The four-year old brain - a leap in development

It’s marvellous to watch how children grow and fascinating to observe the change in abilities at various ages. Have you noticed the sudden spurt of brain development at around the age of four years?

One of these is a leap forward in being able to understand how other people are feeling and what they may be thinking. There is another leap in understanding spatial relations, meaning that young children become able to understand the position of various objects. Martin Doherty and his colleague, Catherine Sayer, researched the development of spatial skills indicating, for example, the beginning of an ability to read maps.

Experiments in development

They found that at about four, children are able to use a scale model of a room to work out where something is in the real world. At first they assumed that this might result from children’s understanding of how one thing can represent something else. But they found that four-year-olds’ ability to use scale models came from their spatial abilities. The experiment used showed children a scale model of a room with something on a model chair. When asked to find this object in the ‘real’ room, the children unerringly went to the correct chair.

At about four, children start to understand that someone’s behaviour depends on what that person believes, not necessarily what is really the case. This has interesting consequences as they learn that not telling the truth can influence the behaviour of others to one’s possible benefit.

If you’ve played hide-and-seek with young children, you may have noticed that they aren’t always very good at it. They love to look in all the wrong places first, they may tell you beforehand where they are going to hide, they choose to hide in the same place every time, or not be especially hidden. This changes at around four years. Now, children get much better at this game because they understand that the seeker looks in the wrong places because they don’t know where the hider is.

Another developmental leap is an improved ability to do jigsaw puzzles. Very young children complete a puzzle by using lots of trial and error. They’ll pick up random pieces and try to get them to fit. At about four years, they start using the picture as a reference, and attempt to fit the pieces by matching colours and lines, while checking the picture on the box.

Provided by The Conversation

Image provided by Freepik

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Martin Doherty, writing for The Conversation, says that at the age of about four, children reach important milestones in brain development.

One of these is a huge improvement in understanding others’ thoughts and feelings. This is the start of empathy. Another is in spatial thinking—understanding how objects are positioned and related. This is the beginning of the ability to read maps.

Martin and his colleague, Catherine Sayer, conducted a study with 175 two to five-year-olds to explore how children are able to use scale models to figure out where something is in the real world. At about four, children are able to use a scale model of a room to work out where something is. We thought that this might result from children’s understanding of how one thing can represent something else. But we actually found that four-year-olds’ ability to use scale models came from their spatial abilities.

At the same age, children start to understand that someone’s behaviour is due to what that person believes, not necessarily what is really the case. This has interesting consequences.

If you’ve played hide-and-seek with young children, you may have noticed that they aren’t always very good at it. They love the ritual of looking in all the wrong places first, but beforehand they may tell you where they are going to hide, hide in the same place every time, or not be especially hidden.

After their fourth birthday, they get much better at hide and seek. They understand that the seeker looks in the wrong places because they don’t know where the hider is.

At about three to four children also start to tell lies. They realize they can make someone believe something that isn’t true.

Understanding symbols

Martin’s earlier research with fellow psychologist Josef Perner suggests that four-year-olds don’t just start to understand how others’ minds work. Figuring this out is part of the development of an understanding of “representation”—that symbols, like thoughts, words, or pictures, can be used to stand for something else.

Children start to think about how words relate to objects. This means, for instance, knowing that “animal” can refer to something you already have a name for, such as “rabbit”. This might help children learn the new word.

Their ability to use a understand the components of pictures also improves around this age. Very young children use a lot of trial and error to complete a jigsaw, picking up random pieces to see if they fit. By the time they are about four years old, they start to use the picture as a guide, trying to connect lines and match bits of colour, while checking the guide picture on the box lid.

Developmental experiments

Another ability children develop at around four is using scale models. A classic set of developmental experiments involved a model of a regular household room. The real room had typical furniture—sofa, table, cupboard and so on—and the model had miniature versions laid out in the same way.

Children were shown where something was hidden in the model and told to find an object hidden in “the same place” in the room. Children of around four can find the object using the identical layouts. If shown a sticker under a particular chair in the model room, for example, they can go straight to the “same” chair in the other room. This is the fundamental understanding required to read maps.

Adults see scale models and maps as representations. Maps represent a town or a country. A scale model of, say, the Eiffel Tower represents the real thing. At first, Martin suspected children’s ability to use scale models is more evidence of understanding representation at this age.

He was wrong. Instead, the researchers found that this ability is based on a development in children’s spatial abilities that also occurs at about four. This is the ability to think about spaces and where objects are within them. Spatial abilities help with maths skills, and good spatial ability is linked to an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Their experiment was simple. They compared the model room task with a test of understanding how representation works. The two abilities develop around the same age, but they found they were not related. Children who could do one task couldn’t necessarily do the other.

They also had a test of purely spatial ability. Children who passed the model room task also passed the spatial task. So it looks like the model room task relied on children‘s spatial thinking.

They don’t yet know why two important but apparently unrelated abilities arise at the same time. Perhaps it’s related to changes in the growing brain at this interesting age.

Provided by The Conversation.

Image supplied by Freepik.