Give babies and toddlers plenty of opportunities for exploring 'what happens if' even if it means endless repetition and experimentation, says Jennie Lindon
It may seem far-fetched to suggest that babies and toddlers start to learn about cause and effect. But when you watch the exploratory play of under-threes, you see that this idea is actually rather simple in action.
Very young children learn about 'what happens when I...?' through direct experiences that make sense in their social world. Some manufacturers are keen to promote the notion of toys that directly 'teach about cause and effect'. But you do not need to buy specific items in this way. Under-threes are keen to explore through ordinary daily events and flexible play materials. Many different experiences support the first understanding of 'if I do this, then that happens...'.
For example, once babies have mastered grasping and let-go physical skills, they try dropping and semi-throwing. Watch them and see how they repeat an action such as dropping a beaker (hopefully empty) or a sound-maker over the edge of their chair on to the floor. What can then surprise adults is that babies will repeat the action as soon as you, or a co-operative older child, have retrieved the item.
So why do they do the same thing again? Until babies and young toddlers have repeated what we see as an identical action, they do not know that the same action leads to the same, or very similar results.
The pleasure of 'baby watching' is that we can see them in the process of just discovering something that seems so obvious to us. Babies and young children are learning the details of how the physical environment works. They need to stockpile the general knowledge that will later let them anticipate the consequences of the same kind of action on different objects - a soft ball lands and may roll a little, and a wooden brick goes with a clatter.
Toddler scientists inevitably experience some downside to the exploration of cause and effect in what seems to them to be the same sequence. Not all items float if put in water - some sink and that is all right, but a book can be ruined. An egg makes a satisfying crunch, but adults do not like you to repeat this particular experiment.
Young children learn about cause and effect partly through flexible play materials that enable them to explore 'what happens if...'.
Different kinds of sound-making materials give plenty of opportunities for learning. For example, a set of plastic bottles with different contents gives toddlers the chance to explore how this bottle makes a rattling sound, the contents of that bottle slither around and the bottle with cotton wool inside does not make any noise at all. Simple construction materials such as wooden blocks and bricks give scope for 'I build it up and then I push down', with a satisfying clatter and spread of the bricks.
Young children also learn about cause and effect through social interaction. You will notice toddlers who have learned to make adults or older children laugh by making funny faces or sounds, or pretending to fall over. Adults need to recognise the intellectual learning even when we are dealing with the consequences of less positive social cause and effect. Toddlers and young two-year-olds relish the power to wind up an older sibling by running off with a favourite book.
We can help children learn about cause and effect when we:
- let them explore - young children cannot learn if their play materials are tightly planned into rigid activities, rather than flexible resources.
- watch and listen - notice the learning and share the excitement .
- sometimes (not always) comment in simple words on what the child is doing.; this promotes their communication and shows our interest.
- are sensitive to young children's lack of general knowledge. Often they cannot know that this consequence will follow this action.
- tolerate the word 'why?' and the many repetitions, even when you are sure you have explained.
