Can put objects into two groups based on one distinctive characteristic

Your toddler has been exploring and learning about the objects around them for some time now. Through this experience, they will be noticing some similarities and differences and might begin to group objects together based on a characteristic they can easily identify. 

Schemas 

You might have heard about schemas in terms of schematic play, so when children demonstrate a particular interest in their play and explore this in different ways. Whilst children do explore schemas in this type of play, a schema is not only linked to schematic play. Piaget developed the idea of a schema or scheme and used this term to refer both to physical actions such as moving or reaching and thought processes such as categorising and comparing. [1]  

When talking about cognitive development, a schema can also describe the framework your toddler uses to organise information. This could be described as the ideas they have linked to their experiences at the time. As they have more experiences, they adapt their schema according to the new information they gain through their experiences. [2] 

For example, your toddler might have a duck schema, they know that ducks have beaks, wings and that they see them on water. When they see a swan, they will say it is a duck, if they haven’t made the connection with ducks and water, they might call all birds ducks. However, when you see the swan and comment, “Oh look there is a swan today! The swan is big isn’t it.” They will adjust their duck schema and realise that the big bird they have seen is not a duck but a swan, so they will also have a swan schema.  

Noticing similarities 

As your toddler develops their understanding of the world around them, they will notice similarities and begin to group their toys and objects according to a characteristic they have noticed. You might notice when eating they put all their carrots together and all their breadsticks. They might not be able to comment on how the objects are grouped but when you notice them doing this you could comment, “All the carrots are there and all the breadsticks are here!” 

When they organise objects in this way, they explore their understanding of the objects. They have noticed the carrots look the same and so have put them together. As they notice more similarities and differences, they will be able to group objects in different ways; this will take some time and lots of experience looking at, touching and moving different objects.

What next?  

Your toddler might become more interested in organising the objects around them and might explore different ways of grouping objects as they notice more similarities and differences. When they are much older, they will be able to group objects according to more than one characteristic and describe how they have organised objects.  

References 

[1] Boyd, D.G. & Bee, H.L. (2014) The Developing Child (13th edn.) Harlow: Pearson Education.  

[2] Halpenny, A.M. & Pettersen, J. (2014) Introducing Piaget. A guide for practitioners and students in early years education. London: Routledge.