3V1421.1

3V1421.01 Reading Test (in P203/K27) (12/13/81) In P203/K27 (which began with Peggy’s first captured dance), I gave Peggy a reading test based on two groups of words — the first from her reading of books; the second from her computer experiences. From the first group of words she recognized only “NO.” (Gretchen has been reading …

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3V1420.1

3V1420.01 Turn” vs. “Truck” (12/12/81) Peggy played with BEACH world, put a ZOOMing SUN in the sky and so forth. She had some figures on a screen — I believe a ZOOMing MOON which she wanted to have move in the opposite sense. When she asked how to do it, I told her to look …

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3V1415.1

3V1415.01 Reading Vocabulary (12/7/81) In P202, I gave Peggy her first “reading test.” She showed clearly that she recognized -in their very specific contexts- these words(19) : RECALL (by keying it) RECALLING (by contrast of the display screen) READING (on display screen, shares “ing” with recalling) BLOCKS (on tape cassette, keying, and on prompt card) …

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3V1380.1

3V1380.01 Drawing and Writing (11/2/81) Peggy has made many drawings lately, of which I have saved a large number, writing down her explanations as made and dating them. This is a small but important collection for documenting Peggy’s developing command of writing. On this day, Peggy wrote a “message” on one piece of paper, showed …

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3V1277.1

3V1277.01 First nearly complete Alphabet song (7/22/81) Peggy is much interested in the alphabet. Recently she sat on the couch reading Richard Scary’s book, saying what the letter picture correspondences implied, “A is for Apple,” etc. Getting stuck once or twice she asked me to tell her what was intended by the picture (eg. Q …

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3V1270.1

3V1270.01 Alphabets: the litany and “A is for Apple…” (7/15/81) Today Peggy was singing, chanting material about the alphabet. She has “ABCD” pretty well, but later on always goes “L-O-M-O-P” The similarity of M and N appears to confuse her. She also repeated several times, “A is for Apple, B is for Ball…”

3V1252.1

3V1252.01 Pure Conditionals (6/27/81) Last observation was not accurate or complete. This becomes clear from a very surprising thing Peggy said as she and I had breakfast this morning (actually, I believe she finished first, then returned to the table): “Dad, if I want some orange juice?” I looked at her and asked, “What was …

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3V1247.2

3V1247.02 Past tense and conditionals (6/22/81) For the past month or so, Peggy has been forming past tenses in the typical non-standard way — ie. RUN, RUNNED. (I will have to see if I can get her to discuss this in the next session, P181 now) — to get at the question raised by Seigler …

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3V1247.1

3V1247.01 Computer as Word-tester (6/22/81) Peggy sorts through the cards of the BEACH WORLD – She read the card WORLD with a questioning tone in her voice, then adding “I’ll try it and see,” executed it with considerable satisfaction. Later, after creating some objects, she sorted through the cards and picked out DOWN. She acted …

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3V1246.1

3V1246.01 Edit Shape 16: Miriam makes a pony shape for Peggy (6/21/81) Miriam made a PONY shape and procedure for Peggy’s BEACH WORLD. After I saved these on a tape and Miriam went away, Peggy took over her computer again, In the interim, somehow the shape had been cleared (perhaps a crash). At any rate, …

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3V1239.1

3V1239.01 Discovering “Turn” (6/14/81) After what seemed initially an unproductive session (P177), Peggy discovered the word TURN. Looking through the RED lettered cards (probably for some other word) she selected and keyed it. The TRUCK (or VAN) which was the current objects reversed as directed and Peggy exclaimed, “It turned !” This does not argue …

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3V1238.2

3V1238.02 Recalling a Word (6/13/81) Peggy just spelled ZOOM from memory. Two girl shapes were ZOOMing too close together. The FAST card sat nearby so I instructed Peggy to key it. With some trouble, she keyed that familiar word of unknown spelling, copying letter by letter. Disappointed that the current girl was going slow (fast …

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3V1238.1

3V1238.01 Debugging Spellings (6/13/81) Peggy copies the cards letter by letter, but sometimes she copies wrong. For example, after we returned from the hospital with Kate and Gretchen, and I loaded procedures, Peggy executed WORLD, SUN, UP (many times) then PAINT GREEN; she then tried “VAN”, a familiar shape but a less familiar word; because …

