Science is a process, “a way of thinking and understanding the world. It is observing, predicting what might happen, testing those predictions, and making sense of observations.”¹ Scientific Knowledge cannot be picked up by instruction alone, so young children should be active participants by looking at the world around them, testing ideas, and working out explanations that give them meaning.^1,2 While your child began her scientific explorations long ago as a curious young infant, she is now more capable of using her advanced cognitive skills, such as organizing, categorizing, problem solving, and reasoning, to help with her Scientific Observation now that she’s 18-24 months old.

As stated above, your child is building Scientific Knowledge and information through the scientific process of observing, predicting, experimenting, and interpreting.³ In observing the world around her, she may show a great interest in newly-discovered objects and activities, such as a fallen leaf, rock, or bug found during a nature walk with you. With a sincere curiosity in what she is exploring, she is likely to spend more time examining and studying objects to learn more about their properties and functions.

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Because she has a firmer understanding of Cause and Effect, your toddler may be more active in experimenting, using objects in different ways to figure out how things work and behave. She will begin to develop the understanding of cycles (e.g. day vs. night), temperature (e.g. hot or cold), and composition and texture (e.g. coarse or soft).⁴ You may see your child experiment with filling containers full of water and then watching the water overflow onto the floor, as she plays with the idea of volume capacity.⁵ She may also run some tests on gravity, watching a ball roll off the table over and over again or building a tower of blocks only to watch it crumble to the floor when she knocks it down.⁵

After she processes her observations and conducts her experiments, don’t be surprised if she asks you lots of questions to help her understand and interpret her observations and predictions.⁵ Take this opportunity to answer her questions and provide her with the answers she’s looking for. Ask your child questions, participate in her scientific explorations, and expose her to new environments to give her a larger range of learning opportunities. You may be surprised at how quickly she will begin to connect the dots, expanding her Scientific Knowledge and understanding of the world around her.

Play Tips:

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

1. Explore science up close with nature walks.⁵ Make exploring the great outdoors a grand adventure together. Bring a small basket or bucket to collect interesting finds as you investigate the outdoor world. Ask leading questions that help build your child’s understanding of the plants, animals, and other items she comes across, like “Touch this flower. How does the petal feel? It feels velvety and soft to me. What does it smell like? Yes, it smells sweet and pleasant, doesn’t it?” Be sure to teach your toddler how to be respectful of nature and its little creatures and plants, and look out for any potential hazards and allergenic specimens you may encounter during your playtime together.
2. Use a magnifying glass to observe details closely.⁵ To help deepen your child’s observations of any given object, show her how to use a magnifying glass to see its details up close. Point out specific features, like the pattern of veins found on a leaf, the number of legs on an ant, or the different colors found in a rock.
3. Incorporate resources and subjects your child is interested in. According to psychologist and 19th century educational reformer John Dewey, children learn best from what they are naturally interested in (child-centered learning) and can build upon their existing knowledge and experiences.⁶ If your child develops a new fascination with rocks, cars, or puppies, encourage her to explore these interests by helping her find books, songs, photos, and other learning materials to deepen her understanding of the subject. And keep in mind, nearly any subject can be used to improve vocabulary, math skills, and Scientific Knowledge.
4. Offer a variety of natural tactile materials to play with.⁵ Provide your child with objects that have all different kinds of textures: sand and water, colored ice cubes, dry rice and pasta, craft dough, and more. Let her handle and manipulate these materials in different ways, such as stirring, squishing, pouring, etc., which will give her more information about how the different materials feel.
5. Expand scientific learning across disciplines. Use every opportunity to expand your child’s learning by exploring her interests in different ways. If you spent a fun morning at the farmers’ market, perhaps you could come home and play “farmers’ market,” exchanging money for goods, creating pictures and labels for all of the brightly colored vegetables you saw there, planting vegetable or flower seeds to grow your own fresh produce, or cooking supper together with the fresh and healthy ingredients purchased from the market. By making these connections with your toddler, you will support her growing understanding of the world.

(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.)

Developmental Milestones:

Has your baby achieved the following Scientific Observation 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!

• Closely observes objects for details and causal outcomes.

Sources:

¹Eggers, Tanya. Hands-On Science for Young Children. Early Childhood News. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=431.

²Trawick-Smith, Jeffrey W. (1994). Interactions in the classroom: Facilitating play in the early years. Columbus, OH: Merrill.

³Hamlin, Maria and Wisneski, Debobra B. (2012). Supporting the Scientific Thinking and Inquiry of Toddlers and Preschoolers through Play. National Association for the Education of Young People: Young Children. Retrieved March 17, 2014, from http://www.naeyc.org/yc/files/yc/file/201205/Hamlin_YC0512.pdf.

⁴Arkansas Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education (2002). Arkansas Framework for Infant and Toddler Care.

⁵Maryland State Department of Education (2010). Healthy Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning from Birth through Three Years of Age.

⁶Mooney, Carol Garhart (2000). Theories of Childhood: An Introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky. St Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

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Playful Bee

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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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