Revisiting Piaget's Cognitive Principles among 4-7-year-old Children in the Kashmiri Population.

Abstract

Background: Jean Piaget posits that children aged 4-7 years are in the intuitive substage of the preoperational stage, which is marked by distinct cognitive characteristics typical of this developmental period. However, these unique cognitive characteristics have not been extensively explored in the context of dentistry.

Aim: To evaluate the relevance and applicability of Piaget's cognitive principles in preoperational-stage children within the Kashmiri population.

Materials and methods: The study included 88 children, divided into four groups: 4-year-olds, 5-year-olds, 6-year-olds, and 7-year-olds. Three tangible experiments were conducted to assess egocentrism, centration, and the lack of conservation and reversibility, based on Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Additionally, two questions were asked to each child. Prior to the study, all participants were familiarized with the pediatric dental clinic. The collected data were organized in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using SPSS Version 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA). Statistical comparisons between the age-groups were conducted using the Chi-square test, with significance set at a p-value < 0.05.

Results: The prevalence of egocentrism varied across different experiments: 38.6% in the three mountains experiment, 62.5% in personal interviews, and 19.3% in the superhero experiment. Centration was observed in 46.6% of the study participants. The beaker experiment revealed that 73.9% of the children lacked conservation. Overall, there was a gradual decrease in the prevalence of these characteristics with increasing age.

Conclusion: In most children aged 4-7 years, all three Piagetian features were observed, indicating that many of Piaget's developmental principles are still relevant. This suggests that his theories on cognitive development continue to hold true for the Kashmiri population, underscoring the lasting applicability of his concepts in this context.

How to cite this article: Shabnam M, Lone N, Sidiq M. Revisiting Piaget's Cognitive Principles among 4-7-year-old Children in the Kashmiri Population. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2025;18(7):766-771.