Video Transcript
Narrator: In the Approaches to Learning domain, the strand Goal-Directed Learning includes the foundation Problem-Solving. Children from 23 through 36 months try various strategies to solve problems and use previously learned strategies to manage familiar and new situations.
Example 1
Text on screen: Tries various strategies to solve problems
On screen: 30-month-old Lizandro plays in a kitchen playset. He picks up a toy knife. He opens the microwave. A ball rolls part way out. Lizandro puts the knife in the microwave and tries to close the door, but it won’t close all the way. He opens the door, and the ball falls into the sink.
Lizandro picks up the ball and places it in a cabinet. He removes the other items from microwave, placing them in the cabinet. The knife and ball fall out of the cabinet. Lizandro puts them back, looks around to make sure he hasn’t missed anything, and closes the cabinet door.
Example 2
Text on screen: Uses previously learned strategies in familiar situations to solve problems
On screen: 32-month-old Jet is sitting at a table for lunch. He is trying to use tongs to serve himself spaghetti from a large bowl, but the latch on the tongs has slipped part way down so they can’t open all the way.
Jet picks up a small amount of spaghetti and moves it to his plate. The latch slips further. He can’t open the tongs at all now. He makes several attempts to pry them open. He manages to move the latch up and get some more spaghetti, but the latch slips down again. He looks up at a caregiver and holds the tongs toward her.
Jet: Michy, I need help. I need help.
On screen: Another caregiver steps in and takes the tongs from Jet.
Caregiver 1: You need help? Here, I’ll help you.
Example 3
Text on screen: Tries various strategies to solve problems
On screen: 34-month-old Evie climbs up to stand on a bench so she can grab one of four bottles of colored water on a windowsill.
Evie steps around a basket on the bench and reaches as far as she can to set the bottle with others on top of a nearby play structure. She keeps one hand on the windowsill to hold herself steady. She grabs another bottle from the windowsill and repeats the process. She looks down as she carefully moves around the basket. She stretches her whole body to reach and sets the bottle in the line of bottles on the play structure. She does the same thing with the third bottle.
Evie grabs the last bottle from the windowsill and climbs down off the bench. She almost knocks some items out of the basket, but she stops to set them right. She walks over to the play structure and sets the bottle with the others.
She claps for herself and walks away.
Example 4
Text on screen: Uses previously learned strategies in familiar situations to solve problems
On screen: 34-month-old Theresa holds her coat as she walks toward her caregiver.
Caregiver 2: You can hang this over on the hook by the door.
On screen: Theresa walks across the room to a coatrack. She tries to hang her coat on a hook that already holds a backpack. The fabric doesn’t catch on the hook. She moves her coat to an empty hook and tries again. This time, she folds the fabric over the hook and presses firmly. She lets go. Her coat stays on the hook.