’t know” or “who knows?”. Before that, the brain is living in a state where it thinks it understands everything and connects the dots it needs to connect by just “reaching” to where it needs to go, disregarding any obstacles.