See What Children Know
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The girl in this video is putting several pieces together to build a toy car. She does not realize that she has the wheel section facing up, so when she places the canopy on top, the wheels are not on the bottom of the chassis. She senses that something is wrong, but the boy in the video knows what has to be done. He asks if he can show her what to do, and she passes the toy car to him. He inverts the wheel section, and the girl immediately understands and wants to finish what she has begun. She adds the canopy, and starts to play with the car by rolling it on the floor. We expect that even this small amount of building together vests this toy with a social dimension and an achievement dimension, more so than would a car that was fully made from the beginning.
We should note the respect that the boy gives to the girl’s desire to be given only the small amount of help she requests. The conversation clearly indicates that the boy does not want to play with the car. He only wants to help his friend and then observe the fun she has as a result. The boy says, “This is how you do it” as he inverts the wheels to face down. The girl quickly replies, “Oh, can I have it?” which appears to mean, “I understand now what to do and want to finish.” The boy says, “Yeah” and lets her take the car from his hands. Then he says, “Yeah, like that, right” as the girl fits the pieces together correctly. Notice at the end how she takes the canopy off just so she can put it back on, sort of confirming that this is the part of solving the puzzle that she knows well.
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Notes from the Field
We would like to use this Videatives Views issue, the first of this academic year, to announce the launch of several new features on our website. On the home page, there is a panel that changes every six seconds, presenting Videatives specials. On this panel you will find our new feature: Playlist of the Month. This month’s playlist includes video clips about children dealing with frustration and small conflicts across the age span, from the ages of one to five. We have added new features for all VSS (video streaming service) subscribers. You can now place your playlists (sets of video clips) into folders to better organize your work. This feature is particularly beneficial if you have many playlists or if you share access to the video streaming service with colleagues. You now have the ability to rearrange the order of the video titles in your playlists – a great benefit for those of you who want your guests to view the clips in a certain order. We appreciate hearing from you and will continue to try and make your experiences on our website both worthwhile and fun.
