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A responsive adult not only helps an infant grasp a desired object, but also entices her to obtain an object just beyond a comfortable reach. A child's development depends on both the support and the challenge offered by a parent or teacher. Watch how this calm and responsive adult shakes the rattle to elicit the infant\'s orientation to the object, but also smiles intermittently to let the infant know that this is a shared experience. The game is not simply about grasping the noise-making object.

Chris has learned how to make three-dimensional structures with magnetic tile on a vertical wall. Jaycee makes all of her patterns flat, as you see in the fan structure on the right panel. She wants to participate in Chris’s work and offers him pieces that help build his pointed vertical chute. When he attempts to roll a wiffle ball down the vertical chute it dislodges a few of the bottom pieces. Jaycee must think that the new game is “tear the building down.” But clearly Chris is perturbed when Jaycee rakes the remaining pieces off the wall.

Four toddlers are walking on contact paper, sticky side up, taped to the floor. Most often such an activity is called “sensorial play” and justified with phrases such as “they are exploring their sense of touch.” Such phrases, perhaps derived from Montessori’s phrase of “educating the senses,” imply that the children are learning what objects are smooth, what objects are rough, what objects are sticky, what objects are not.

Evan (in yellow) and Alex (in red) rearrange bottomless wooden boxes into play props that have qualitatively different functions: a train to sit in, a tunnel to crawl through, a bridge to walk over, an enclosure to hide toy animals inside, and a chute to toss a ball into. When a child is able to change the function of an object by changing his perspective to that object, he learns an important lesson. When I want a new function, I do not have to discard the object. I change the object (e.g. rotate) instead of exchange the object.

Maddie sits on the floor with her regular teacher (foreground) and her speech teacher (in the back). The teachers use hand signs and words to ask Maddie to point to one of two pictures, the one for which the word and sign refer. Watch this video carefully. Here are some possible conclusions about what Maddie knows. Which ones do you accept? Cut and paste this text into a word document if you plan to purchase and download this five-minute video clip.

Have you ever seen a child who seems a bit advanced when it comes to moving to the music? We all recognize such cases when we see them, but what is it that they know? Can we be more explicit about why their moves are a bit more impressive than ordinary? Watch this three-year old dance to two different songs, one about the mambo, the other about the limbo. Watch her all the way through (around two minutes).

Amelia reaches up to grasp Kelly’s blanket and gives it a tug. Kelly responds by pulling the blanket closer to her body. Amelia turns her head to the side and makes a couple of loud coos, perhaps to convey her frustration. Carefully observe what Kelly does next. As Amelia continues to look away, Kelly pushes the blanket down toward her feet and within Amelia’s reach (00:05). Although Kelly maintains her grasp on the blanket, notice that she looks at Amelia as if waiting for her to notice (00:11). Amelia catches sight of the blanket and again, reaches to grasp it.

Enjoy this short clip of three four-year-olds who spontaneously subtask their efforts to fill an ice tray with water and then carry it to the freezer. The video comes with a transcript that includes our speculations ("the subtext") about what the children might be thinking. The leader of the effort finds sensitive ways to include the other two children in the project and as well as they find ways to express their needs to the leader. These speculations are plausible, though admittedly not completely accurate.

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The Jed Draws His Bicycle flash drive demonstrates an approach to learning called "drawing to learn." In essence, this approach asks the child to represent with marks his or her current theory about how something works, in this case, how the pedals on a bike makes the bike move forward. Jed, a seven year old boy, is asked to draw this process, not to draw the shape of the bike or its parts as a picture, but to draw an explanation of how the bike works; that is, to draw his understanding.