"What color would you like fill in that truck?" You ask hopefully. Your child bypasses their primary colors like they don't exists and reaches for black. Or orange. Or pink. Or a fist full of all three and fills in the truck, looking askance at you.
QUESTION:
1. Why didn't they go for the obvious color?
2. Question 2: Why are they looking at you (or not) for a reaction?
Question two is much more important to us, and helps us trace back to the reason why your young learner, despite having an excellent recall of their colors, deliberately chose the opposite.
1. I WISH YOU KNEW...
That when I say "I don't know" or "please tell me again", I think you're annoyed with me. But sometimes I really, really don't know the answers.
2. Your ability to focus your attention, remember instructions, and control impulses comes from your excecutive function skills that have been developed over time. And guess who doesn't yet have these skills? Your Little Learner.
Try and picture it like a canyon. On one side is your toddler’s impulse to color on the walls becuase hey, it's fun. On the other side of the canyon is the ability to control that impulse because mom said they shouldn’t color on the walls, and your Litle Learner really would rather not see that look she gets on her face when they do something they've been told not to do.
How many times do we have to tell our toddlers? The answer is over and over (and over) again. For a toddler brain to learn, they need that repetition. So keep reminding and comforting and guiding your Little Learner because every single experience is building that bridge.