Logo

In this videative we have a wonderful opportunity to observe a role-reversal between teacher and child. While playing at the water table, a four-year-old boy named Chris has discovered how to use his hands to blow bubbles. Chris has a rich understanding of his newfound skill. Watch how Chris’ teacher encourages him to step into the role of instructor. She begins by imitating Chris’ manner of positioning his hands to make bubbles. The teacher then directly asks Chris to give her instructions. She continues to seek Chris’s guidance for each step in the bubble making process.

How can we safeguard against the tendency to evaluate the product of a child’s actions and instead, seek to understand the child’s learning process? Working to understand how a “mistake” makes sense in terms of what the child may be thinking, gives us insight about the child’s reasoning and allows us to better support cognitive development.

In this videative, you will see Jack, age two, attempting to ride a small car down a slotted ramp. To begin his ride, he has to "park" the car at the top. At the top of the ramp there is a well that holds the back wheels secure, preventing the car from rolling down the ramp without its rider. Jack knows how to ride the car down the ramp and how to push it back to the top, as you will see. But today a large green object in the well obstructs the seating of the wheels. Watch how Jack deals with the problem.

For young infants, gripping another child’s hand is most often a physical rather than a social act. Over time, physical actions such as these develop to include social applications. This videative invites you to take a close look at two infants who are holding and releasing each other’s hands and asks you to speculate on what the infants might be thinking.

By George Forman, University of Massachusetts and Elizabeth Pufall, Boulder Journey School

Like older children, preschoolers can form close friendships in which expressions of affection, concern, emotional understanding and support become increasingly evident and extend beyond a child’s immediate distress or obvious needs. Often, young children will exhibit heightened sensitivity for a friend before they demonstrate similar caring and concern for a sibling. While an understanding of others’ feelings can help children form new friendships, reciprocally, established friendships may also increase children’s understanding of others.

Having a strong goal becomes the catalyst for invention for Jensen, a five-year-old intent on building stacks made of heavy automobile tires. We see her anticipate how high to lift a tire as she moves it closer to her growing stack. We see how she invents the strategy of rolling the heavier tires, instead of dragging them; how she counts to calculate her progress; and how she uses tires both as objects to stack and as stools to help her stack.

Children develop their understandings of the social and physical world through interactions with toys, people and pets. From the child’s perspective, pets may have characteristics that render them similar to both people and toys. Sometimes, young children may assume that their pets are like toys and treat them as inanimate objects without feelings or free will. At other times, children may assume that like people, pets can understand English and can respond to their requests. How do young children respond when pets do not comply as they expect?

Toddlers are wonderfully sensitive to the sound of a friend in distress. In this video we see a young girl move to give emotional support to an unhappy friend. Watch Allison (lavender shirt) express empathy for her friend by caressing the side of her head in a soothing manner. Similarly, the teacher caresses Allison’s head to affirm her caring gesture toward her classmate. Next, Allison reaches for her friend’s pacifier. BUT, the pacifier is already in her friend's mouth.

Kevin has finished his gluing project and wants to leave the table. First, however, he needs to get the glue off his right hand. He uses his left hand to pick the sticky glue from his right and, you guessed it, the glue gets stuck to his left hand! Watch this delightful video of Kevin learning that sometimes a problem solved is another problem created. Learn what it means when children are able to understand that they are “in a loop,” and see how Kevin gets out of his.