What really matters- Visual & Spatial Reasoning. Holes had a particular fascination for Whitney. She would love to poke her finger in them and see what other objects might fit in the hole. As my good friend and developmental psychologist George Forman said “nature abhors a vacuum”. He thinks that one of the reasons babies are so intrigued with holes is that they called to be filled. This empty space let’s them exercise their visual reasoning about “what can I get in there; what is too big; what is too small to fill it and what is just right?” Toddlers can now imagine in their heads what objects fit and are becoming very good at predictions.

How to put it into practice-

Tuning In- I noticed that whit would grab the objects that were good matches for the grates or holes she was trying to fill. (see “Foam Rocket in Grate” video). You could see her mind churning as she looked at the Rocket and then looked at the hole, as if saying “yeh, this is just the right size and looks like it will fit very nicely in there.”

Bridging- In order to support her budding ability to visualize how a object would fit in a given space, I would frequently pull out a range of objects of various shapes and sizes, ask if they might fit and then let her experiment. If we were outside on a drainage grate, I would offer different sized sticks and stones for her to assess in mind and then test out.

It also is a great time to introduce “shape sorter” type toys. These toys are designed so that a square hole requires the square object; the star shaped hole, the star object. Your toddler will need some help to begin but will quickly progress to quickly matching the object to the right hole helping to exercise those important visual & spatial logical thinking skills.

Discovering & developing Whit’s story-

One particular thing I noticed when whit had just started on shape sorter toys was that her older sister was doing to much for her. Her big sister, Kenly, was taking the shape and placing it on top of the right hole. Whitney liked this help and would grunt for her sister to do it again and again. It almost seemed liked Whitney got quickly addicted to the help and began to believe she could not do it without the help. This just reinforces the principle that you want to provide the minimum amount of support necessary for your toddler to do it on their own. When we playpartners do the least, our toddlers learn the most and gain more and more confidence in their own ability.