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3V1234.3

3V1234.03 Reading: one word at a time (6/9/81) Peggy played with the computer — off and on — during most of the day. Mostly she was “on.” (She even left the supper table to play with her “world”) although she took a break now and again to have a snack or to join Robby and …

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3V1234.2

3V1234.02 Peggy’s Reception of Card-words (6/9/81) After setting up the world subsystem with last minute perfections, I went off to the dentist, leaving four sets of cards stacked separately near the computer with the WORLD word leaning against the front of it. I left with the WORLD display set up, with a HOUSE in place …

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3V1234.1

3V1234.01 A New Way of Presenting Words (6/9/81) Peggy’s biggest problem in typing words [from a list] was recognizing which word she was copying to the keyboard. I began telling her to look at the first letter of the word and to remember what it was, emphasizing it that way and by identifying it by …

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3V1233.1

3V1233.01 Peggy’s first Word World: a summary description (6/8/81) Objects: SUN (base color) (via UPx N) (help with WALK/SLOWERx2) GIRL (base color) (Via DOWN x N=4 (started at road) CAR (help with GREEN) (help with MOVE) (via DOWN x 5) (help with WALK/ FAST) DOG (base color) (help with MOVE) (via DOWN x 1) HOUSE …

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3V1230.2

3V1230.02 Writing What ? (6/5/81) Peggy drew a heart on her chalkboard. With Kate’s birth due at any day, her sister’s are much on Peggy’s mind. She drew her favorite shape, a heart, and drew some wiggly lines inside. she asked, “Dad, does that say ‘babies and sisters’?”

3V1223.2

3V1223.02 Duets (5/29/81) Peggy has begun to ask me to help her sing, even ‘The Fox went out on a chilly night.” What typically happens is that I sing a little, she sings a lot and when she is stymied, I sing a little more. This scenario seems to derive from two sources; one may …

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3V1217.2

3V1217.02 Spelling “load” and being grown-up; contrast toilet training (5/23/81) Peggy sat alone at the computer. The rest of us were out in the dining room, eating lunch. She called with notable excitement, “Daddy, come see. I’ve spelled ‘LOAD.’ Come see it, Daddy.” Because of her excitement, I left the table, witnessed her achievement (it …

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3V1217.1

3V1217.01 The Alphabet Song: letters change but the melody lingers on (5/23/81) Coming home from Cambridge, Miriam was singing the litany ‘ABCD-EFG…” and getting Peggy to join her. At home, singing by herself, Peggy gave evidence of knowing the tune well but her text was somewhat corrupt: “ABCD-FIG…” was how she began then petered off. …

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3V1212.1

3V121201 Writing words: in order to load programs (very impt.) (5/18/81) Peggy has spontaneously begun to “write” (ie type) words in order to control the loading of programs. While waiting for Gretchen to make available the DRAW program, Peggy typed “LO” (Did she ask if that was right ? Did she ask what next ?) …

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3V1192.1

3V119201 Issues in learning graphical language: Logo logon messages (/28/81) Peggy has more or less read “BY” — the common word in her story books. Her reading it shows little discrimination but for length. Today, Peggy began reading (in my presence, for the first time) the Logo Logon messages “Setting up” and “Welcome to Logo.” …

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3V1173.1

3V1173.01 Typing “Bear” variously as “BAER” and “BERA” (4/9/81) Peggy sat playing quietly with her typewriter a few feet from where I was working. I don’t recall that her BearHug was with her, but it may have been (and probably was). She typed in sequence the following, with a significant pause between each: B, A, …

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3V1171.3

3V1171.03 Counting in French: “Quatorze” (+ dog) (4/7/81) Peggy counts in French, which to her is “spelling”, i.e. reciting a list of non-sense sounds as an amplification or explication of something about a meaningful (?) work[d?]. Beginning with “/cat//twank/”, Peggy has picked up “/cat//torze/” (single word, no caesura) from Miriam’s recitations — partly offered as …

