The other day we were going through our favourite past time! Seeing our old snaps in the slide show on TV!
It is always fun to see how you used to look and most of the time when you see old snaps you would be amazed at the changes in yourself and others!
I am of course telling about the external changes!
One video was of us playing “peek-a-boo” with my son!
Apparently the game “peek-a-boo” is actually a very impactful game!
The game is linked to a phenomenon called the Object permanence!
Object permanence describes a child’s ability to know that objects continue to exist even though they can no longer be seen or heard. If you have ever played a game of “peek-a-boo” with a very young child, then you probably understand how this works.
When an object is hidden from sight, such as by covering it with a blanket or another object for example, infants under a certain age often become upset that the item has vanished!
This is because they are too young to understand that the object continues to exist even though it cannot be seen.
Now most children if they are young would not know that the object is still there! They would assume that the object has gone!
In a study to see if object permanence was present, researchers would show a toy to an infant before hiding it or taking it away. In one version of the experiment, researchers would hide a toy under a blanket, then observe to see if the infant would search for the object.
Some of the infants would appear confused or upset by the loss while other infants would instead look for the object. The researchers believed that the children who were upset that the toy was gone lacked the understanding of object permanence, while those who searched for the toy had reached this developmental milestone! Which meant that the child had grown!
One consequence of the development of object permanence is the emergence of separation anxiety. Once infants know that objects and people persist when they are no longer in sight, they often become upset when parents and caretakers are no longer visible!
Which is why when you say “peek-a-boo” and ‘appear’ and ‘disappearing’ then most of the time your child feels happy (he or she has to be your child and/or you must be familiar to the child or at least pleasant looking by the way!)! This reinforces the belief that you may go for a moment but you will always come back!
That’s a beautiful thing to know!
Ending a colourful day with a splash of colour!
Shubh ratri!
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