Learning about the world by noticing similarities

Your toddler will learn about the world in different ways and one method they use is ‘inductive reasoning and categorisation’. In plain language, your toddler learns by making connections between the things that they encounter. 

Inductive reasoning and categorisation is an incredibly useful skill 

It helps your toddler to make decisions based on what they see and what they already know. It comes in handy when thinking about grouping and sorting objects. 

Your toddler thinks about similarities between things, animals and people and then develops their own set of rules for what is common between them 

You might spot your toddler starting to group objects as they play. Perhaps they put similar-sized toys together, or all of one kind of animal in the same place.  

They are starting to look for patterns that link objects together, such as size, colour or shape 

When you watch how they organise objects into groups you might begin to see the similarities that your toddler is detecting between objects, and you may notice a pattern in their thinking.  

Finding similarities is personal; your toddler makes connections based on their knowledge of the world 

The groups your toddler makes might be completely different from how anyone else would organise the items. There will usually be a reason behind their grouping, and it is worthwhile asking them what they see. 

Your toddler’s thoughts and ideas will change as they learn more

The categories your toddler uses will be based on their current understanding. As they have more experiences, they will use their knowledge to refine the categories. This will continue to help them make sense of the world and inform their future decisions.