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DR 2: Children are effective learners
⇣ Indicator: LRN—Children show interest, motivation, and persistence in their approaches to learning
⇣ Measure 20: Curiosity and Initiative—
Child pursues knowledge or understanding of new materials or activities
	Descriptors	Examples
8	Carries out a plan to test a hypothesis, thought, or idea	Child wants to know if the class hamster likes to eat apples so tries to feed the hamster some apple slices. While filling the sandbox with water to watch things float, says “Look what happens when I do this.” Digs trenches in the sand to watch water flow through.
7	Uses a variety of strategies to obtain additional information related to activities of interest	After a trip to a fire station, asks adult about things she saw and looks at a book about fire trucks. After a nature walk, child asks for books about bugs or looks at a bug specimen with a magnifying glass.
6	Puts materials or objects together in new ways to learn what will result or to create something	Combines bristle blocks and LEGOTM blocks to make a structure. Puts confetti and water together to see what will happen. Creates different colors by mixing color combinations, like blue and yellow or red and blue. Uses an egg beater in water and then in sand to see what will happen.
5	Expresses interest in new activities or materials by watching intently or by asking questions	Watches an adult and peers building a road in the wet sand and might ask, “What are you doing?” Asks about new toys in the water table, “What’s that? What do you do with that?” (May use a communication device.) Uses new materials in ways he has seen adult use them.
4	Performs simple actions in the environment to experiment with how things work	Watches sand go through fingers. Rolls things down the slide to see which one goes down faster. Sees how hard she has to roll the car to make it go across the room.
3	Actively explores things in the environment	Touches objects. Bangs objects. Manipulates objects.
2	Notices new people, objects, or sounds	Looks, turns head, or reaches in the direction of a new adult or material.
1	Orients to things in the environment	Turns head toward sound. Orients to light. “Inspects” surroundings.

Measure 20 — LRN 1

Curiosity and Initiative

Child pursues knowledge or understanding of new materials or activities

Infants and young children are active participants in their own learning and development. They are innately curious and disposed to know about the world around them. Infants and young children are eager to explore, interact with, make sense of, and gain mastery over their physical and social environments. Their curiosity and initiative is reflected in their persistence in exploring the unique or novel features of their environments and their active interest in learning more about how things work.

Infants show interest in the world around them through their earliest and simplest behaviors. Very young infants scan their environments and orient toward sights and sounds that attract their attention. Infants notice unfamiliar people, objects, or sounds and often react with special interest to new or unexpected things or events. During the latter part of the first year of life, infants display curiosity by actively seeking experiences with objects or people and exploring their features. For example, they explore objects by repeatedly banging, mouthing, and shaking them. Through this kind of exploratory play, infants discover and learn about the special properties of objects (by rolling them or making noise with them) and the effects of their own actions. Near the end of their first year of life, infants take the initiative to practice or repeat actions that lead to interesting outcomes, such as pushing buttons on an activity box or pressing a switch to activate a toy.

Toddlers’ increased mobility and growing language and cognitive skills enable them to exercise their curiosity and initiative in ways that are increasingly more purposeful and inventive. They take pleasure in achieving goals, such as reaching a toy on a high shelf or making a playdough snake. They also persist for short periods of time to solve simple problems, for example, hooking together the engine and cars of a train. They experiment with a variety of simple, deliberate actions to learn about how things work. In addition, they are curious about peers and adults, and they actively seek social interactions.

Young preschoolers express interest in new activities or materials by intently watching what other children or adults are doing and by asking questions about how things work or how something is done. Preschoolers also actively experiment with novel or familiar objects or materials by putting things together or using things in new ways to see what will happen. For example, a child might try pushing his toy car down a slide to see if it will go fast.

Older preschoolers actively seek information about the objects, events, or people they are curious about. They often do this by asking many questions, trying out new ways to learn about things (using a new tool like a magnifying glass, for example), or seeking information in books. They can think about simple hypotheses and take the initiative to test these hypotheses. For example, a child might put ice cubes in a bowl and set it on a windowsill to see if the cubes melt in the sun.

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