Developing Young Thinkers
Weekly Series — Explain it to Others
“Mom, how do I take out the trash again?” asked 3 year old Sarah.
“I forgot too, can you help me remember?” said her mom.
“Ok”, said Sarah
“First we get the trash and tie the top” she says as she carries out the task.
“Next we pull the bag out” as she pulls the bag out.
The process continues step by step until she completes all the steps.
In just a few moments Sarah was able to answer her own question by teaching her Mom.
In the first part or stage of developing young thinkers we talked about the importance of “private speech”. This is taken from the research of Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist in the early 1900’s. He believed that through social interactions (play) children go through a continuous developmental process of learning.
It is important to get children to begin using their “words” early. Language allows for the ability to acquire new information.
The more opportunity we had to practice our “private speech, self directed dialogues” when we were young learners, the more effective later in life we are at learning new skills and solving problems.
With practice verbal thinking turns into what Vygotsky termed folded thinking. Folded thinking means you can begin to think of several things simultaneously. You may not even be conscious of all that you are thinking.
Even though a skill has been automatized it still can be unfolded and reexamined.
When children are having trouble understanding that they have already learned. Verbal thinking can be reintroduced to help them break down concepts down into a step by step process. When they need to explain it to others they usually become aware of flaws and gaps in their understanding.
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