Jean Piaget (1896-1980) theorized that children are egocentric, meaning that children have an inability to distinguish between their own perspective and someone else's perspective. Examples of such behavior are as follows:

- When on the phone a child will nod their head to answer questions instead of answering verbally, thinking that the other person knows what they are doing.

- Conversations with children may be hard to understand because a child may not be telling the whole story to you because they think that you know their thoughts.

- Children may stand in front of the TV, blocking the view of others. When asked to move, they may not understand why because they can see just fine, so they assume that others can too.

Around the age of seven, children become less egocentric.