A Review of Bruner and Sherwood's Study of Peek-a-Boo

As children grow, they change in different stages in the development process. Some of the changes reflected in milestones are: the way they think, interact, and behave. This article of interest, explains the various aspects of children’s concepts, language, perception and memory, and how they are effectively applied. It also emphasizes the cognitive elements of perception and attention that enable children to develop conscious thought and how it processes information. With detailed and analytical evidence, this article can be used as a guide for parents, and those who are interested in child development; particularly, the stages between infancy and youth. Once you have read this article, you will have a better understanding of the platform and stages of child

In the pediatrician’s office that I work, there is a playroom for the children of parents that came to bring a sibling to the office. I work there at this playroom taking care of the children in this playroom. I often observe how the parents, usually the mother, interact with their children, and also how the children act when the mother needs to leave the room and when they come back. It was not until this week that I was able to name the interactions and to understand what is behind the children reactions. This week, in my developmental psychology class I learned about an experiment developed by Mary Ainsworth called ‘Strange Situation’ (Belsky, 2013, p. 115). In this experiment, a mother and a child enters a play room like the one that I work, and after the child is playing with the toys, a stranger comes in and interact with the child; after a while the mother leaves the room, the same way the mothers at the pediatrician’s office leave the playroom; after some minutes the mother returns and the stranger leaves the room; a couple of minutes after the child is situated again and playing, the mother leaves again leaving the child alone, and returns after another couple of minutes (Belsky, 2013, p. 115). While the researchers observed the children, their interaction with their mothers, and their reactions to the situations through a one-way mirror (Belsky, 2013, p. 115), I observed as the stranger that is in the room interacting with the child.

“This study was based upon the principal of reinforcement. The purpose of the study was to define observable terminal behavior, the use of descriptive adjectives during play; defining an observable terminal behavior, devising a method to record and measure important categories of spontaneous verbal behavior and manipulating the consequences of the children’s use of language, the presentation of social reinforcement and access to materials contingent upon a specific form of verbal behavior”. (Hart & Risley, 1968).

o our lives are affected not only by our individual characteristics, but by our place in the social world.

The reasons for behavior during and after the session can be inferred from the patterns and objects of play. Dibs was particularly interested in playing with the sandbox and the doll house. From his play, it is sensible to deduce that rejection and ignorance of parents deeply hurt Dibs and induce his maladaptive response. On the other hand, Dibs’ play and behaviors in playroom clearly reveals his superior intellectual capacity, which contradicts greatly with his overt presenting problems in daily functioning at home or

This type of growth is important as it helps the child grow and provides a purpose for the child. Another benefit is that this toy will encourage solitary and active play, types of social patterns and play, which is vital for child’s development. This toy supports skill development through maturation as children will learn how to play with this toy as they mature cognitively. According to Piaget’s idea of schemas which are created by assimilation and accommodation, the schema for the child in the preoperational stage will be that they will think that two different shapes of the same colour would both fit into the same cut-out hole in the box, when in fact, they will not. The child then goes through assimilation, where they will adjust their existing schema and understand that an object can be classified by more than one feature. The state of the schema is then changed from disequilibrium to equilibrium. Therefore, this toy is developmentally appropriate to children in the preoperational stage as it will encourage the child to overcome an issue they face in their age period.

The 3rd substage of the sensorimotor stage, according to Piaget’s cognitive development, takes place when infants are 4 to 8-months-old. As the previous stages, this 3rd stage is defined by typical adaptive behavior. That is, infants sit up and become skilled at reaching for and manipulating objects, exercising the secondary circular reaction on interesting events in the surrounding environment. Furthermore, this substage is primarily link to object permanence failure. In other words, Infants fail to understand that objects continue t exist even though they are not in immediate sight or within reach to be acted upon. For example, Jade a 8-moths-old infant at the Guidepost Montessori was laughing while Ella a 5-year-old child was showing a stuffed

When to start playing peekaboo: Children aren’t born with the knowledge of object permanence. The idea of object permanence develops in them at around 5 months of age, but babies of all age groups enjoy playing this game so you can start it as early as possible. Remember, that the level and ways of playing this game change with every age, for instance, playing peekaboo with a new-born baby would mean simply hiding behind the curtain and emerging out of it and repeating this cycle; you’ll notice your little one chuckle or stare in amazement. Shop an easy peekaboo game to play with

