Learning: concepts and ideas
© DK
During his third year your child will learn to think in a more abstract way. Memory games such as pairing pictures can help him develop this skill.
Forming concepts
For your child to form concepts and put them to use in her world she has to have mastered two things. First of all she has to understand the basic concept of like and unlike. She learns to do this by recognizing similarities and differences in things and then fitting them together in her own mind. Once she can do this she has made an intellectual leap forward. From about 18 months to two years old you'll find that your child does this sorting automatically when faced with objects that have some things in common and some differences. All things that roll and are round are sorted into one group. All things that have edges and are rectangular, like blocks, are sorted into another. Things that have four legs and meow are cats. Things that have two legs and fly are birds.
We give our concepts verbal labels (names) and in her third year your toddler develops her understanding of concepts by using language. It would be very difficult for your child to progress with concept formation if she couldn't talk. Your toddler might use the word cat for every cat she meets, including the family pet, the cat drawn in a book, the cat she sees in a neighbour's garden and a toy cat. In her mind she uses a single label for all these different things. But by the time she approaches three she'll have made several rather sophisticated distinctions. She'll know that they are all cats so she'll have a concept of what makes “cattiness” but she'll also know that they are subtly different: “My cat”, “Your cat”, “Toy cat”, “Cat in book”, “Go see Granny's cat”.
Abstract ideas
When your child is two years old it is impossible for her to describe things that are not real; things that she cannot see, which she cannot pick up and touch. She doesn't know what pretty means, she hasn't quite got the hang of emptiness and fullness and, while she knows that when she blows bubbles they will float, she can't yet distinguish lightness or heaviness. Your child may know the difference between one and several, but she has no idea of the magnitude of numbers, so anything more than one may be “lots”. She has very little concept of time, she can't visualize what tomorrow means or last week; she has difficulty coping with tonight. Her understanding, however, improves throughout this year.
To have abstract ideas and to think in the abstract your child has to be able to picture things in her mind that are not actually there. If you ask her where a toy is, she has to remember when and where she was last playing with it. She has to see both things in her mind and then go and retrieve the toy. Once she is able to do this she can then make plans about things that are not actually there. So when you ask her where her boat is, she'll have a mental picture of the boat lying in the garden and will say: “Boat in garden, me get it in a minute”. She'll carry on with her painting, finish it, wash her hands and then go out and get her boat without prompting. This means that she was able to carry the concept of fetching the boat in her head, have it interrupted by her painting, then complete several unrelated tasks and finally go back to the concept of bringing the boat in from the garden.
New Babycare
Copyright © 2009 Dorling Kindersley
Text copyright © 2009 Miriam Stoppard
Posted 30.06.2010
Get more on this subject…
