Object knowledge
3V0508.01 Over the head: what it means to Peggy (6/14/79) Putting cloth objects especially (but others as well) over the top of the head and down about her neck has become one of Peggy’s favorite activities. This leapt to prominence in our eyes with her wandering from the living room into the kitchen with a …
3V0423.01 Trying to stick a magnet to the butcher block (3/21/79) Peggy had a small magnet, from the varied collection that normally are holding things on the refrigerator door. She approached the smooth side of the butcher block and held up the magnet to the surface. It did not hold, of course. She picked it …
3V0495.03 Putting herself into things: hats and more (6/01/79) Peggy has played with Robby’s Boston Red Sox protective helmet. The children or I place it on her head when she brings it to us – and replace it when it falls off, as it always does. Peggy extracted a large colander from those low shelves, …
3V0495.02 Pretending; incorrect choice as a joke (6/01/79) Late in the afternoon I found myself waiting at home for two telephone calls while Gretchen took the cub scouts on a trip. Peggy played in my care and during the hour and more the following incidents occurred: Pretending: Peggy of pulls dishes and other utensils from …
3V0454.01 Functional Classification: hairbrush, handkerchief; too far (4/21/79) It’s clear that Peggy knows what certain things are “for.” The first clear example was her use of a hairbrush. The second and most pervasive, was (and continues to be) her use of “handkerchiefs.” She and I have played much with hankies — they are the main …
3V0444.01 Playing with Scurry; tool, weapons, chimps, and Peggy (4/11/79) After Peggy became more skilled at toddling around, she and Scurry have delighted in chasing each other about the house. Scurry bounces up and down, changes direction running off, hides under the chairs and peers out. Peggy toddles about, chortling gleefully, sometimes chasing Scurry, sometimes …
3V0432.03 Problem solving: bad bugs; insensitivity to the “obvious” (3/30/79) Problem solving: bad bugs; insensitivity to the “obvious” (3/30/79) | One of those many times she has sat in my lap, Peggy began trying to uncap pens. (She has seen me put the cap on firmly many times, so that when she put them in …
3V0429.01 Stair gate: extends her horizon. (3/27/79) We have long had a stair gate at the bottom of the flight to our second storey. I put it up at first to keep Scurry downstairs (for Miriam’s sake) but knew also that we want to keep Peggy from climbing unattended. While I have worked at my …
3V0417.01 Putting-in with no pockets! insensitive to the “obvious” (3/15/79) After many games of “wooba wooba”, pockets still confuse Peggy. Equally, they interest her. When my shirt pockets have the flaps tucked in, she can occasionally get enough of a hanky in for it to stay in place. Similarly, she succeeds more or less well …
3V0413.01 Change of fashion in Peggy’s favored sounds; cups, closing(3/11/79) About three weeks ago “Doit” [do-it?] replaced “ha zat” (have that) and “zat …zat…zat” as the most frequently used phrase in Peggy’s speech. For a while the older phrases disappeared completely, then returned…. Ten days or so ago, Peggy went to take a nap about …
3V0412.01 Putting-on; (3/10/79) Peggy has definitely begun putting objects on “tables”, i.e. any flat surface bounded and raised. The evidence of intention is her repeating the action. For example, she spent a long time (10 minutes or so) with Miriam’s boots and the checker table, putting on one, then both, then taking them off. She …
3V0388.01 Hiding from sight and relocating things (2/14/79) For weeks now, when playing with objects taken from my pockets or my writing table, Peggy has delighted in hiding them. her characteristic move is to put a pen, for example, underneath her leg on the seat cushion or, the usual case since she is on my …
3V0376.01 Example of insensitivity to obvious features of objects (2/2/79) Peggy sits in my lap, often playing with my pipe. Today we sat near my very small table with its clutter of writing implements. Peg took one pen and began poking it into the pipe bowl. Casting her eyes over the clutter, she spied a …
3V0369.01 More putting on: multiple objects (1/26/79) I usually sit working in the midst of clutter, a table on one side, a tall stool on the other. When sitting in my lap, as this morning, Peggy points here and there, say /thaet//thaet/, thus she comes in possession of my pipe, my pens or whatever else …
3V0368.02 Putting on and putting in are distinguished (1/25/79) Relevance: These observations document that Peggy has now distinguished putting-on from putting-in. I believe further, that they trace Peggy’s experience through the events in which putting-on developed. The sequence is first, climbing, i.e. putting oneself on (at least getting on); drawing back from an object onto …
3V0357.01 Putting into. 01/14/79 PUTTING IN — As Peggy sat in her high chair I pointed out to Gretchen how much now Peggy had mastered “putting-in”. First she put her curved spoon in her cup’s cap, removed it, and then she did the same with a pipe stem I had given her to play with. …