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3V1171.2

3V1171.02 Letter roller: compared to Rubic’s cube (4/7/81) Peggy has played with Rubic’s cube for several weeks, first destroying the complete pattern by a single or double twist, then “fixing” the cube by reversing the operation — uniformly with great pride and delight. We, of course, applauded her efforts. This was not at all surprising …

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3V1171.1

3V1171.01 Letter names versus Meanings: now even “the mommy letter” is blind coded.(4/7/81) In the last experiment, P167, Peggy made a distinction I have observed otherwheres since. When asked the name of any letter, she would reply “D”, no matter what the letter was, no matter what meaning it had for her. For example, she …

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3V1170.1

3V1170.01 Reflexive pronoun means symmetrical directed action: “The guys are killing themselves” (we would say “each other”.) (4/5/81) Peggy noted as she banged the Fischer-Price dolls against each other. That is, she uses the reflexive pronoun to describe symmetrical directed action.

3V1169.1

3V1169.01 Recognizing “By” in another context: Asterix book (4/5/81) Peggy asked me to read “Asterix in Britain.” On page 6 (bottom) there appears a balloon with “Attack by Juno” in large capitals. As I was reading near the top of the page, Peggy pointed to “BY” and said, “That says ‘BY’.” Now it appears that …

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3V1160.2

3V1160.02 Subject and aspect: repetition expresses continued activity (3/27/81) Peggy is very vocal and most frequently describes verbally her action. The subject of her verbal predicates is usually herself and most often is “understood.” Today she ran through the kitchen, with her BearHug, putting him through actions. She said (manipulating him the while) “Run after. …

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3V1156.1

3V1156.01 Spelling a word: “B-E-R” for bear, from “BearHug” Peggy sat on the floor by her typewriter. She looked up at me and said, ‘I spelled ‘Bear’.’ when I asked her how, Peggy pressed in sequence the letters, ‘B’, ‘E’, & ‘R’. I asked how she knew to spell Bear that way, but she did …

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3V1153.1

3V1153.01 Peggy volunteers a spelling: letters instead of words (3/23/81) Miriam worked on her school work in the dining room, writing a composition. She called out to her mother , “How do you spell ‘couples’?” Peggy volunteered an answer, “L, N, G, P, L.” While Gretchen supplied a more nearly standard one. A few seconds …

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3V1146.2

3V1146.02 Dancing and whooping: a new script for animal play (3/13/81) Last night after supper, Peggy brought her collection of toys. Our new Chieftains record was playing, so when Peggy (as BearHug) asked me (as Pink Panther) ‘What do you want to do now ?’ I answered, ‘I want to dance’ and began bouncing the …

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3V1146.1

3V1146.01 Dead flowers: [They been shot.] (3/13/81) A warm day, the family outside working in the garden. Peggy picked up some dried flowers, brought them inside and asked me to put them in a vase. I refused to do so, avoiding a confrontation by evading her request. Outside later, Peggy again mentioned her flowers. I …

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3V1141.1

3V1141.01 French: [I can speak French – “Cat twank” ] (3/8/81) I asked Miriam how her French is coming. She replied, ‘Comment allez-vous ?’ ‘Tres bien, merci, et vous ?’ I answered. Miriam could not continue. We mentioned ‘French’ several times during the conversation. Peggy, who had been sitting there piped up, ‘I can speak …

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3V1140.1

3V1140.01 Letter names as entities separated from signifiers of people (3/7/81) Peggy brought me the ‘F’ from her set of letters. She asked if it were the letter ‘A’. When I said ‘No,’ she next guessed the letter name ‘E’ (She knows this, of course, is the ‘father letter.’) I told her it was the …

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3V1105.4

3V1105.04 Generalized arguments to avoid rejection: [some little kids like candy.] (late January 1981) For some months now, Peggy has shown a semantically unusual usage. She typically uses “somebody”, “some kids”, “some people” as ways of indirectly expressing her feelings — especially in situations where she may be unsure that a request for something will …

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3V1105.3

3V1105.03 Meta-cognitive observations: [I think my jokes are funny.] (late January) We were driving east on route 1, near Moose Hill Manor. Seeing the ponies of the Diamond M Ranch, Peggy remarked, ‘I want to ride one of those every day.’ I turned to her with shocked surprise, ‘Every day?’ Peggy smiled, ‘I think my …

