Data representation in early childhood: how to raise future data analysts!

Embrace young children’s natural curiosity

Children are naturally curious. We can model and nourish their curiosity by asking open-ended questions. We can also encourage them to pose their own questions, questions, questions that often come out only of a young child’s brain.

During a unit about color, one of my young students started walking around with a clipboard from the dramatic play area, asking her peers “What is your favorite color: blue, red, or rainbow?”

This question would come as no surprise to Mme Rigolotte—her favorite color is rainbow—but would else have come up with such an option?

“What superpower would you like to have?” or“What dinosaur would you like to be?” are other examples that can easily be tied to data analysis.

When the questions come from young children, the subsequent discussion becomes more meaningful.

Notice their noticings

Aligned with curiosity comes noticing, and buttons, as introduced in an earlier post, are a fun way to engage young children and follow their thinking.

“Buttons! How could we use them today?”

As they engage in sorting, young children begin to see categories—key elements in collecting and representing data.

As they play, young children may group stuffed animals by size or organize Lego® blocks by color, and one can learn so much by following their thinking. When Rosie was little, she had a box for Legos ® and a box for Playmobil® that were always mixed up—until I realized that her way of sorting was “Fairy stuff” vs. “not Fairy stuff” : )

Gently introduce the next step

Once children become comfortable collecting data, they can move to the next step, and start organizing their findings visually—using themselves or real objects, drawings or other visual representations. What matters most is that the representation is meaningful to the children and rooted in their experience.

Young children can be part of the graph, place their own photo or name card under a category; they can build towers with one block per response; they can use tally marks on a large poster. And as always, the purpose matters: “What are we trying to find out?”

Once young children are introduced to graphs, more and more questions will arise. One thing our caring Mme Rigolotte would like you to keep in mind is to be thoughtful about the questions posed, as some may unintentionally highlight disparities or create discomfort. For example, asking, “How do we come to school?” might reveal socioeconomic differences. “Who is the tallest?” could lead to comparisons or feelings of exclusion. Young children may naturally gravitate towards more to questions like, “What fairy would you be?” though : )

A Few Concluding Thoughts

Just as we count to ensure we have enough forks to set the table, or measure to see how big we are compared to a dinosaur, we collect data to answer questions.

Hence, data representation in early childhood involves noticing and comparing the items that make up our world, helping children organize their thoughts, test their ideas, and communicate what they observe. 

So the next time you spot a row of wet boots by a door, pause and wonder—what questions might a child ask, and what stories could that data tell?

With a bit of guidance from Mme Rigolotte, everyone can view our daily life as an opportunity to nurture the next generation of data scientists. Even if they do not grow up to be scientists by profession, they will grow up in a world filled with charts, graphs, and data stories. Helping them build early data sense gives them the tools to navigate and understand the information that shapes our lives.