Today our topic of discussion is- Reasoning and finding solutions
Reasoning and finding solutions
Reasoning is one of the basic cognitive abilities that are important for successful communicating with the people around us. According to Gail Heyman, it helps arrive at a conclusion and make decisions based on the information available; moreover, any process of learning (whether learning a new language or understanding any subject area)
essentially involves verbal reasoning through word based concept-formation (Heyman, 2008). Reasoning, especially verbal, involves the ability of a child to understand the meaning of information from any form it is presented
. It helps enable the thought-process of a child in which he gathers information, analyzes it, thinks about and evaluates it in order to to form ideas, beliefs and assumptions. Reasoning and finding solutions of tasks is a vital concern in language development. When a child
needs to acquire a new language, he or she must apply verbal reasoning skills to read and
understand new words, listen and recall spoken language, and make comparisons with
different language concepts (Nombre, 2012). In addition, other complex language-based
tasks are also needed to master the language and successfully communicate.
The following five categories are included under the theme reasoning and finding
solutions”. They are-
(a) Imitation
(b) Over generalization
(c) Logical thinking
(d) Perceptual categorization
(e) Expressing preferences.
(a) Imitation
There has been considerable debate about the importance of imitation in acquiring language. One of the assumptions established about imitation is that children have to repeat the speech they have heard to learn it. Jespersen identified the importance of imitation differently, according to him,
“One thing which plays a major role in children’s language acquisition, and especially in their early attempts to form sentences, is Echoism: the fact that children echo what they are told” (Jespersen, 1922, p. 135). Another belief is that children are virtually bound to imitate and they imitate not only what they have seen or done before, but also novel behaviour also (Kirkpatrick, 1909 in Bloom et al. 1974).
Imitation is therefore also seen as the stage between language comprehension and speech production.Data comprehended through an analysis show that a large portion of the production of speech by children is due to imitation. They imitate their parents, caregivers, siblings, people around them and even TV shows. There are also instances that children are imitating street
vendors, beggars, shopkeepers. They not only imitate speech sounds; they imitate door bells, cars booming, sounds of things falling etc. Their imitations are unique in the sense of how they are doing it and in which context. Some examples of children imitating others are presented below-
• Child Anna:
-she makes sounds like /uf/./aha/, /uh/to express that she is hurt or in pain.
– she hears vendors selling vegetables (/torkari/) or chickens (/murgi/) on the street in front of her
house every day. She imitates the way they call to the customers. Like-
C:/tokkari lagbe?/= (Do you need vegetables?) or
C:/muggi niben?/= (Will you take chickens?)
(She cannot pronounce the middle [r], so she makes consonant clusters for them.)
One street beggar comes almost every day in front of Anna’s house. He is lame, so his son pushes his father’s wooden wheel chair and begs by taking the name of Allah; he says, /allar name amake dui taka dao/(Please give me 2 taka by the name of Allah).
Anna observed them very carefully, later she copied them by pushing her doll’s small stroller and saying at the same time /alla/ (Allah the all mighty) and asking for money too. She now calls all the beggars /alla/.
– if she makes mistakes and her mother gets angry at her, she cries out and says-
C:/beibider jate ebabe kota bolte hoyna./= (you should not talk to a baby like this.)
– Anna has her toy cooking utensils and she enjoys playing with it. One morning, she took a pot of rice (uncooked) and asked her mother-
C:/mamoni dekoto ak pot hovece naki?/= (Mom please check if it’s one pot or not, actually she is trying to copy the way her mother measures rice for cooking.)
M:/ha hoyeche./= (Yes.)
C:/tahole pani diye duye bojiye dei ?/- (Ok, then let me wash it and put on the stove.) -Anna’s brother K was taking a bath. She knocked the bathroom door and said-
C:/hoyece?/=(Are you done?)
C:/taratari mathay pani dao cok jole jabe./=(Quickly put water on your head or eyes
will burn.)
C:/matha mucho thanda lege jabe./=(Wipe your head or you will catch cold.)
(She was imitating the way her mother instructs them when they take baths.)
Child Sunny:
-Sunny learnt the word /hamba/for ‘cow. He learnt it from his grandparent’s house. When
The pronounces the word, he tries to make the call sound as original as possible. The researcher asked him-
R: /daḍu bari ki korecho?/= (What did you do at your grandfather’s house?)
C:/hamba./= (He wanted to say that he saw a cow.)
