Shadows

During my walk with Nicolas (who just turned 1), the sun behind us cast a very sharp, clear shadow of both of us moving down the walkway. Nicolas definitely noticed it. I saw him looking at his shadow. I could see that he noticed that it moved when he moved. If he had the words, he would have said, “Look at that dark thing on the walk! Hmmmmm. That’s really interesting! And it moves! Hmmmmm. Look at that!”

Since he didn’t have the words to use, I said the words for him. I didn’t talk about how shadows are made by the sun not being able to shine through what is in it’s path. That would not have been meaningful. Nicolas was noticing an interesting phenomenon. He didn’t have the maturity and the analytic power to go further.

As we were noticing the shadow my mind went back to a moment I shared with an almost 3 year old around shadows. Probably more than a year ago I came across Lindsay who was sitting on the playground step, studying the shadow the umbrella cast on the concrete. She was looking at the shadow, then turning to look at the umbrella, and then turning back to the shadow.

I came over and asked her “What is that?” “It’s a shadow,” she said. She then tried to explain to me how it was cast. She talked about the sun high up in the sky and how the umbrella was in front of it. She didn’t have the full explanation down, but she was very engaged in analyzing the phenomenon of light, how it travels, and what happens when it hits an obstacle.

It struck me as I watched what Nicolas was able to do with the shadow, how analytic skills develop. Of course the beginning is noticing interesting things, which all babies do. But there is a lot of brain development that has to happen before analysis like Lindsay was engaged in can happen. When we talk to children about what they are seeing and doing, we help them acquire the language that is necessary to think and analyze. And we reinforce the activity of noticing and wondering about things which is fundamental to all learning. We don’t necessarily need to give a very young child a full scientific explanation (although it doesn’t hurt.) Probably the most important thing is to reinforce the noticing, wondering, thinking, and analytic process.

And again, as so often happens, I am amazed at how children’s brains and their thinking skills develop over just a few years. At CPSC, our job is to make the most of these years when children are learning how to think, analyze, and create explanations.