Reasoning

Reasoning relates how we generate one idea from other(s).  We reason when we:

• brainstorm, 
• consider and explain cause and effect,
• compare and contrast, 
• problem solve, 
• figure out how to best relate our ideas and opinions to others, 
• or even when conducting a witch trail (like Monty Python in the video attached).

Philosophers such as Pythagoras, Plato, Descartes, Hobbes, Maimonides, Locke, Hume Rousseau, Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche have all contributed to the discussion of  reason. I, however, approach it from a developmental psychology perspective, specifically from that of Swills psychologist, Jean Piaget.

While Piaget is more well known for his stages of cognitive development, what most appeals to me is his theory of how kids begin to reason and construct levels of understanding:

According to Piaget, reasoning involves "assimilating" (or incorporating) new information into our existing 'schema' (or rules of understanding).  When we face something we can't define, predict, or understand, we enter an (uncomfortable) state of "disequilibrium".  When in this state we try to tweak and work out inconsistencies until they make sense.  Piaget termed this process reflexive abstraction as we reflect, compare, contrast, reason rehearse, and rearrange facts and observations to reach a more comfortable level of understanding. 

As we reason and build understanding we will either:

• ignore what we can't understand, OR 
• construct newer levels of understanding, incorporating more aspects of the problem we face to accommodate the conflicting information. 

Sometimes this new understanding will hold over time, sometimes it won't.  These states of disequilibrium are where effective learning, reasoning, and constructing understanding take place.
Piaget provides a famous "conservation" experiment to show how kids construct knowledge.  This is best done with kids ages 5-8 who are beginning to go beyond the obvious or "concrete" and begin to "abstract," factoring a variety of aspects including those which are so obvious. 

From: sciencebuddies.org

WE BEGINS WITH A QUESTION:  In front of your child, measure a given amount of liquid, say 1/2 cup of water (using measuring cup  "B") and pour the liquid into a tall narrow glass "A" and another 1/2 cup into short wide glass "C".  Ask your child which has more - glass "A" or glass "C"? 

[Sound familiar:? How many times have siblings argued because you poured "more" lemonade or milk shake for one and not the other because you had different sized glasses?]

A young child (typically below the age of 7) will tell you that glass "A" has more because it is "taller" or "higher" or "more."  This is because younger kids will focus on one aspect of the problem, typically what they see.  In this case it is the height.  They do not look at volume.

So, to help them reason and grasp the concept of volume, Piaget would then have the child pour 1/2 cup of liquid from "B" into "A" and that same amount again from "B" into "C" asking again which has more, "A" or "C"?  If child still said "A" - because it is higher,  have the child write down the exact amount going into "A" and then "C" pointing out that it is the same amount.  Then ask why "A" still looks like more. 

Piaget might also play around with different glasses.  He might, for example add glass"D" (the same size as "C") and have the child pour the same amount that is in "C" into "D" - asking which has 'more" (with the child answering 'they're the same'). Piaget would then have the child pour the liquid from "D" into "A" and ask again which has more.  The point is to create a state of disequilibrium where the child begins to recognize that maybe "A" (for some reason) doesn't have more.  Through questioning and experimenting adults can help their child reason that it is not just the height of the glass but its width as well.

HOW DOES THIS TRANSLATE FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILD?
HOW CAN YOU HELP YOUR CHILD LEARN TO REASON?  PRACTICE!  Talk and ask questions about the world around you:

• When walking outside ask why some robins have bright read breasts and others don't.  Why some mallard ducks have bright green or blue on their necks and others don't.
• Why do some birds have long beaks and others short ones?
• Ask why some streets have stop signs or lights and others don't.
• Ask them to predict things, ask why people they see in a movie or read about in a book do something unusual or silly.
• When driving in a car at night, ask them if they think the moon is following them?  Why?  How? What if one of you want in one direction, and your friend in another - would the moon follow both of you?  How?

