Our son surprises us with what he is capable of time and time again. He is almost 1 and a half years old and he has one of those toys where you press a button and it plays a story. It’s in Korean and I like the “빨간 모자” (Little Red Riding Hood) story so I set it up to play this one when he plays with it.
Anyway, we were sitting on the bed and he had a towel over his head and I mentioned he looks like Little Red Riding Hood, and then his mom started telling the beginning of the story. He went down from the bed and left the room, we assumed that it was too boring with us.
But shortly after he came back with the previously mentioned toy and told us to turn it on so he could listen to the story.
When they’re so small you always wonder what they understand and what not. Here he not only understood the story, but remembered that this specific toy is telling the same story and he remembered where he put it and brought it and made himself clear he want’s us to turn on this story. Does that count as partially abstract thinking?
I don’t know what it counts as, but it’s certainly evident that he’s listening and can understand quite a bit!