Final answer:
Preschool children in Piaget's preoperational stage are expected to engage in thinking with the use of symbols and images. This stage is characterized by the development of language, pretend play, and the use of objects to represent other things, though children do not yet understand adult logic or the principle of conservation.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to Piaget, a preschool child (3 to 5 years old) is in the preoperational stage of cognitive development, which spans from approximately 2 to 7 years old. During this stage, children develop the ability to use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas. This is the foundation for the development of language and pretend play, where children might imagine that an ordinary object is something more significant in their games. Real-life examples of this include a child using a stick as a sword to become a knight or pretending that a box is a spaceship. However, preschool children in this stage have not yet mastered the concept of conservation and have difficulty performing logical operations based on adult logic or mental manipulation of information.
Therefore, when a nurse observes the behavior of a preschool child at the clinic, the expected behavior according to Piaget would be thinking with the use of symbols and images. Choices such as far-reaching problem-solving, exploration of the environment, or cooperation and sharing with others, although relevant to this age, are not specifically indicators of cognitive development as outlined by Piaget's stages of cognitive development.