Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessments (AEPA) 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

The stage characterized by animism and magical thinking is indeed known as the preoperational stage. This developmental phase, which typically occurs between the ages of 2 and 7, is marked by a child’s rapidly increasing ability to use language and engage in symbolic play. During this stage, children exhibit animism, which refers to the belief that inanimate objects have feelings and intentions, and magical thinking, where they may believe that their thoughts or wishes can influence the environment.

In the preoperational stage, children are not yet able to perform operations that require logical reasoning about abstract concepts. Instead, their thinking is typically intuitive and egocentric, meaning they often view the world solely from their perspective. This stage is crucial as it lays the groundwork for more complex cognitive developments that occur in later stages, specifically the concrete operational and formal operational stages, which involve more logical and abstract thinking processes.

The other options, such as the formal operational stage, concrete operational stage, and sensorimotor stage, each represent different developmental milestones in Piaget’s theory. Understanding these stages helps educators and psychologists facilitate appropriate learning experiences for children as they grow and develop cognitively.