– at the sound of “Azaan’ Sunny takes his ‘Jaynamaaz’ and acts as if he is saying his prayers. -he takes a basket on his head and pretends to be a fish seller. He calls out the names of the fish loudly.
C:/ar maf/./kata maf/, /pangu maf/./rui maЛ/.
Sunny burps loudly, he imitates his father.
• Child Simmi:
-Simmi’s mother wears hijab, so Simmi also tries to put on hijab with her small dupatta. She
tells her mother-
C:/mom, ami to tomar moto hoye gelam./= (Mom I look like you.)
C:/amake boro lagce na!/= (I am looking older right!). She becomes happy if her mother agrees
that she looks like her when she wears hijab. Simmi even tries to act like her mother too.
– Simmi has a party frock that looks like a ballerina dress. One day she saw in TV that a
ballerina is dancing wearing a similar dress. She said to her mother-
C:/o mom ei jama ta pore eibabe nace?/ (O! they dance with this dress like this?)
M:/hmm. eta ke bæle dans bole./ (Yes. This is called ‘ballay’ dance.)
C:/amio ei jama ta po akon jeke ebabei nacbo./ (From now on I will wear this
dress and dance similarly). She even tries to walk tip toe.
Like the above mentioned examples of imitation, the rest of the children have imitative data too. To explore the function and process of imitation of the participant children of this research, imitative and spontaneous utterances produced by them were analyzed and compared
The data collection took place following the children’s course of natural speech development from single word utterances to grammar emergence. The degree of imitation had thematic differences but each of them was consistent with the tendency to imitate or not imitate over time.
Children, who spend more time with family members and have siblings, imitated their utterances more. On the other hand child of a working parents’ (who spent
more time with maids), imitated TV shows and cartoons and the housemaids mainly. Besides, they imitated activities of another people like- how the vendors sell products, beggars ask for money, mother dresses up, maid cleans the house etc.
This study described the extent to which imitation occurred in six children’s speech and explored the function of imitation on the lexical and grammatical level of their early language development.
(b) Over generalization:
Human languages are unique in that they offer speakers the possibility to productiveness for expressing new meanings. For example, add words, to express completely new sentences. During this productive period, young children continue to use a term past the field of its particular connotation; this habit of language formation is called ‘over extension’ which is a part of ‘overgeneralization’ in semantics.
Two types of overgeneralizations occur in early language development-over extension” and “under- extension’. For instance, referring to all four legged animals as ‘doggie”, all liquid items as “water” (“mum” by Bengali children) or calling ‘cat’ only to the family ‘pet cat’ are examples of overgeneralizations. This often occurs in children when they are initially acquiring and developing the first language.
During my research, I have seen that children at this age make over extension error more than the under-extension, and it is very frequent to them. Basically two types of overextension are made by children-
(a) Categorical over-extension/ semantic feature hypothesis: Child over-extends on the features of an object. Like- the child calls any white-round object “egg”.
b) Analogical over-extension/functional similarities hypothesis: Based on the similarities of functions of objects, the child over-extends, like calling all the “water holders’.
‘cups’ (glass, mug etc. also).
This process of meaning extension is visible in all children around since the age of 12
months to 2 years (sometimes up to 2.5 years also). Overextension is a cognitive process resulting from contextual reasoning and figuring out a solution.
It is done by young children when they lack in producing or presenting new vocabularies or more specifically names of things. Some examples of over-extensions produced by the participant children are presented
below-
Child Mro-
C:/dadu bajar teke ækta bol eneche./=(Grandfather brought a ball from the bazaar.
It -He calls all the circular things as a ball-
was a pumpkin.)
C:/oreny kalaler bol./= (His father brought ‘Orange’ for him.)
Child Anna-
-When she learnt the name of the colour ‘pink’ she referred to almost all the coloured things
“pink”, and it became her referential colour too. Like-
C:/pin katun dao./ (Give me the Pink cartoon.)
C:/pin biti occe./- (It’s raining Pink.)
C:/pin cakket dao./= (Give me pink chocolate.)
-She even over generalized determiners too.
C:/ekta pani dao to./ (Give me ‘one water’ please.)
C:/ekta dudu kabo./=(Give me one milk).
Moreover, she calls cow, horse and buffalo as ‘a cow’ in general.
Child Ikra-
-She recognizes most of the animals from her picture book. But when she sees Zebra and
Elephant, shesays-
C:/hamba./= (The call of a cow.)
