Between 18 months and two and a half years of age, most young children will show that they have made the move into ideas about familiar objects, people and events in daily life. This area of children's learning is the one that can be most difficult for adults to understand, until you really make the effort to see through a child's eyes. Ideas that seem obvious to us are brand new to children and initially make no sense at all.
Listen to children's language and the kind of words that they use.
* First of all, toddlers learn words to name people and objects: 'cup', 'dog', 'baby', 'Mama', Daddy', the names of siblings or their key worker.
* Then they add action words that let them say what they are doing or enable them to direct others: 'cuddle' (meaning 'give me a cuddle'), 'getup' (meaning 'help me get up') or 'gone' (meaning that somebody has gone).
* Then, and only then, do young children start to use words that describe their world and show they are beginning to move into the kind of thinking that depends on abstract ideas.
For a moment, put yourself in a toddler's shoes. Words like 'high' and 'smelly' do not exist on their own. You cannot point out 'a high', any more than you can pick up 'a green' or 'a soft'. Something is green or soft. Young children understand these ideas, and any others, by making a direct link into objects and actions. For example, toddlers climb up high or communicate their need for help because they cannot get back down ('too high!'). Something (or somebody!) is smelly, whether it is an unpleasant smell or the fragrance of flowers.
Descriptive words
Our task as helpful adults is to:
* Listen to young children, and determine whether they are yet able to understand ideas. There is nothing to gain by trying to get children to learn abstract ideas before they can connect them to experiences.
* If you hear the descriptive words, then show an interest in the ideas children already have. Start with their own ideas, because that is the cutting edge of their learning.
* You then steadily show children the links between descriptive words and experiences through play and their involvement in daily routines.
It is very unlikely that an older toddler or two-year-old will start with colour or shape; these will not be their first ideas expressed in words. Some two-year-olds become interested in colour as yet another abstract idea, a way of describing the world. Through experience, they recognise the difference and can connect the colour words to that visual difference. But the main point is to encourage and support children to make the move into ideas. It is not the case that some ideas are more important for two-and three-year-olds to learn than others.
You can collect examples of the ideas children already have and share these with parents. They too will have anecdotes to contribute.
* Perhaps one young child has become interested in 'broken'. He links that idea directly to the accident of a smashed plate and the snapped stems of a plant in the garden. Young children who have gained the idea of 'broken' often become intrigued over what is broken forever, what can be mended, and what is designed to fit back together again (like a jigsaw or construction materials).
* Another child may be intrigued by 'dark' on winter evenings and delight in the moon and stars against the sky.
* Children may understand that it is 'hot' out in the garden, so they need to put their sun hat on, or that their lunch is still 'hot', so they should blow on it a little bit.
* Children who love transporting objects around your setting may grasp 'heavy' earlier than children whose play focuses on other materials. It makes sense for keen transporters if something is 'heavy' to lift or 'too heavy' without the help of their friend.
* Children who especially love the water tray or going out in their wellingtons and stamping in puddles may get 'wet' as an early idea.
At some point later, all these children will begin to add the idea of opposites, that something can be 'cold' rather than 'hot', or 'dry' or 'wet'. But children need to grasp one of the opposites pair before the other will make any sense. All of these examples alert us to the fact that young children learn about abstract ideas through direct experience: looking, listening and direct hands-on enjoyment of play materials and experiences. Any ideas have to make sense and connect to what they understand already.
How do you help?
There are many ways that you can help children to learn.
For example, as children feel differences in textures from play materials or special feely bags or books, you can encourage them with comments such as, 'Ooh, your jumper is so soft', or 'Let's have a blanket to sit on. The ground is a bit rough and hard'. When playing in the sand tray you can say, 'We need some more water. Our sand needs to be wet. Our castles won't work'. If a child is keen to help at tidy-up time, try saying, 'The floor is very wet here. Can you mop it for me?' Children need not wait for music and song times to experience 'quiet' and 'loud'. When a heavy lorry passes on the road you might remark, 'That was very loud, that lorry'. Or you might stop a minute to say, 'Listen carefully. Can you hear the birds singing? They're very quiet.' There is rarely any point in asking young children questions just to check if they know something. Children younger than three years old often do not understand questions like 'what colour is this car?' or 'how many bricks have we got?' They may try to be co-operative, but an attentive adult will see that the odd answers some two-and three-year-olds give show that the question makes no sense to them. On the other hand, toddlers often love fun games of 'where's your nose?' or 'where's that Teddy gone?', because they get to find real objects.
You can use friendly open-ended questions to support learning about ideas within daily routines. Ask genuine questions that do not put children on the spot, such as:
* 'I wonder if we have any more blue cups like this one?' * 'Can you help me find a soft toy for the baby?' * 'Shall we count up how many children we have for tea?' * 'Can you walk slowly like this?' NW
