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Example of Assimilation and Accommodation in Schema Development

A 2-year-old named Abdul, who has a family Labrador retriever, develops a schema for 'dog'. He demonstrates assimilation when he sees other dogs in books and correctly identifies them as 'dog' based on his existing mental model. Later, he encounters a sheep and incorrectly calls it a 'dog', applying his schema for a furry, four-legged animal. This leads to accommodation when his mother corrects him. Abdul must then modify his overly broad 'dog' schema and create a new, distinct schema for 'sheep' to account for this new information.

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Updated 2026-01-15

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