During which stage of Piaget's theory do children struggle with abstract concepts?

The correct answer is that children struggle with abstract concepts during the Concrete Operational Stage. In this stage, which typically occurs between the ages of 7 and 11, children begin to think logically about concrete events but still find it challenging to understand abstract ideas. Their thinking is grounded in tangible, concrete experiences, making it difficult for them to grasp hypothetical or abstract concepts that require a level of reasoning beyond direct experience.

During the Concrete Operational Stage, children develop skills like conservation and classification, but their ability to think logically when ungrounded in their immediate experiences is still limited. They are capable of operations, but these operations must relate to concrete objects or events rather than abstract scenarios.

In the Preoperational Stage, which comes before Concrete Operations, children are primarily egocentric and still developing their ability to perform operations. In the Sensorimotor Stage, which occurs from birth to about age 2, children are focused on sensory experiences and motor activities. Finally, the Formal Operational Stage, starting around age 12, marks the beginning of the ability to think abstractly and reason logically about hypothetical situations, which contrasts with the struggles experienced in the prior stage.