ABSTRACT
Dov (aged four) arrives at the playgroup and hangs his coat on his peg. He then goes over to the book corner and spends about 20 minutes sorting out the books in one of the book boxes. An adult (who has decided to observe Dov for that morning) notices that he is making piles of books of the same size. Satisfied with that he goes over to the junk modelling area and sorts out some things he wants to use. He selects an empty box and a yoghurt carton, together with some brightly coloured wrapping paper. He spends the next hour or so attempting to wrap up his chosen boxes. He manages to wrap the box by placing it in the centre of a large piece of paper and folding the paper so that the entire box is hidden. He fastens the paper down using sellotape. The yoghurt carton causes him more difficulty. He attempts to cover it in the same way as the box, but the shape is difficult for him to manage. The worker notices that he keeps picking up the yoghurt carton and examining it and each time he does this he cuts the wrapping paper. Observing that he will not be successful in this chosen task the worker offers him help, which he accepts. Happy with his wrapped boxes he joins three girls in the construction area and watches what they are doing. He then carefully selects some blocks and proceeds to build a wall. In doing this the worker notices that he starts off using blocks of the same length, but when he runs out of those on the second layer of his wall he resorts to using two smaller blocks which are equivalent to one large block. At tidying up time he joins the girls in carefully stacking the blocks in the correct place. The stencils of the shapes of the blocks placed on the shelves help him to match them. In his story group he happily joins in with the songs and the worker notices that when they are singing counting songs Dov is using his fingers to count on. It is Dov’s turn to set the tables for lunch and he is very efficient at setting the table for five children and one adult.