-Some children call water /mam/” in Bangladesh. Some mothers also indicate water as */mam/’ in ‘motherese’ (or child directed speech). Child Ikra also uses the word “/mam/”,
but she refers to all liquids (including water) as/mam/’.
C:/ma amake oi je mam dao./= (Juice was poured in a glass.)
-When Ikra learnt the number ‘two’ only, she referred to every countable thing as two.
When tea was served she said-
C:/dui ta kap/(Two cups).
It was impressive. But her mother said every countable thing is two for her. ‘Two eyes’, ‘two nose’, ‘two spoons (when it is actually one). When her mother was interviewed she said that she corrected Ikra whenever she made over extensions in using countable nouns.
According to the mother, if she doesn’t teach her daughter what is the right form, who else would do that! Ikra’s mother also mentioned about over-generalized tense forms too, but as grammar is a complicated issue, she didn’t correct her misuse of grammar and waited for Ikra to grow up couple more years to get it on her own.
(c) Logical thinking: Thinking makes it possible for children to reason out problems
and persue solutions. This cognitive ability allows a child to know if they are accomplishing what they want to do alone or if they need assistance (Piaget, 1936/1952). For example, if a child is taken to the toy store and asked to buy a toy of his choice, thinking skill will help him to decide which one he already has, how he will be benefitted by the new one, which colour among all is attracting him etc.
In this research I characterized children’s thinking process as “logical thinking”, because I observed that children do not say everything they think in random or not even their thinking process is scattered. They say what they think (in a childlike manner of course) is good for them and logical according to their age also.
According to Siegler, thinking involves the higher mental processes: problem solving. reasoning, creating, conceptualizing, categorizing, recalling, preparing and so on (Siegler & Booth, 2004). In early childhood basic mental processes like perceiving objects and events in the environ34ment, understanding and producing language and skillful acting on objects to obtain goals are also results of thinking. Actually, there is no specific boundary that can separate thinking from other mental processes.
Children express their ability to think rationally when they turn 2.5 years, and it continues onwards. Generally a child does not face any problem that he needs to solve by himself; parents and caregivers are there for them; like the adults, children do not use logics to solve problems (literally).
Data shows that child logics is basically used to find out ways to present issues or their needs in front of parents or other adults in a comprehensible way. For example, if a child already has a ‘toy car” but he wants another one from the shop, he would try to assure his parents that the old one is no more useful, or it doesn’t work, the colour might have faded etc. And parents get to know that the child really wants a new toy car.
Children use lots of logic everyday to get their purpose served and they use one way or another for that. I have seen that, at the beginning children use logic mostly to serve a purpose or to get something from someone; it can be food, water, toy, spoon, lotion bottle, bath, sleep, pillow, going out, changing dress or anything related to a child’s interests.
But soon they advance in applying logic more like the adults in deciding what they want and how they want it.Some examples that reflect the children’s thinking ability collected through this research are like-
• Child Fuko-
-One of Fuko’s relatives was watching TV in the evening, and the lights of that room were turned off. Fuko came to that room and asked her
C:/alo kotay?/= (Where is the light?)
R:/job alo najto hoye giyeche./= (All the lights have been spoiled). Fuko ran away from
there and came back after a few minutes with his grandfather’s “torch light” and said- C:/ei je alo ace, kotay Bb alo noto!/= (Here is light! Not all of them are spoiled).
-Fuko saw a plane flying over in the rain. He said to his mother-
C:/mamma plein ta bhijche na kæno?/- (Mom why isn’t the plane getting wet?). He
silently thought for few seconds and again said-
C:/mone hay bajay duke jay abar brifti komle fire afe./= (Probably it goes inside the
house when it rains and comes out again later.)
Child Sunny:
-The music of Sunny’s toy car was not playing loudly like before. So he said to his mother,
C:/ammu, gayi bæta bæta./=(Mother, the car’s battery!). He tried to mean that the
battery of the toy car needs to be changed.
-Sunny can now ride his bicycle very fast with twists and turns. Researcher asked him (for fun)-
R:/ sani, cycle ta tumi eka calao na apu o calay?/=(Do you ride the cycle alone or
your sister also rides on it?)
C:/apu calay na.apu bolle saikel b’aŋbe./=(Sister does not ride on it. If she sits, it will
break). His sister is tall and heavy, so Sunny figured it out.
