Domain 4: Logic & Reasoning

Children begin to build awareness and use simple actions to have an impact on objects and people in their environment.

Indicators for children include:

• Uses nonverbal and verbal communication to generate responses from caregiver(s), e.g., coos, reaches, laughs
• Repeats similar actions on different objects, e.g., shakes stuffed animal in the same manner as a rattle to hear noise
• Looks for and finds an object that has fallen

Strategies for interaction

• Participate in social interactions the child initiates
• Provide interesting toys that can be easily manipulated, e.g., squeezed, shaken, rattled
• Play turn-taking games with the child, e.g., peek-a-boo

Children combine specific actions to have an effect on people and objects, and interact with people and objects in different ways to discover what will happen.

Indicators for children include:

• Uses objects as they are intended, e.g., pretends to drink milk out of a toy bottle
• Attempts different ways to move an object to see what happens, e.g., rolls a ball gently at first and then hard to see how fast and far it will move
• Uses different actions for an intended result, e.g., builds tower with blocks and then knocks it down with his or her hand, repeats the activity and uses his/her head to make the tower tumble
• Imitates adult’s body language and simple actions, e.g., puts hands on hips or pretends to brush crumbs off table

Strategies for interaction

• Allow the child to explore a variety of toys
• Narrate the child’s play: “Look how hard you rolled that ball”
• Allow the child freedom to try new things with some support
• Demonstrate and explain the relationship between objects and/ or people

Children understand how purposeful and select actions can affect different objects and people. Children also begin to connect objects and ideas based on repetition and experience.

Indicators for children include:

• Repeats actions over and over to cause desired effect, e.g., dumps out a bucket and refills it with objects
• Starts to predict the consequence of simple and familiar actions, e.g., knows that flipping the light switch will either turn on or turn off the light
• Understands functionality of objects, e.g., mop is used to clean the floor
• Begins to understand certain behaviors are related to certain contexts, e.g., behaves differently at childcare than at home

Strategies for interaction

• Provide the child with experiences that demonstrate cause and effect, e.g., objects that produce sounds after performing a specific action
• Show and explain what objects do and what they are used for during everyday interactions
• Narrate sequencing found in everyday interactions, e.g., “First we will fill the tray with water, then we will put toys in it.”

Children have a greater understanding of causation and can predict and choose specific actions to attain a desired result. Children also begin to apply past experiences and knowledge to form ideas.

Indicators for children include:

• Recognizes actions and objects and can generalize meaning, e.g., sees someone opening an umbrella and can attribute that to the fact that it may be raining
• Makes a prediction of what will happen next in a sequence of events
• Applies past experiences to new situations
• Expresses cause and effect in certain situations, e.g., “I fell down and now I have a boo-boo.”

Strategies for interaction

• Use stories and everyday conversations to ask the child to predict what may happen next
• Use child’s past experiences to bridge to new experiences, e.g., using chalk on the sidewalk to scribble instead of crayon and paper
• Discuss and experience cause and effect in everyday interactions, e.g., add food coloring to the water table and show the child what happens