Treasure Basket Explorations: Heuristic Learning for Infants and Toddlers

For the littlest learners, everything is an activity--feeling a rock, trying to lick a bubble, smelling a flower, or poking sand. In Treasure-Basket Explorations: Heuristic Learning for Infants and Toddlers, teachers and caregivers of infants and toddlers will learn how these simple explorations support cognitive and vocabulary development. Grounded in the theory of early education pioneer Elinor Goldschmied, the book explains heuristic learning (discovery by trial and error) and how to encourage this type of learning to boost development.

Teachers will learn how to set up treasure baskets that encourage heuristic play: containers filled with easy-to-find items that support explorations in emergent language, math, and science skills. Encourage children to discover the sounds that a metal cup makes when banged on the floor. Invite them to feel the velvety texture of soft fabric or the bumpiness of a loofah sponge. Let them explore what a wooden ring and a cotton handkerchief can do together.

Through his explorations, the child is answering some fundamental questions: What is this and what can I do with it? Later, he will add to his knowledge: What else can this do and what can this become? This is cognitive development in action!

Laura Wilhelm, EdD, is an assistant professor of early childhood education in the department of curriculum and instruction at the University of Central Oklahoma. Over the past twenty years, she has worked in many different urban and suburban schools as both an early childhood educator and elementary school teacher.