You get the idea.  The trick, is to ask the questions and let your child think of the answers.  If their answers are not quite right, ask more questions to help them recognize other aspects of the problem.  Let them wrestle, reason, problem solve and brainstorm.

Requests:

• Please let me know if you'd like me to pursue this further, or if you have any other questions.
• In your comments, Please share the types of questions you ask your kids and please share their wonderfully funny responses.  Here are a few Art Linkletter collected over his career.

For further reading, here are some related blogs I've posted:

• "Options, Shining Opportunities, Opening Worlds..." http://departingthetext.blogspot.com/2011/04/options-shining-opportunities-opening.html
• "Kicking Back a Bit...What's All This About Inference?" http://departingthetext.blogspot.com/2011/03/kicking-back-bitwhats-all-this-about.html
• "INSPIRING:  Looking at the World From Another Perspective - Richard Feynman Style"http://departingthetext.blogspot.com/2011/03/looking-at-world-from-another.html
• "On Creativity"http://departingthetext.blogspot.com/2010/08/words-to-whys.html
• "Departing the Text 101:  Beginners Manual http://departingthetext.blogspot.com/2010/07/departing-text-101-beginners-manual.html

              

Facial Literacy Or...Securing Social Skills - Part 1

Facial Literacy - n. The ability to read faces.  

In my training as a school psychologist and lead facilitator for Mel Levine's Schools Attuned program one issue that kept coming up was the difficulty we professionals have with teaching or providing remedial intervention for kids with weak social skills.  In my opinion, there are many reasons for this difficulty, but one of them is that kids with weak social skills are befuddled with, and have a lot of trouble interpreting facial and non-verbal cues.

This is a vital skill when interacting with others because the face provides information that words often do not, or that may for various reasons conflict with verbal information.  Reading these emotions are so important for social (and sometimes for physical) survival.

Reading faces: When reading faces there are a number of factors that need to be integrated:

• Eye Contact:  When speaking with people it is important to look at them in the face (but not to stare).  We equate having eye contact with a sense of interest and honesty, and when people cannot look us in the eye, we are more wary and apprehensive. 
• Eyes also express emotion, excitement, exhaustion.  
• Eye brows communicate emotion and excitement as well.  A raised brow appears questioning or possible excitement.  A furrowed brow expresses anger; a relaxed brow contentment.
• Our mouths, even when not talking are expressive as well.  We frown,  smile, smirk, pout, grimace, gag, and gasp. Each nuanced move expresses an emotion or reaction.

Other non-verbal cues essential for reading others: Listening (not just hearing, but listening) and processing what is being said, reading faces, reading posture, understanding and being able to adhere to a 'social distance' when interacting, and acknowledging (if not agreeing) with others' responses, feelings and perceptions are all integral to social success. In time, I hope to cover all these factors, but let's start with Facial Literacy now, and build from there.

So what can you do to help your kids' "Facial Literacy"?

• Make faces.  Play games.  Have one person/team make a face and have the others guess the emotion they are trying to relay.  IF you don't guess correctly talk (and listen) about what was 'misread'. 
• Talk about what the consequences are in social interactions when you make different faces.
• Picture books and graphic novels are great books to read faces with - together.  Look at the facial cues the artist is giving.  One of my favorite examples is in Laika by Nick Abadzis (First Second Books).  As this story takes place in Soviet Russia in the 1950's and is about the space race, the main characters cannot frequently say what they are actually feeling and it is through the facial expressions and body language found in the illustrations that the reader "reads" their true intent.
• When out at restaurants, on walks, waiting on lines in the supermarket, look at faces and make up stories about what these people may be thinking or feeling.  It helps boost creativity as well as verbal and non verbal expression and social cognition.  Just do it tactfully and politely so as not to offend someone you do not want to offend.
• Draw faces with different expressions on cards.  Make a separate card with the name of the corresponding emotion.  Play memory or matching games with the cards.