Over the past few weeks, Robby has shown an interest in playing
frisbee. Miriam has tried to play with us but has been so inept that
the game always became a squabble. Robby usually argued that since the
frisbee was his, he should choose the players for the game.

It was an obvious conclusion, then, that Miriam should have the
frisbee I received at the IJCAI registration. We three played in the
court yard in a 20′ triangle. Miriam was supposed to throw to Robby,
but even when she did her best she came nowhere near him:

Robby tried to evict Miriam from the game for ineptitude, but could not
because the frisbee was hers. I asked if maybe we could fix the bug?
Miriam agreed. I described the bug as a ‘holding-on’ bug. We slowly
executed her throwing motion, and I noted the point in her swing (a
cross-body arm sweep with a wrist flick) at which she should let go of
the frisbee. On her second throw, and thereafter, Miriam was able to
aim the frisbee in Robby’s direction.

The second bug frequently manifest after fixing the ‘hold-on’ bug
was one Robby described as a ‘too-low’ bug. Miriam developed her own
fix.

Relevance
This incident shows Miriam’s application of debugging to her own
actions. This way of talking is endemic in the Logo culture. It is
clearly accessible to this child and productive in actions she values.