age

stage

understands world through

learned cognitive capabilities

0 - 2

sensorimotor

senses and actions

coordination of senses with motor responses and language used for demands and cataloguing

2 - 7

preoperational

mental images and language

symbolic thinking and language with proper syntax and grammar to express full concepts

7 - 11

concrete operational

concrete rational thinking and categories

concepts attached to concrete situations

11+

formal operational

abstract rational thinking and scientific reasoning

theoretical, hypothetical, and counterfactual thinking, abstract logical reasoning