At 3 Years Old, How Much Does a Child Really Understand?

At 3 years old, how much does a child really understand? A few instructions? A few words? Anything? We were determined to find out why my kid could look me dead in the eye and do exactly what I just told him not to do 10 seconds ago. And it wasn't the look of defiance. It was the look of a boy who had, genuinely, already lost the instruction somewhere between his ears and his feet. This is where I first discovered "Working Memory" and the auditory buffer known as the phonological loop (Cockcroft, 2015).

The 2-second window

To avoid boring you with the details, it explains how a child can remember an instruction for between 1.5 and 2 seconds before it decays and vanishes because of their underdeveloped Articulatory Rehearsal System aka, "Inner Voice." This is the missing piece that allows humans to silently "loop" or repeat words in our heads, so instructions do not fade and can be followed. Here's the kicker: that inner voice doesn't reliably arrive until around age 7. So for the first seven years, every instruction we give our kids is racing a 2-second clock. Suddenly the shoes-still-not-on situation made a lot more sense.

So what about the stories?

We set out to ask that same question about his reading. "It's great that we built this app to support his reading, values, and EQ development, but how much does he actually understand?" And this is where "Pip's Wonders" came from - our in-app comprehension tool. It works as an aid for us as parents and as a reminder for our child. Pip pops up at just the right moment in the story with a gentle question - nothing heavy, no scores, no pressure - and leaves us with the conversation starters we would never think of on our own at the end. Through Pip's Wonders and Pip's Suggestions, we are supported in the cultivation of his Executive Functioning (EF) development (Dr. Kelly Cartwright, 2012). Through conversational prompting and questions that put his working memory to work, Roman is reminded to immerse himself in the story and retain not just the story's context for answering questions, but also the underlying message/lesson.

The vegetables principle

If you're anything like me, the theory of it is fascinating and boring at the same time. Unfortunately, my child is like me. His first experience of it… boredom, distraction, unengaged. But like many other things he hates, i.e., vegetables, 1. he grew to love it over time, and 2. it has been good for him. He is immersed. He is showing an aptitude for story recall and a genuine interest and curiosity in what has happened in the story, and "What happens next?" He is only 4. I am not claiming a miracle here. I am claiming a habit. And with kids, the habit is the miracle. One thing I would say, though: quiz-time and bedtime - they're not conducive. And that is why we have built the app to automatically turn off the comprehension tools for bedtime (aka, after 6:30pm) so parents can focus on the wind-down and the parent-child connection. Some moments in a story are for wondering. The last one of the day is just for being together.