Dec 29 Egocentrism

Over the Christmas holiday, my two year old cousin Dani, thought that every present someone opened was for her. Whenever someone opened a present Dani would run over and grab the gift and ask if the present was for her. Even though she opened all her gifts and her mother told her that the presents weren't for her, she still insisted that they belonged to her. Dani was showing signs of Piaget's term called egocentrism. Egocentrism is a term used for children's tendency to think about the world entirely from their own personal perspective. Egocentric children think about the world exclusively from their own personal perspective. They are only about to see things from their point of view and cannot think about other people. Being egocentric does not mean that the child is being selfish. It is just that they cannot understand and grasp other people's point of view. To them the world is only what they think it is. Since Dani opened her own presents and received present, she thought that when someone opened a present, it was for her. She wasn't being selfish at all she just is not capable to understand that other people can open present and that they belong to them. As Dani gets older she will grow out of the preoperational stage and become aware of other people's thoughts, points of views, and feelings.