Toddler Thinking Power

It was, perhaps, the perfect experimental set-up: two identical sippy cups positioned side-by-side on the living room floor, one holding juice, the other milk. Nonetheless, I was startled by what happened next.

Twenty-month-old Sara saw the cups and got down on her belly on the floor. She lowered her chin so her eyes were at cup-level and then announced: “More juice.” Puzzled, I repeated, “More juice?” thinking that somehow she wanted more to drink. But she pointed to the cup of juice and just said, “Yah. More.”

“You mean there’s more juice in that cup?” Yes, she replied.

“Which cup has less?” I asked.

“Milk,” Sara said.

I was startled. Startled that this little girl had a concept for “more” and “less” and even more startled by the fact that she knew almost instinctively how to make her observation. Her parents said they’d never seen her do such a thing before. What do you make of this?

Before you decide that this was just a lucky fluke or that Sara is extraordinarily brilliant, consider that perhaps all toddlers are this observant and that all toddlers are curious and are capable of drawing conclusions from what they see. Then ponder what kinds of experiences twenty-month-old babies have to have to be ready to perform their own experiments.

How do we encourage thinking in all our children? How do the freedom we give them to mess around with stuff and the conversations we have about what they’re doing – freedom and conversations even with tiny children - how does this add up to the ability to see new questions and find new answers?

If even one toddler can do this, every three-year-old can. Let’s work together to make that happen.

What are you thinking right now?

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