I can’t find the post where I talked about Aidan having trouble with the concept of “before and after”. This seems to be a favorite V-tech toy option. He has been playing quite a bit with an old V-tech number phone. One of the games is “What comes after #N? (for example, 5)” I modelled counting, since he knows how to count by rote — eg “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … then what?” He said “6″ and then pushed the option and was delighted!
Now he can do it on his own, though he still sometimes needs a bit of prompting. He is absolutely thrilled.
For this to work on the V-tech alphabet board, we will have to practice saying the ABC’s… and it won’t work for the “before” questions. But at least this is a step in the right direction.
I love seeing these little steps forward. A child has to be ready to grasp the idea, and to some degree he has to WANT to understand. He doesn’t always need help — many or even most concepts, a child discovers on his own through his environment and his activity in that environment. Most of the time, I don’t even really know how or when a child acquired a new understanding. For instance, Paddy clicked with “before and after” seemingly by intuition. But it’s neat to get to see it happen, and even get to play a supporting role in the process.
