Teaching very young children the symbolic function of a map

PERALTA, O. Y MAITA, M.

Boston, EEUU

Congreso; Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development; 2007

Society for Research in Child Development

To use a map effectively it is necessary, first of all, to understand its symbolic function. The two studies presented here analyze the role that instruction plays in the symbolic understaning of maps. The studies employed a version of DeLoache‘s (1987) model task, where children have to use a map in order to find a toy in a small space. Study 1 compared the performance of  2.5 and 3 year-old children with explicit instruction. Study 2 examined at which age children are capable of understanding the symbolic function of a map completely on there own, that is, with no instruction at all. Results show that 2.5-years-old children successfully retrieved the toy only 12% of the time. This percentage reveals that this age children are not capable of appreciating the map-room relation in spite of the explicit instructions received. On the other hand, 3-years-old children successfully found the toy 68% of the trials; although most of these children did not succeed on the first search, they achieved representational insight after being explicitly taught how to use the map. With respect to 3.5-years-olds’ performance, the 71% achieved with no instruction shows that they were able to figure out completely on their own the map-room relation. This research provides evidence that 3 year-old-children are just one step before reaching symbolic understanding of a simple map. Instruction about the object correspondences and the intended function of the symbol is not enough, what they need is tutoring.  The comprehension of maps, and probably of other symbolic artifacts, is not solely dependent on age, scaffolding is also crucial at some points in development.