During her first two years, your child took in the world around her through her senses (the sensorimotor stage),¹ by watching, listening, smelling, tasting, and touching. As she gets into her third year (age 2-3), she has some new tools to help her in solving problems and understanding the world around her.

According to Jean Piaget, a prominent developmental psychologist, young children create and use schemata to filter, organize, and interpret newfound information discovered through sensory experiences.² A schema is a unit of knowledge that your child develops about objects, behaviors, and abstract concepts and that is used to understand and respond to situations¹ as well as to focus her energy on goal-oriented actions and activities (Engagement and Persistence).³ she is now increasingly able to use her growing language skills, mental abilities, growing number of schemata, and Reasoning and Problem Solving skills to figure out her world.

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Your 2-3 year old child is entering the age of curiosity, also known as the preoperational stage of development. During this stage, she will begin using mental representations and symbols to think about the world and show more interest in experimenting with objects, observing her environment, and getting to know the people around her.⁴ However, because she still relies primarily on her own perceptions and point of view (egocentrism) to draw conclusions about the world, be aware that her Reasoning and Problem Solving skills will often not appear “logical” from an adult perspective.⁴ Since she has limited experience and understanding of how things work, don’t be surprised if she often makes up fantastical reasons to explain what she has experienced!

Your child will be actively trying to solve her own problems and building her current knowledge base by exploring new ways to do things,⁵ especially if they help her gain self-sufficiency and independence. For example, you may find her grabbing her step stool to be able to reach the sink to wash her hands.⁶ She will try to put on her own clothes now, though she may still ask for your help if she gets stuck with shoelaces or an inside-out jacket sleeve.⁶ She may start off trying to put her crayons into one container, but decide to use a larger container, or even a second container, when she figures out that she can’t fit all of them in the first box. This is also the period when you’ll find your child using more tools to shape materials and objects, making play time with craft dough more fun than ever.

With her growing Reasoning and Problem Solving skills, she will also start to shine when playing with Understanding Construction toys. While she may start off stacking blocks without thinking about the blocks’ sizes or the form used to build her tower, she will soon realize through repeated “trial and error” play that she needs to build a strong base, using more or larger blocks on the bottom, and with fewer and smaller blocks stacked on top.⁶ She may also enjoy making dirt piles in the backyard and “sand castles” at the park, rather than just filling and dumping material in and out of containers.

Your child will be able to assemble and complete a simple puzzles by now, too. She possesses a greater cognitive ability that lets her observe puzzle shapes, size, and orientation (position and direction), which will help her figure out how to put the pieces together. She will first excel at simple wooden shape puzzles, but gradually get better at recognizing and focusing on the puzzle’s illustration and the shape of each piece to figure out how to put together a 2-4 piece puzzle.⁷

Jean Piaget believed that “[a] fundamental aspect of the way children make sense of the world is through the seeking out of the patterns that connect different objects and experiences.”³ By allowing your child to explore, experience, and problem solve for herself, you are supporting the construction of her own schema. So continue encouraging her to seek out Reasoning and Problem Solving learning opportunities and scaffold her learning by asking pointed questions (“Will that little block hold up that great big one?”), offering guided clues (“Can you find another puzzle piece with this red color and black line?”), and praising her efforts and persistence (“Great effort playing with this puzzle! You figured it out and finished it on your own, good job!”).

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Play Tips:

Do you want to know how you can support your child’s development of Understanding Construction and Reasoning and Problem Solving skills at this age? It’s easy! Read on for some simple tips to incorporate into your daily play time together.

1. Play problem solving games and activities with your child. Play games together, like simple 2-4 piece picture puzzles, “Hide and Seek,” and memory cards to help develop your child’s Reasoning and Problem Solving skills. Be sure to give her the opportunity to solve the problem on her own before giving her clues or other help.
2. Model how to put together puzzles. Show your child how to solve puzzles by studying the picture of the puzzle before taking it apart and noticing the patterns found in the image, such as the borders, colors, and lines. Remind her to look for these clues as she tries to fit each puzzle piece together.
3. Make sandcastles with your child. She is now developing more interest in building things, rather than just filling and dumping objects from one container to another. She is also building her base of Scientific Knowledge, using her hands and tools to construct interesting things. Encourage this newfound interest by building sandcastles and sculptures together at your local playground or beach. Not only will this activity fuel your child’s Understanding Construction and Reasoning and Problem Solving skills, but it will also strengthen her Small Muscle Movement and Dexterity and creative art abilities.
4. Praise your child when she solves problems in new ways. Encourage your child to use objects and materials in new ways and talk about what she sees, hears, and feels. When she tries using different means or reasoning to figure things out, give her specific praise for her efforts, including what she did that was special or unique. By pointing out how the problem could be approached from a different angle or a material could be used in a new way, you help strengthen her creative thinking and ability to try new challenges.⁶

Developmental Milestones:

Has your baby achieved the following Understanding Construction and Reasoning and Problem Solving developmental milestones yet? If yes, check off all the skill(s) she has already mastered to date using Playful Bee’s developmental milestones tracker. It’s absolutely FREE and easy to use, just click HERE!

• Completes 2-4 piece puzzles.

(SPECIAL OFFER: Sign up for Playful Bee’s Bee Well developmental learning program to give your baby the best start in life. The first 10,000 children enroll for FREE! Sign up today.)

Sources:

¹Singer, Dorothy G.; and Revenson, Tracey A. (1996). A Piaget Primer: How a Child Thinks (Revised Edition). New York, NY: PLUME, Penguin Books USA Inc.

²ICELS. Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development. International Centre for Educator’s Learning Styles. Retrieved March 18, 2014, from http://www.icels-educators-for-learning.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=61.

³Evangelou, Maria; Sylva, Kathy; Kyriacou, Maria; Wild, Mary; and Glenny, Georgina (2009). Early Years Learning and Development. University of Oxford: Department for Children, Schools and Families. Retrieved March 18, 2014, from https:/http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/08/DCSF-RR1761.pdf.

⁴Piaget, Jean (1973). Main Trends in Psychology. London, UK: George Allen & Unwin.

⁵Rhode Island Board of Education (2013). Rhode Island Early Childhood Learning and Development Standards.

⁶Maryland State Department of Education (2010). Healthy Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning from Birth through Three Years of Age.

⁷Minnesota Department of Human Services (2007). Early Childhood Indicators of Progress: Minnesota’s Early Learning Guidelines for Birth to 3.

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Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee

Playful Bee is an e-Preschool that delivers inquiry-based preschool learning from the classroom to your home. Our preschool curriculum was created by our talented team of rock star teachers. With years of hands-on preschool and Kindergarten teaching experience, they've developed a high-quality preschool experience that is convenient-to-use and easy-to-teach by you, grandparents, or your nanny at home.

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