Tips on how to use this exercise at home and at school.
Early math concepts
The child already understands the task when the instruction corresponds to the solution ("there should be more pictures in the blue box than in the red box", so they add more pictures to meet the condition). Now they are required to understand the same situation, but the assignment conditions change. One group is "locked". If they can't add in the blue box, have to subtract the pictures in the red box. In this exercise, they work with several objects up to 10.
Why is this exercise important?
This exercise promotes a deep understanding of the principle of reversibility or its validation in diagnostics. The child is confronted with the need to understand a linguistic instruction which, however, does not correspond to the solution offered first. They must understand the problem. The child will encounter this later with word problems. E.g. Adam has a few candies, and that's more than Dan. How do you make it so Adam has less candy, but you can't move his candy? The child has to resist the initial reasoning (give Adam less) think the task through more and discover a possible solution by reversing the operation.
Who is the exercise suitable for?
This exercise generally belongs in preschool or early school play. In addition to number concepts and reasoning assumptions, it also develops language skills at the same time. They learn to understand the instructions and to understand the mathematical problem to be solved, which are two different things.
Methodological recommendations
You can proceed to the exercise when you are sure that the child understands the relationships more/less and can use them.
The child may not understand at the first moment that the assignment has changed and will perform the task regardless of the locked group. In that case, we allow him/her to listen to the instruction again.
Invite the child to think aloud. This makes it easier for the child to discover the apparent 'contradiction' between the instruction and the solution to the problem.
If the contradiction is not discovered on its own, we ask: How else could you have completed the task? How is it different?
Tips for similar activities outside the app
You can practice the higher and lower relationship on the stairs: You are standing higher than me. I would like you to stand lower than me. But you're not allowed to move. How do we solve the problem?
I have a taller block structure than you. I want you to be taller than me. But you can't move your building. So what do we do to make your building taller than mine?
