During adolescence and the appearance of formal operations, youngsters demonstrate an ability to reason realistically about the future and to consider possibilities that they actually doubt. Teenagers look for relations, they separate the real from the possible, they test their mental solutions to problems, and they feel comfortable with verbal statements. In short, the period’s great achievement is a release from the restrictions of the tangible and the concrete (Elkind, 1994) (Table 58-1).

Some adolescents, however, may still be in the concrete operational stage or just beginning the initial stages of formal operations. They have just consolidated their concrete operational thinking and continue to use it consistently. Unless they find themselves in situations that demand formal operational thinking (such as science and math classes), they continue to be concrete operational thinkers. As Elkind (1994, p. 221) noted, learning how to use formal operations takes time and practice with a blend of concrete and abstract materials.