3V0355.03 Picture Gallery: extensive discussion: 01/12/79 The change in Peggy’s behavior after I mounted our collection of children’s pictures in the bedroom was so profound it marks a watershed in her development. Let me elaborate, and begin by describing that collection of pictures. When Robby was young, I bought a Nikon 35 mm camera and …
3V0355.01 Putting into: 01/12/79 After last week’s videotape, wherein Peggy, for the first time, explored putting into of sticks to a cup, I have become more sensitive to her extensions of this exploration – at the table: Peggy’s juice cup has a recessed lid with nipple. I have seen her repeatedly take a cookie, put …
3V0321.02 Putting on and Putting into (12/09/78) Yesterday I sat Peggy down on the bedroom floor and pointed out the toys. Her blocks box was there, and I opened it up for her. It was empty. Peggy looked, and immediately grabbed a block off the floor and plunked it into the box. True, she picked …
3V0293.01 Giving with chewing. Earlier precursor possibilities. 11/11 GIVING — I tried to work in the living room while keeping the fire going and an eye on Peggy. After discarding most potential toys from the small table I put them on, she charged about in her walker, waving the conical peg from her ring tower …
3V0287.01 Assimilation of the pen to the pipe giving game. 11/05 GIVING — Out at the soccer field, I found Peggy in my arms and no pipe in my pocket. This does appear to be her favorite toy-with-daddy.) She was not dismayed, however, and took from my pocket this black, felt-tipped pen with which I …
3V0283.02 Clear Example of Object Concept crudeness -> prefer gradual elaboration (11/01/78) Relevance: This is another example , albeit a peculiar one, of Peggy having a very crude object concept. she obviously recognizes that objects have an “inside”: This blocks box does — for it can be opened and blocks taken out; her cups have …
3V0283.01 Trapped fingers: a really bad bug (11/01/78) Twice in these last several days, as she played with her box of blocks, Peggy has closed the box lid on a finger. The problem quickly magnifies because she leans on the box with her other hand. Peggy screams and cries; it has been clear that she …
3V0282.01 Spoon dropping = food rejection Spoon play – After the edge has been taken off her hunger, Peggy reaches for the spoon as she is being fed. Or she grips the spoon with her teeth, holding it in her mouth until she can grasp it with a hand. Frequently, she plays with the spoon, …
3V0277.01 Rolling Objects (10/26/78) At home alone with Peggy, I brought her from the living room to play in the bedroom while I worked there. Peggy had been playing with tinker-toy connectors of this sort (sketch of wooden cylinder with holes on the top, bottom, and around the side). Even when I put her, sitting, …
3V0275.01 Sitting Up (10/24/78) We have been disinclined to sit Peggy on the floor. We have no rugs because of Miriam’s allergies and when Peggy might fall sideways, she would take a solid crack on the skull. This night, both the older children played in the bedroom and Peggy crawled about on the floor crying. …
3V0248.01 (9/27/78) Peggy was playing with her ring toy on the bedroom floor. She had two of the bigger rings and was banging them down in an apparent effort to get them to roll. When they did so, she watched most intently. 10/2: Playing with Peggy and the smallest (purple) ring. I rolled it to …
3V0243.01 Surface phenomena: chewing on the duck appliqué 9/22/78 Last Friday (9/22/78) Peggy went to the doctor’s. I was wearing a blue T-shirt with an anchor appliqué in the center. Peggy showed quite a bit of interest in the anchor and tried to chew on it. Subsequently (9/27 and other times), I noticed her playing …
3V0233.09 Debugging (major story) 9/12 A LITTLE DEBUGGING — Sunday morning I gave Peggy the “Fermi Spool” experiments wheel and axle: two 3″ wooden wheels with a fat pencil between them as axle. This was Peggy’s first rolling toy — and it was able to get away from her. When it came my way I …
3V0233.08 Dancing, disappearance, and reappearance 9/12 Last night (9/12) Peggy sat in my lap as we played some records I brought back from Boston. Robby and Miriam had been cooped up inside this rainy afternoon, and when they heard some fast jigs and reels by De Danaan, went into their own version of step dancing …
3V0233.07 Object Permanence and Throwing Away Toys | Peggy sat in my lap, Sunday, playing with her rattle. The chair had several inches of space between the wooden arm and the seat cushion. Peggy’s legs dangled over mine at the left near that gap. She threw her rattle over the arm of the chair and …
3V0233.01 Peek a Boo, a Central game for Peggy 9/12 EYE CONTACT AND PEEK-A-BOO Peggy has been playing PEEK for some time now, and it is a central game for her, i.e. one from which her knowledge of the world and objects’ permanence is growing outward (cf. notes on 8/26). When we sit at table …
3V0225.03 Miriam Giving the Ring Tower Lessons 9/04 During the last week, I found Miriam sitting on the floor with Peggy, playing with the ring tower. “I’m teaching Peggy how to put the rings on,” she explained.
