Young children's concepts of shape

We investigated criteria preschool children use to distinguish members of a class of shapes from other figures. We conducted individual clinical interviews of 97 children ages 3 to 6, emphasizing identification and descriptions of shapes and reasons for these identifications. We found that young children initially form schemas on the basis of feature analysis of visual forms. While these schemas are developing, children continue to rely primarily on visual matching to distinguish shapes. They are, however, also capable of recognizing components and simple properties of familiar shapes. Thus, evidence supports previous claims (Clements & Battista, 1992b) that a prerecognitive level exists before van Hiele Level 1 ("visual level") and that Level 1 should be reconceptualized as syncretic (i.e., a synthesis of verbal declarative and imagistic knowledge, each interacting with the other) instead of visual (Clements, 1992).