The Logic & Reasoning domain describes children’s ability to think through problems and apply strategies for solving them. Such strategies require the ability to make connections among events or ideas, such as cause and effect relationships and comparisons. Likewise, the ability to think abstractly, or symbolically, about their world allows children to better understand the world around them. Such critical thinking skills are essential to children’s early learning, and also to their ability to understand and adapt to a wide range of situations at home and in the community.
Logic & Reasoning
Indicators
Children may . . .
Examples
Children may. . .
Suggested Supports
Adults may . . .
1. Reasoning and Problem-Solving: The ability to recognize, understand, and analyze a problem and draw on knowledge or experience to seek solutions to a problem.
- Seek multiple solutions to a question, task, or problem.
- Recognize cause and effect relationships.
- Classify, compare, and contrast objects, events, and experiences.
- Use past knowledge to build new knowledge.
- Identify problems and search for solutions by asking questions during collaborative explorations of the topic; begin to state facts about the topic.*
- Make suggestions to generate ideas.
- Make predictions, including hypotheses about cause or effect.
- Act out and talk about experiences.
- Talk about activities of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
- Talk about what they are learning.
- Tries different approaches to solve a problem.
- Differentiate between questions and statements.
- Introduce everyday household materials and toys that can be used in more than one way.
- Ask children what they know, want to know, and have learned about a topic.
- Talk through different approaches to problems and value children’s thinking regardless of accuracy.
- Ask children questions that apply to real problems.
- Involve children in planning activities.
2. Symbolic Representation: The use of symbols or objects to represent something else.
- Represent people, places, or things through drawings, movement, and three-dimensional objects.
- Engage in pretend play and act out roles.
- Begin to identify key features of reality versus fantasy in stories, pictures, and events.*
- Represent their ideas in more than one way (e.g., painting, drawing, blocks).
- Pretend and make believe.
- Begin to identify key features of reality versus fantasy in stories, pictures, and events.
- Engage children in making up games, jokes, songs, and stories.
- Encourage pretend play, such as using sofa cushions or blankets to make a “cave.”
- Add new props to the environment to encourage rich pretend play.
- Provide materials for drawing and encourage children to tell you what they have drawn.