Promoting abstract thinking in young children's play

Bert van Oers

Marielle Poland

pp. 121-136

in: Bert van Oers (ed), Developmental education for young children, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstract

Abstract thinking is generally seen as an ability that is not accessible for young children. In Developmental Education, however, teachers introduce young children to activities that call for abstract processes that make sense to them. When we conceive of abstraction as an act of representing reality from a specific point of view, it turns out that young children are able to focus consistently on one point (neglecting others), and hence to abstract. This chapter describes examples of how children can act abstractly in the context of their play and can represent their abstract point of view schematically. By so doing young children can even appropriate the ability to abstract up to a level that helps them when mastering elementary mathematical operations. The chapter shows practical ways of abstracting and schematising with young children, and argues for the meaningful inclusion of schematising activities in young children's play.