Before Johnny had reached his second birthday, he could say the name of

his favorite toy.  When he would make the sound ball, he would emotionally

recall the image of his ball.  One day his mom brought home a bigger toy ball,

and she also called it a ball.  Confusion could be seen on the face of the child

as he wondered why his mom would call both toys by the same name.  This prompted

little John to begin a uniquely human action—he started to think.

      When he looked at the smaller ball in his hand, he emotionally recalled

the sound ball, and the same thing happened when he looked at the bigger ball on

the floor.  The balls were the same shape and color, and at the right distance

from each other, they appeared to be the same size.  Also, with the balls along

side each other, Johnny began to focus on the similar shapes of the two balls as

compared to his other toys.  His mental images of the balls were identical,

except for their sizes. 

      He noticed that if he disregarded the size of each ball, he could

understand why his mother called them both ball.  Now when he made the sound

ball, instead of the image of his favorite toy coming to mind, he recalled this

new mental image that he had created of the basic shape of both balls.  This new

image is called a thought and the sound is called a word. 

      Then his parents began saying big and little.  This prompted our little

thinker to take another mental step.  He used these words to describe the size

difference between the two balls.  This valuable thought process will allow John

to understand and describe anything he experiences in life.