Heuristic play: How toddlers learn through discovery
Babies ask: what is this like? Toddlers ask: what does this do? This subtle shift opens up the world to exploration.
This crown is a fake! It's not made of real gold! But how can I prove it?
Send for Archimedes!
The Greek mathematician and philosopher sank lower into his bath and pondered the king's question.
And as he did so, he noticed the water level rise.
Eureka! he cried. And leapt out.
And, depending on which version of the story you believe, he ran naked down the street to proclaim his discovery to the world.
Two thousand years later, 'eureka', the Greek word for 'I found it!' has given us 'heuristic', meaning an efficient problem-solving strategy.
What is heuristic play?
Heuristic play is:
- Play with real, everyday objects
- Using problem-solving and trial and error
- By toddlers
- Without adult supervision
- To find out how things work
So heuristic play is discovery play. It's the play of finding out.
Archimedes had a question. He answered it by testing and noticing – just like your toddler.
1. Babies: What is it like? Sensory exploration through mouthing and banging
2. Toddlers: What does it do? Heuristic play - endless posting, filling, emptying
3. Preschoolers: What can it become? Symbolic play - objects transform into anything
Trust the process. The mess is the method.
Treasure baskets: "What is it like?"
Before your child can work out what things do, she must first be familiar with the materials that make them up.
From 6 - 12 months, a treasure basket is the perfect introduction to this kind of sensory play. Gather a range of child-safe materials, offering a range of tastes, textures and smells and leave your baby to explore. She will mouth and grasp, bash and drop, shake, poke and roll. She is in search of new experiences so keep it fun and fresh. Familiar materials are soon forgotten.
By the time the toddler years come around, she will know all there is to know about the taste of metal and wood and fabric. Her hands will be strong and dextrous, her limbs under full control.
She is ready for deeper learning. It's time for heuristic play.
At home with Sophia
Sophia discovers the wooden spoons this morning.
Not the plastic ones from her toy kitchen, but the real ones from the drawer. Her mother has left them on the kitchen table while she bakes, and Sophia is captivated.
She picks up the first spoon, examines it carefully, then bangs it on the table. The sound is satisfying - deeper and richer than her plastic toys. She tries the second spoon. Different wood, slightly different tone.
Now she holds both spoons and brings them together. Clack. She repeats the action, listening intently.
Her mother watches, resisting every instinct to suggest "better" ways to use the spoons.
Here's the trick with heuristic play: your role is to work out where your child is going with her investigations. What's the logical next step? What will grab her attention?
Without interrupting the play, place a metal spoon next to the wooden ones and walk away. Did that work? Did it extend the fun? If so, what next? A second metal spoon or a plastic one? Or a different utensil entirely? Balloon whisks make a soft, sleigh-bell jingle. If she was exploring sound, it could be the perfect addition.
But what if her interest was in striking. In that case, you should offer something to hit: a clanging steel pan, a crackling yoghurt pot or a box of Rice Crispies that hisses like a snare drum.
In later years, crayon in hand, the downward swing of the hammering arm becomes the descender of tall letters like 'd' and 'h'.
It's a long journey, and each child takes a different route, but heuristic play makes sure we cover the bases in a fun and pressure-free way, one skill at a time.
Developmental psychologist Jean Piaget demonstrated that abstract thinking emerges from physical manipulation of objects. Children who engage extensively in hands-on investigation develop stronger mathematical and scientific reasoning abilities than those who learn through verbal instruction alone.
You are a play curator
The most powerful heuristic materials aren't toys - they're real objects that offer genuine feedback. But the magic lies not in the objects themselves, but in how you select and present them.
When you put a collection of objects on a tray, your child asks herself: what do these things have in common?
You can 'teach' the idea of twisting and untwisting simply by presenting a tray of bottles with tops and jars with lids. In subtly different ways, they can all be opened with an anti-clockwise rotation.
And, again, years down the line, that anti-clockwise turn becomes the basis of a whole family of letters: c, o, d, a and g.
But don't worry to much about the end game. We're here to have fun.
Offer a variety of interesting experiences and you'll do just fine.
Let's take a look at the kinds of heuristic play that you can get started with today.
