How does Piaget describe the cognitive stage where children begin to think logically about concrete events?

Piaget describes the Concrete Operational Stage as the cognitive period where children, typically aged 7 to 11 years, develop the ability to think logically about concrete events. During this stage, children gain a better understanding of the concepts of conservation, classification, and seriation. They can perform operations on concrete objects and can reason logically about tangible situations they can observe or manipulate.

Children in the Concrete Operational Stage are no longer limited by egocentric thinking, which characterized the earlier Preoperational Stage. Instead, they can consider perspectives other than their own and understand the idea of reversibility, where certain actions can be reversed to restore the original state. This logical thinking allows them to solve problems more effectively as long as they are grounded in concrete situations.

This stage demonstrates a significant advancement in cognitive abilities, where children begin to organize their thought processes around specific physical realities rather than abstract concepts, which are characteristic of the later Formal Operational Stage.