What really matters- Carving up the world of sensory inputs into logical categories-  A cornerstone of logical thinking is the ability to create a “scene”-- a mental picture of the present that can be linked to past and future experience. I noticed Whit developing strong expectations for what should happen in a given situation or scene.

Research clued me into the fact that she was naturally parsing the world into 3 primary categories: Objects, Animals, and People. She expected these things to behave differently and could remember these patterns. Mom & Dad and other people could show her a big smile, pick her up and give her a hug. Animals like birds or cats might run away from her and propel themselves. Objects don’t run away but need to be acted upon. Within a primary category she could distinguish between things like water, blocks and balls which all had there own personalities and distinct properties.  she was becoming much more deliberate in her exploration of the world. She now had expectations for how different categories of things would behave. 

How to put it into practice-

The best way to exercise this emerging ability is to expose our children to lots of stuff. Again, the world provides the rich curriculum. At bathtime, explore how water works. Outside explore nature such as the play of air on the skin and the effect of wind on the trees. At the beach, explore sand and how this solid behaves alot like a liquid with is granularity. Contrast that with solid wooden blocks and crinkly malleable paper at playtime. Every little nook and cranny of your ordinary world offers up rich exploration for your toddler.  Slow down and enable the time to let your baby engage. Soon your baby will be assessing the context of the material and situation and develop appropriate expectations for how it all works.