3V1004.01 Role Reversal: reading to others (10/20/80)
Bringing some wood inside, I nearly tripped over Scurry at the porch
door. Continuing on, I came close to Peggy also, who censured me
“Don’t step on me, Daddy. Don’t step on Scurry. She’s a good kid,
too.” Scurry is Peggy’s most accessible playmate (and the only
controllable one), so it is not especially surprising that Peggy, holding
Scurry by the leash and so forth (scratching the back and ears
betimes), reading to herself, should claim that she is reading to Scurry.
She knows that Scurry can’t talk and she believes (as questions in P143
and P144 showed) she can’t understand, but she read to her anyway as
she read to her “Bear Hug” the day before. This specific imitation is
more a “role reversal” than a simple imitation. I expect that through
deepening this role imitation, she will become a reader.