A Child’s World of Cause and Effect

From the very beginning of his education, the child should experience the joy of discovery.—Alfred North Whitehead

Children are naturally curious and continually engage in exploration and play. They are intrigued by cause-and-effect phenomena and delight in being surprised. Cause and effect simply refers to the relationship between an action and its outcome. For example, if a child pushes a certain button on a toy, she may hear a “moo” sound; or if a child drops a ball off a high chair, it may bounce. Piaget (1952) theorized that children learn through play when they can cause things to happen or change. Through their exploration and play, children are intrigued by the incongruous events that they experience (Rogers & Sawyers, 1992). Play enhances learning and development for children of all ages and cultures. The Association for Childhood Education International, in their position statement about play, states that “play is a powerful, natural behavior contributing to children’s learning and development and that no program of adult instruction can substitute for children’s own observations, activities and direct knowledge” (Isenberg & Quisenberry, 2002).

Early in development, before most children are 2 years of age, their curiosity expands beyond basic needs. They begin to understand that they can have interesting experiences with basic toys. They are learning about cause and effect, or means and ends, when they can cause a ball to roll simply by placing it somewhere on a slanted surface. They find that they can shake a rattle and hear sounds. Pushing a yellow button on a toy causes a song to be heard. Pushing a blue button causes the sound of a bird chirping or a dog barking. Toys can activate the senses, and children learn that they can “test” toys to see what sensations and observations they can create. Through their exploration, experimentation, and play, children learn that they can cause things to change or happen. This is the beginning of their understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. Observation becomes the tool for understanding relationships, making predictions, and figuring out why things happen. They learn to cause situations so that related events can be observed and enjoyed. Similarly, young children will pull at a mobile to cause it to chime or play music. They will push a roly-poly penguin off their high chair to see and hear it fall. They squeeze their teddy bears to create sounds. As they repeat these actions, young children begin to remember and learn how to make interesting things happen and last (Piaget, 1952). They also may initiate interactions with others to get attention and receive stimulation or look away to discourage interactions. These experiences are examples of how a young child builds memory of the impressions and experiences in life.