Ethonography: The Kids of YouTube

Jean Piaget described children’s development as being separated into four different categories: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete-operational, and formal-operational . Each stage of development is characterized by certain ways of interacting with the world. Check out this link for more info: Child Development Theory.

Sensorimotor (ages 0 – 2 1/2) children become absorbed with every new object they discover. They experience these objects through touch often gumming or chewing to better understand them. Their view of the world is very focused and narrow–often compared to seeing the world in the cone of a flashlight’s projection.

Pre-operational children (ages 2 1/2 – 7) begin to understand the way the objects they come in contact with fit within the world. They can connect linear memories with one another to establish rules for play. Through play they identify new relationships, but tend to be quite ego-centric when interacting with other people. Pre-operational children have a difficult time understanding the more abstract properties of objects such as mass and volume.

The video below shows these two stages of learning. Watch the young tactile children as they experience the world through touch. Watch them become instantly absorbed with whatever they find along the way. The second half of the video shows slightly older children engaging in more complicated forms of play. They play pretend, communicate freely with other children, understand toys as tools and live within their own spotlights.

The video below shows the inability of pre-operational children to distinguish size from the more qualitative properties of an object. They can be easily fooled by simply modifying the way a problem is presented.

Concrete-operational (ages 7 – 12) children have a greater ability to think abstractly. They can make connections between many memories in a non-linear way. They continue to form more complex relationships with the outside world. To highlight the differences between the pre-operational and concrete-operational I’ve juxtaposed two videos of different aged children playing guitar. The important thing to note is not the skill level but the equal sense of immersion and enjoyment despite the different understandings of the tool in hand.

The video below shows that concrete operational children have a a much greater ability to follow rules of deduction.

Finally, formal-operational children (ages 12 and up) have a firm grasp of abstract logic and begin to test their theories out in the world. They push the boundaries of their environments to reaffirm their theories. They are interested in understanding their identity in the world. Simply put, they are teenagers figuring out how they fit into the world. The video below highlights formal-operational children discussing an abstract theory and how it relates to their own existence within the world.

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Published:
10.18.07 / 10pm
Category:
Dust or Magic, Fall 2007, ITP
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