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3V1105.2

3V1105.02 What we observe is not what she intends [Woodstock is patting his tail with the monsters.] (1/31/81) ‘Patting’ is an activity that Peggy knows a lot about. Scurry is her close friend and she pats Scurry every day. She is, in fact, merciless in expressing her affection for the dog who gets no peace …

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3V1100.1

3V1100.01 What words mean: example: graphics mean the name of the thing (1/26/81) After concluding an experiment (P157 I believe), Peggy touched the camera now back in its case. Pointing to the words on the camera she said, ‘I know what this says.’ ‘What,’ I asked. ‘Camera,’ she replied. This is a second example (see …

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3V1096.1

3V1096.01 Time sensitivity: When vs. Before (1/22/81) Miriam and I got back from Boston around 9 pm. We emptied the car, got off our coats, and all that. I talked with Peggy a while and she told me of her activities earlier in the day. I can’t recall the specific activity, but at one point …

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3V1091.1

3V1091.01 Breaking up an idiomatic expression: [By Beatrix Potter] (1/17/81) Peggy brought “Peter Rabbit” and “The Flopsy bunnies” to my lap. As I have read them to her in the past, I have moved my finger along the title. Earlier (1/26/80) Peggy recognized “by” in two books as being “the same.” Here when I finished …

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3V1071.7

3V1071.07 Confronting the illogical: “I’m not here.” (12/28/80) This evening, I retreated upstairs to write while Gretchen read a large collection of library books to Peggy. Later, Peggy called to me “Dad…Are you up there ?” I replied “No. I’m not here.” I heard Peggy go into the living room to look for me there …

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3V1069.3

3V1069.03 Her first orthographic word: “by” (very impt) (12/26/80) Especially as we read the titles of Peggy’s many books, Peggy imitates my pointing to words and saying words. After I read “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” she pointed more or less randomly: “The” (for the tale of); “Tale” (for Peter); “of” (Rabbit) “Peter” (by) (Rabbit” …

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3V1069.2

3V1069.02 Counting and one-to-one correspondence (12/26/80) Having bought her two of Beatrix Potter’s books for Christmas, I have read them over and over to Peggy. At one point in the story of Peter Rabbit, old Mrs. Rabbit goes to the bakers and buys ‘five current buns.” I decided to see how Peggy would follow or …

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3V1067.1

3V1067.01 I wonder I’m hungry”: idioms and structure (12/24/80) In chanting recitations very like “I thought I saw a pussy cat,” Peggy has repeated the phrase above, most as noted but with a few variations, e.g., “I wonder I’m sleepy.” This utterance is noteworthy because it is one with the surface structure of a grammatical …

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3V1063.1

3V1063.01 Hop on Pop: the right phrase; the wrong orthographic order (12/20/80) Peggy brought me this book to read and spontaneously read the title, pointing to each of three words, “Hop on Pop”… Subsequently, (again spontaneously) she read on the title page, “Hop on Pop.” This was most interesting in that she pointed to “Pop”, …

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3V1026.1

3V1026.01 “walrus”: Peggy’s assertion that graphic symbols name things (11/13/80) On one of the walls at the Logo lab is painted a large rhinoceros — in that blue paint which may be used as a chalk board. That drawing has many things chalked on it: one of Miriam’s “queens”, binary arithmetic, a set of matrices. …

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3V1015.1

3V1015.01 Like a birdie: concrete inspiration of observation (11/2/80) Peggy came around the dining room table with a turtle bean-bag in her hand, moving it up and down, “Turtle flies like a birdy.” she said, and the turtle’s feet did flap like wings…. but when she turned it over, I saw a patch of the …

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3V1011.1

3V1011.01 Jumping Jacks and Counting (10/27/80) Peggy sometimes goes to gymnastics make up classes with Miriam. She has seen the girls do jumping jacks and counting them. Whenever she feels full of energy, Peggy is as likely to break into jumping jacks as any other activity. Usually Peggy counts, but with the numbers 16 and …

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