From birth to the age of two, children have to develop in many more ways than almost any other age. These years are spent using their sense and movements to properly understand what the environment is. In order for children to begin this recognition period of the world, they utilize the little abilities that they are born with: sucking, looking, grasping, and listening. During this stage, children begin to learn object permanence. Object permanence is realization that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight. Such as the startle that a child receives when you play peek-a-boo with them. When they cannot see you, they sincerely believe that you are no longer there, and when you reappear, that are stunned that you have returned.

Following a ten second interruption, the child is permitted to hunt for the toy and naturally does so correctly. After many hide and seek games for the same object at location A, it is buried at another location-location B. Babies ages eight to ten months generally returned to search for the object at location A when it had just been hidden at the new location. This error is defined by Piaget as stage 4 which is development of the object concept. This fault shows not only important progress made in stage 4 of development but, also a problem in linking up object representation to the child’s prior knowledge of location. Psychologist have revealed many different explanations for this result. Examples of this are in terms of the egocentric representation of space (e.g., Acredolo, 1985; Bremner, 1978; Bremner&Bryant, 1977), the immaturity of the prefrontal cortex (e.g., Diamond, 1990a, 1990b; Diamond&Goldman-Rakic, 1989), and the fragility of object memory (e.g., Munakata, 1998; Munakata, McClelland, Johnson, &Siegler, 1997), and others. All of these studies share the commonality that this error results in the baby’s brain at a specific point in development. Smith and colleagues find justification of the error through multiple processes that result in self motivated actions, like reaching for an object at a familiar location throughout development; error is not specific to a set time in

This is where an infant uses a combination of actions to solve simple problems and/or achieve simple goals. Throughout this period infants commonly make the ‘A-not-B error’. This error means infants will almost always search for an object in the place they last found it (place A), rather than in a new place (place B). Zara made this error in her game of ‘hide-and-seek’. when Zara is looking for her toy rabbit, she reaches for the cushion her pacifier was last under, showing exactly how the ‘A-not-B error’ occurs in infants. As Zara grows out of the substage she is currently in, by around 18months old, she will have full capability regarding object permanence. This means she will no longer make errors such as the ‘A-not-B’, and instead will fully grasp invisible displacements. Zara will be able to mentally signify when an invisible action is occurring, such as her toy rabbit being hidden, and comprehend the location of the object whether it is visible or

“Klein developed play therapy from 1919-1925. Play therapy is developed to uncover a child’s unconscious motivations” (Grosskurth, 1986). She felt that symbolization allows the child to transfer to objects around children’s interests, but also their fantasies, fear, and guilt. She contributed to children’s development of psychoanalytic theory on three basics concepts of the type of object with which the child interacts, projective identification, and unconscious phantasy basis on the relationship. She preferred the children to play with small toys, allowing children to better connect to their internal worlds. She wanted to observe how the children will interact with which toys that they would select. The projective identification is a part

Observations of the earliest experiences of a healthy toddler are expressed by its relationship with its first possession which is always a transitional object. Transitional objects also belong to the realm of illusion which is the basis of initiating development. This stage is made possible by the capacity of a mother to let the toddler have the illusion that what it creates really exists (Winncott, 1953).

My husband and I would often play peek a boo with my daughter when she was an infant. Because she was not fully developed cognitively, she hadn’t quite grasped object permanence. Object permanence is the understanding that objects still continue to exist despite no longer seeing them. My daughter would always find amusement when I would cover my face with my hands. When my hands were down from my face and I made eye contact with her she was excited and smiling. When I placed my hands over my face where she could not see any of my characteristics her face was void of any expression. When I uncovered my face again her face would once again fill with pleasure. My daughter had still not quite grasped the fact that I was still there, because

Piaget claims that infants do not conceive objects which have independent existence. Infant’s perspective of objects is that objects pop in and out of existence in a child’s sense. Before the age of eight or nine months, infants won’t be able to search for a toy hidden under a cloth in front of it. Therefore Piaget concluded that objects seize to exist in a child’s mind because according to