Technical School
Closed Sets and Open Sets
When children first begin to listen and understand spoken language, they go through a number of stages before they understand a word automatically (without having to consciously think about it). To help them learn to understand words, we use the concept of closed and open sets.
Closed Set: When we limit the number of choices a child has to choose from, when he is engaged in a task of understanding the meaning of a sound or a word, or discriminating a sound or word from others, we are using closed sets. The set size is the number of choices the child actually has. For example, when practicing a discrimination task, if you have four objects in front of the child, then you are using a closed set size of four. Typically, when children can pick out an object out of ten items, they are usually able to understand the name of the object without having any situational clues.
Open Set: In an open set, we are still giving the child some clue, but the set size is so large that it is not really ‘closed’ as above, and the items are not within the child’s sight. For example, you might say “Let’s get your shoes. It's time to go outside!” The shoes may be in another room, but if the child understands ‘outside’ then he knows you are talking about something associated with going outside. When he truly understands the word ‘shoes’ you could say it without any context whatsoever, and he would go and get the shoes.
Thus, on the road to comprehension of spoken language, a child follows the path of learning first in closed sets, then in open sets before finally developing true comprehension.