What really matters- Expectations & Models for how things work. One day I noticed Whit playing with a deck of cards. I was struck by how she demonstrated such a clear idea and expectation for where cards were placed and stored and how to do it. I am sure she saw her older brother and sister doing it numerous times; and this memory or image in mind was now a highly functional idea that she could recall and act upon. Again, it does not seem like a big deal in the moment but reflecting on what it means about her thinking skills made me see the importance of it. Whit was now forming concepts of how the world works. She was setting a goal based on that concept (get the card into the card holder). She was developing strategies to achieve that goal (grab holder face up, keep lid open, angle card paralell to get inside);  Based on strategies chosen, you could even infer what theories she had in mind (cards have a home and need to be put away). (see “Cards go in holder” video to right)

How to put it into practice-

Tuning In- Whit’s expectations and implicit mental models would show up in lots of ways. Here with the cards she simply showed me by doing it. Previously, she would just bend and tear cards put them in any random container like a garbage can or a big box. But now, she wanted to seek out and find the “card holder”. In this instance it was buried somewhere in a our mess of a recent move, so it took some persistence to search for and locate it. These small behavioral signs give us clues as to what’s going on in that mind.

Bridging- To strengthen whitney’s mental model building competences, I would try to make it explicit to her so she could reflect on it. Again, at this point, receptive language far exceeds any language output which is quite minimal. But babies understand quite a bit. By calling out and labeling what models you think she is using it helps her reflect on the experience and model. For example, “cards go in holder” video, I would state what I thought was her goal, “You want to get the card in its holder”. Then I would narrate her process of “getting it in”.  If she was having difficulty I could have steady the holder for her or if she could not get the top of the holder open, I could provide the minimal level of support, perhaps just crack the top, so that she could do it.

Discovering & developing Whit’s story-

Whit was a very adventurous little girl and never ceased trying to get into things so each different object or thing presented an opportunity for me to see what her expectations for that object were and what her ideas about what it worked and behaved. She demonstrated she was developing lots of clear expectations. When those expectations were not being met, she had a nice repitoire to signal her frustration including a “foot stomping” routine that was precious (if not too long and accompanied by too loud of screams)