See What Children Know
Beginning in the first year of life when children bang identically shaped blocks together at the mid line, symmetry evolves into finished structures of increasing complexity. Placing two same-shaped blocks side-by-side as a finished product captures the mid-air action of banging them together. As the child reflects on the symmetry of side-by-side, he tries to create other forms of symmetry, such as bisecting a lower block with a smaller block placed on top, thereby making the two empty spaces on each side of the smaller block equal. Later, the child figures out how to create symmetry with three blocks, using two identical blocks as book ends for a uniquely shaped middle block. Each stage requires the child to consider a greater number of spatial relations than the previous stage, and thus explains the developmental sequence.
Listen to the narrator (George Forman) explain how the symmetrical structures that children make can be understood as a language of spatial relations and the beginning of the mathematical concept of equivalence.
The stages of block play mentioned in this video come from a two-year research project by George Forman, David Kuschner, and Jean Dempsey, published in Action and Thought, 1982, New York: Academic Press.
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Notes from the Field
NAEYC is revising its Technology and Young Children position statement in partnership with the Fred Rogers Center. The Fred Rogers Center is conducting a survey about how Early Childhood Professionals use various kinds of digital technologies in their professional and personal lives. They are interested in knowing your views about the use of such technologies in your setting. All answers will be analyzed anonymously and collectively. Your specific responses will be kept confidential. Your help is greatly appreciated. The survey will take about ten minutes. Click here.
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