On Algorithms and Children
Monday, January 5th, 2009I hugely enjoy watching our children as they play trying to understand their mind a bit better. One thing that is absolutely certain is that small children do not think in any way as teenagers or grown-ups. They have a unique way of solving problems and analyzing situations that is just beyond parent comprehension. I have taken a stab at it nonetheless.
Taking my three year old daughter, Liv, my first observation is that she thinks very much in patterns. One example of this came today as she was drawing a bit. It was immediately obvious to me that she was following a very strict algorithm. I shall present it in full.
1. Draw a line. For a general three year old this will look something like:
2. Continue the line until you accidentally (or intentionally?) create a loop. If you don’t create a loop go back to 1.
3. Start filling the loop (making it to some measure “opaque”) by drawing small loops inside it. These small loops will at times spill outside the loop they are supposed to fill. In these cases you must also fill the new loop.
4. End or go to 1.
The end result of the above example could be:
Real World Examples
Liv drew the following today. I can’t help to find some fractal beauty behind it… Or maybe I am bit biased 
When Liv left the drawing her little brother Lauge was eager to “help” her finish the details… A true Connaisseur d’Art may notice the subtle change in brush handling. Lauge is 1½ years old.
This concludes my thesis on algorithms and children. Thanks for reading.
