Children’s formation and representations of money-related thinking in graphical complexes: Compound relation operations and creative high-order thinking

• The children undertook creative relation operations in forming and representing thinking in graphical complexes.
• The relation operations included attribute representation, grouping, ordering, counting, partitioning/complementing, measurement-unit self-defining, object extending, value correspondence, purchasing power storage, and play-objects manipulating.
• Children may undertake relation operations sequentially in the form of a compound relation operation in generating higher-order thinking and linguistic productions.
• An extensive form of thinking formation by sequential relation operations was proposed for enhancing children's formation of higher-order thinking and linguistic productions.

Money has been explored frequently from adults' diversified perspectives. The study investigated qualitatively children's formation and representations of money-related thinking and concepts with the aid of drawing and languages. The subjects included 135 girls and 165 boys of ages from four to eight, recruited from the City of Tainan, Taiwan. The children were found to understand money from the perspective of physical exchange media and undertook creative relation operations on the graphical monetary and nonmonetary objects produced in their drawings in forming and representing thinking in graphical complexes. The relation operations included attribute representation, grouping, ordering, counting, partitioning/complementing, measurement-unit self-defining, object extending, value correspondence, purchasing power storage, and play-objects manipulating. Relation operations may be undertaken by children sequentially in the form of a compound relation operation and pave the way for children's formation of higher-order thinking and linguistic productions. The data suggested that the children's strategic formation of compound relation operations and creative high-order thinking may be characterized by the three sequential relation operation strategies of undertaking attribute representation as the initial relation operation, undertaking numeric relation operations on monetary complexes, and undertaking goal-oriented relation operations to link monetary complexes to nonmonetary complexes. An extensive form of thinking formation by sequential relation operations was proposed in the study to illustrate how children's formation of higher-order thinking and linguistic productions may be enhanced through sequential relation operations in the form of a compound relation in drawing activities.