3V0221.06 Putting People Inside Boats (8/31/78) Another “inside” oriented play with a boat and two toy men, all both toys. After a morning bath, Peggy has appeared to be trying to put the men into the boat but has not yet succeeded.
3V0221.05 Rolling Objects (8/31/78) Down on the floor afterwards, playing with the ring tower, the purple ring escaped her in such a way as to roll across the floor — a good four feet, Peggy was quite surprised (so the look on her face testified). Gretchen tried to toss it back, but the ring landed …
3V0221.04 Peggy Discovers an Inside (8/31/78) Just now, we played on the bed after Peggy’s feeding. She crawled up to the headboard — fascinated both because of the wood grain and scroll work. She reached for and pulled a knob on the drawer of an adjacent small table. The drawer came open a few inches …
3V0221.03 Putting On (8/31/78) Two days ago, the peg came out of the ring tower and instead of replacing it, I cut a hole through the bottom of the base and inserted the peg from that side. Now the effective bottom of the base is flat and the peg will not rock out of the …
3V0221.01 Peggy at the Beach: 8/31/78; The older children have been going down to the beach just about every afternoon, weather permitting. Since they cannot go alone (not good enough swimmers) I accompany them to keep an eye on them. Usually Peggy comes with us. We walk down, Peggy in the stroller and spread out …
3V0216.06 Siblings and Play 8/26/78; The rings clearly “belong” on the pole (of the Ring Tower Toy”). Peggy has several times been present with the toy so assembled. Further, yesterday she saw Robby start a game of ring toy while he played on the floor with her. I believe this is a first exhibit of …
3V0216.05 Putting On 8/26 One of my interests in observing Peggy’s play with the ring tower is to see when (and how) her interest in putting-into (e.g. the pole into her mouth) expands the putting-onto (the hole of the rings functioning then like a newly separated mouth analog). Thus far Peggy has not put a …
3V0216.04 Robby Pretending to Speak for Dapper Dan; Peggy talking to toys and Scurry One of the toys not shown on videotape is Dapper Dan — a baby-size cloth doll. After the session, I propped Dapper Dan in the corner of Peggy’s playpen and left her with the two older children reading in the library. …
3V0216.02 Social context of learning (8/26/78) Relevance: I see this example as an outstanding example of how a child could discover ideas such as object permanence in a most incremental fashion in the midst of social situations — especially in children’s play with each other. when the older child draws out a simple situation to …
3V0216.01 Object Permanence: Miriam’s Peek a boo game with toys (8/26/78) Miriam is playing with Peggy on the bed. She hid Peggy’s rattle (shaped like a little girl), remarking that Peggy didn’t know where it was, but that when part of the rattle showed Peggy reached and uncovered the rest. “How much was showing ? …
3V0200.01 Lack of discrimination; debugging habitual actions; roots of self awareness 8/10 Gretchen recalls with certainty that Peggy began rearing back during feeding as early as during the second month. Before the last videotape session (on 8/6/78), I observed Peggy playing simultaneously a foot and her ladybug rattle. Most striking was her bringing both objects …
3V0180.06 Surfaces. Precursor to the object concept: later development from “surface fascination” of early infancy 07/22/78 This afternoon, I tried to jollify Peggy while Gretchen and the older children went to the beach. We played for 20 minutes or more. I was interested in seeing how well Peggy could sit up. With my lap horizontal, …
3V0125.01 References for “Three Years and Talking” 05/27/78 In Thursday’s discussion with Mimi Sinclair, I showed her my “lifetime living plan,”. she asked about the work with Peggy, why I should wait until she’s four, I responded, “That’s what I want to talk with you about. She gave us directions (to me, the “us” refers …