Language and Thinking

An important characteristic marking the preoperational period is the emergence of language. Speaking allows children facility in communicating with others, thus providing a form of expression that up to this point had not been available to them. In the sensorimotor period, children limit their intellectual or thinking ability to their use of objects. If they want to make an idea known to a parent or playmate, they have to do it by pointing to objects or by taking the person by the hand to show them what they mean.