In Piaget's theory for children aged 2 to 7 years, what does egocentrism refer to?

• A. The inability to put oneself in another's place.
• B. The ability to understand others' perspectives.
• C. The development of fine motor skills.
• D. The ability to conserve number.

Answer: (A)

Egocentrism means the child cannot see the world from another person’s point of view. In the preschool years, children are centered on their own perceptions and have trouble recognizing that others may see or know something differently. This shows up in tasks like the classic three-mountains experiment, where a child will describe what they themselves see rather than what a person across from them can see. This cognitive limitation tends to lessen as children enter the concrete operational stage, when they begin to decenter and understand different perspectives, including how quantities stay the same despite changes in appearance. The other ideas—understanding others’ perspectives, which would indicate decentered thinking; fine motor skill development; and conservation of number—belong to different aspects or later stages of development.