We can easily forget that full communication includes actions and body language, as well as spoken words. Under-threes, who do not yet have the words to put all their thoughts into speech, can still show us that they have made a connection between two separate experiences or are busy working out how something works.
Research with very young babies has shown how busy they are in making sense of the world. A range of simple experiments are described in the book How babies think (see 'Further reading"):
* Babies of a few weeks old were found to show interest in new sights and sounds by their eye movements and by using sucking to make interesting sounds repeat.
* Children aged just one year old saw an adult touch his forehead to the top of a box and it lit up. On that occasion the babies did not touch the box, but a week later they returned and were given the box. The babies immediately touched their foreheads to the top of the box. How do you explain this sequence unless babies think and have recall skills? The babies had remembered the incident and used the logic that if the adult made the box light up, then so can I.
As toddlers pass through the second year of life, it is almost impossible for adults not to witness the signs of thinking in action.
For example, when my daughter, Tanith, was 16 months old, she used to fetch her outdoor shoes and wave them at me when she wanted to go out for a walk.
If I was slow to react, in a short while she would fetch my outdoor shoes as well. Tanith had understood and recalled that going outside required different footwear. She made her request by showing this significant item.
Very young children show recall and understanding when they request favourite nursery rhymes and songs. They use their limited vocabulary and symbolic gestures to get the desired song. For example, Tanith used a rocking motion for 'Miss Polly' and said 'de wood' when she wanted to request 'There was a cottage in the wood'.
When you watch very young children who know each other and play together, you will see evidence of the link between early thinking and social skills.
* One toddler will initiate a familiar shared game with a friend by a key action, such as covering their head for peekaboo, flinging their body on to a floor cushion, or playing give me-take it back.
* Young children also initiate a game with familiar older children.
Perhaps, they give a meaningful look, poised to rush for a chasing game. Or they hand over the bricks to an older child who regularly builds them a tower to knock down.
We must not miss the observational evidence that thinking skills are being used, just because the games seem 'too simple', or 'it all ends in tears', or favourite toddler games involve bouncing on furniture.
Very young children show evidence of simple problem-solving in situations where enough is familiar to them:
* With plenty of open-ended play resources, young children can use as much time as they wish to explore. They are happy to discover which corks fit the top of a plastic bottle or which items can be posted through the different sized holes that you have cut in a cardboard box.
* Adults know enough to judge by looking to tell what will fit where. But we should not rush to solve these 'problems' for children, so long as they look happy with their trial and error.
* Young children recall where play resources and domestic items are kept.
When they cannot easily reach, they use problem-solving skills to clamber up, perhaps a chair that is pulled across. We can notice the skills being used while suggesting an alternative solution. NW
Further reading
* Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff and Patricia Kuhl, How babies think: the science of childhood (Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1999)
