Not so silly childrens' game
Last weekend has been busy for me - I had a guest over from Norway, who joined me and my boyfriend to a big music festival. Thus, no long entry, but I wanted to comment on a conversation we had.
For some reason, our houseguest - let's call him Sugar just to annoy him - came to the topic of Peek-a-boo. He was essentially commenting that it was the stupidest thing. After all, wouldn't you be majorly freaked out if someone came up to you, hid their face behind their hands and then took their hands away shouting "Peek-a-boo!"? I have to admit, I would be.
The thing is, I'm a bit older than the children I'd play peek-a-boo with. Peek-a-boo is pretty much designed as a training in object permanence, and if you make it to 23 (well, almost) without getting THAT down, you have a problem.
Object permanence refers to the fact that just because you can't see something, that doesn't mean it's not there. That might seem obvious, but it's not when you're brandnew at life. As it turns out, babies younger than 6 months have no clue about it. If you hide their favorite toy under a napkin, they'll think it's just gone. After that they slowly start grasping that, hey, their toy didn't just disappear. You're just an ass who keep hiding it from them and they can take it back! It'll be a bit tenuous for a while - they'll be confused if you hide it somewhere else than they're used to and look in the original hiding spot - but at about 9 months they usually know how it works.
The thing is, that this doesn't just go for their favorite toy. It goes for everything, including people. Mommy hiding her face, and then reappearing, teaches them that mommy, too, will not disappear if she's out of sight for a while.
So, play peek-a-boo with your kids a lot. And enjoy the fact that they like the fact you don't go away. It won't last that long.
For some reason, our houseguest - let's call him Sugar just to annoy him - came to the topic of Peek-a-boo. He was essentially commenting that it was the stupidest thing. After all, wouldn't you be majorly freaked out if someone came up to you, hid their face behind their hands and then took their hands away shouting "Peek-a-boo!"? I have to admit, I would be.
The thing is, I'm a bit older than the children I'd play peek-a-boo with. Peek-a-boo is pretty much designed as a training in object permanence, and if you make it to 23 (well, almost) without getting THAT down, you have a problem.
Object permanence refers to the fact that just because you can't see something, that doesn't mean it's not there. That might seem obvious, but it's not when you're brandnew at life. As it turns out, babies younger than 6 months have no clue about it. If you hide their favorite toy under a napkin, they'll think it's just gone. After that they slowly start grasping that, hey, their toy didn't just disappear. You're just an ass who keep hiding it from them and they can take it back! It'll be a bit tenuous for a while - they'll be confused if you hide it somewhere else than they're used to and look in the original hiding spot - but at about 9 months they usually know how it works.
The thing is, that this doesn't just go for their favorite toy. It goes for everything, including people. Mommy hiding her face, and then reappearing, teaches them that mommy, too, will not disappear if she's out of sight for a while.
So, play peek-a-boo with your kids a lot. And enjoy the fact that they like the fact you don't go away. It won't last that long.
posted by Geerte at 1:40 PM
2 Comments:
I never thought of it that way before. I'll never look at peek-a-boo in the same light again :)
*looks around and waves*
Just found you via my incoming links list. :) So far it looks very interesting. Eyebrows mentioned to me that you might/might not be really ready for this to go fully "live" yet--just let me know when you are and I'll plug it in my blog and add it to my links list there.
Post a Comment
<< Home