Child Simmi:
-She wanted to buy these things for school-(a) ‘Frozen’ school bag, (b) ‘Frozen’ water bottle and (c) ‘Snow White’ tiffin box. I asked her why she didn’t want “Frozen” tiffin box too, she said-
C:/are elsa to kicu kay nai katune./=(Eisa did not eat anything in the cartoon.)
R:/sno whait ki k’eye chilo?/=(What did Snow White cat?)
C:/oi je apel, amaro to apel pasondo./=(She ate Apple, I also like to eat apple). Simmi
already told her mother that she would take apples for snack.
-Sometimes when Simmi wants something that her mother will not allow her to have at that moment, she would goto her mother and ask for that item on behalf of someone else; like, if she wants tohave an ice cream, she would say
C:/mom boddi naki aiskim kabe./=(Mom sister said she wants to have ice cream.)
C:/amar klaser meyera na naget khay tifine./=(My classmates eat nuggets as a tiffin.)
or
C:/bikale naki baire jete hoy mom?/=(Is it true that you need to go out in the
afternoon?)
I personally feel that for children ‘logical thinking’ or ‘thinking’ in general has few pre-requisitions, like, vocabularies (context based), previous knowledge of concepts (like, when child said her sister will break the cycle; he must have the concept of heavy and light.
Or the child Fuko knew what happens when it rains heavily), features of things (Apple is Red, a toy car is battery operated) etc.
If we ask a child to decide which fruit he would like to eat or which school bag she will buy, the child would need to apply concepts that he already knows to answer any question, like, fruit names, colours, tastes, textures or how a school bag looks like, what features can it carry out etc. In my opinion, logical thinking is the application of some previously collected knowledge and it is expressed as the result of a combined process.
(d) Perceptual categorization:
Researchers described the remarkable progression of carly childhood cognitive development and identified broad range of cognitive competence. Children are describes as active, motivated and committed learners who possess impressive range of cognitive skills and learn through exploration (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998).
Their natural curiosity and strong drive to learn and act accordingly helps them better understand cause and effect as well as the properties of objects, human features and patterns of behaviour and the relationship between events and consequences.
Child perceptual development is a cognitive maturity phase where sensory information is interpreted. Two types of basic categorization occur in infancy, one is a
e) Expressing Preferences:
Developmental psychologists believe that if a child is taught to make his own choice (among very few options), he would learn to be obedient and live in harmony. Offering children with acceptable choices allows them healthy room to assert themselves and their unique personalities, while still constraining them to be obedient (Oswalt, 2017).Often young children say, ‘
No’ to something parents decide for them, simply to exert their independence. It is a sign of children’s developing individuality. Offering children choices is a way of offering them control over their lives without putting them at risk.
Allowing children to make small choices (dress up, breakfast, etc.), is actually helping them to realize that they are capable of taking responsibility, which will help them to make larger choices in life.During the observation I have seen that, like the adults, young children (age 2 years onwards) can also express their choices or preferences.
They can choose their favourite things among many other options; like- if they want to take a bath or not, which food they would like to eat, which dress or shoes to put on etc. Children even try to decide things for their parents and family members also. Like, which saree or shirt they should wear, whether grandmother should drink Pepsi or juice, the father should watch cartoon rather than watching news etc.
C:/Semai khabo./=(I want to eat vermicelli.)
-If Simmi’s mother wants to feed her breast milk, she refuses.
C:/mamma dudu k’abona, fitar dudu khabo./=(I don’t want to be fed to the breast, I want to drink milk from the feeding bottle.)
There are both benefits and disadvantages for children making their own preferences. The ‘choice strategy’ is a way of promoting harmony and compliance in children. Allowing children to choose from appropriate options encourages them to have a safe place to express themselves and their unique personalities.
It facilitates co-operation and avoids creating differences with parents. Expressing personal preferences is a sign of children’s developing individuality. But, based on my own experience, early age children should be given only with a limited number of options, no more than 2 or 3 at a time. Mother could start by asking, ‘what do you want to wear today,
‘pink frock or blue skirt’? Too many choices overwhelm them and the situation might become complicated too. They should be provided with choices made in advance by parents that are suitable and fair. If children say ‘no’ to something parents just decide to bring in their freedom, it may be a sign of being stubborn. But controlled and little freedom of choice will strongly motivate young children to perform.
Children get the message that their unique preferences are important and they are capable of taking responsibilities. So parents should play the biggest role of deciding or selecting things for children without increasing the number of great battles or breaking the children’s self- esteem.
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