According to Piaget's theory, what is it called when a child believes inanimate objects can have feelings?

In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the term that describes a child's belief that inanimate objects can possess feelings is called animism. This concept is particularly prominent during the preoperational stage, which occurs approximately between the ages of 2 and 7 years. At this stage, children often express a magical thinking process, attributing lifelike qualities and emotions to objects around them, such as believing that a teddy bear feels sad when it's not being played with.

The idea of animism reflects the way children perceive their world, as they are not yet capable of fully understanding the distinction between living beings and non-living objects. This characteristic helps children engage with their environment creatively and empathetically but can also lead to misunderstandings about how the world works. For example, a child may think that the sun "makes them hot" because it is angry or that a toy needs to be "comforted" if it fell down.

As for the other options, concrete operational thinking pertains to a stage where children start thinking logically about concrete events, egocentrism refers to the difficulty in seeing things from perspectives other than one's own, and symbolic play involves the use of objects to represent other objects during play. None of these concepts capture the essence of