Cognition related
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 …
3V0221.02 Peggy Following Gretchen’s Pointing to a Mirror: 8/31/78; A couple days ago I was upstairs in the hall about 5-6 feet away from the mirror with Peggy in my arms. We faced the mirror, but Peg’s attention was on something (such as her toes) and she did not notice the reflection. I said, “Look …
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. …
3V0216.03 Experimental and Natural Life for the Child 8/26 In the videotape session P 30 (8/20), we introduced Peggy to new toys — blocks, the ring tower (modified so that no order constraint exists, i.e. the conical pole was removed and replaced with a straight stick onto which the rings fit in any order). Earlier …
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 ? …
3V0215.01 Rolling Over: pulling object on a cloth (8/25/78) Peggy has been working on rolling over back to front. Whereas earlier I would put her on her stomach and find her on her back, now it is the other way round. She seems to show a preference for being her belly (perhaps because of the …
3V0204.02 Robby, Miriam play with Peggy; object permanence data (8/14/78) The second group of interesting observations with the toy focus is my first observations of Peggy’s crawling. Gretchen has remarked on Peggy’s ‘falling sideways’ and thereby going forward a little over the past few days. Today’s behavior was a clear extension of what may have …
3V0204.01 Ring Tower Toy: beginning of “putting on” sequence (8/14/78) Peggy received a ring-tower toy as a present at her birth. She has not played with it before today (Note however that Peggy played with similar rings from a different set in the earliest videotape of her playing.) The toy looks like this: (diagram; rings …
3V0201.01 Rolling Over.(8/11/78) When Peggy rolls from her back to her side now, it is typical that her pelvis goes all the way over as if she were going to roll onto her stomach. The impediment to that is her arm which is most frequently outstretched. As often as not, the hand of that arm …
3V0200.04 Debugging: let go before grasping. 8/10 During reviews of past videotapes (P 28 and earlier) Gretchen has remarked that when Peggy knocks a desired object with one in her hand already, or reaches for a desired object with another still grasped in the reaching hand, it appears she may be trying to “rake in” …
3V0200.02 Increasing Mobility 8/10 Peggy’s mobility is rapidly increasing. When on her stomach, she has good success at rotation on her belly, pulling her hands in the direction of some desired object by grasping the material of whatever surface she is on. Her accidental “on-the-back-crawl” continues. She has not yet rolled onto her stomach from …
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 …
3V0189.01 Rolling Over (7/30/78) This past week we have not observed Peggy’s intensive chatter in positions other than on her back in the morning or in her infant seat at feeding time — until just now. Peggy is lying babbling on her stomach. How she got there is a small tale in itself. After being …
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, …
3V0180.02 Playing “Peek a boo” begins (7/22/78) Last night dinner was late, and Peggy was already fed in her seat. As we were not paying much attention to her, she amused herself by playing with the damp washcloth I had used to clean of her face, hand, stomach, and her legs after feeding. She chewed …
3V0180.01 At the beach (7/22/78 ) Yesterday, Miriam, Peggy and I went down to the beach. I took Peggy to the water and held her about knee deep (her knees, not mine). When I moved her into deeper water, so that she was up to her hips, she kicked as she does in the bathtub, …
3V0179.03 Splashing in the bath 07/20/78 Whenever she has a bath, Peggy kicks vigorously and with great concentration, watching the splashing she creates.
3V0156.01 Peggy has discovered her feet (cf. note #32) (6/27/78) Peggy not only discovered her feet, she is exploring them. Today I saw her holding a foot with one hand and playing with her toes with the other hand.
3V0154.01 Movement: body awareness and relocating an object (6/25/78) For the first time I saw Peggy rise onto her hands and knees. (Gretchen remarks she saw her do so yesterday). A second kind of mobility Peggy has gained is rotational, e.g. she flails with all four limbs and makes a little progress at turning. She …
3V0148.01 Peggy rolled over (and again two days later) (6/19/78) Peggy rolled over just now (from front to back) and I missed it ! She had awoken from a nap on the floor (sleeping bag spread out). I heard a cry, looked over to hear, and she was lying on her back. 6/21/78 Again !
3V0143.01 Finger sucking game — an elaboration (6/14/78) While videotaping Peggy at 20 Weeks, I noticed the second lower center tooth coming in. For quite some time we have had a sort of game, wherein I would try to pounce on her hand with my mouth, going “Aumh” (a “seizing” noise) Two days ago, as …
3V0138.03 Siblings Playing with Robby and Miriam: 6/9/78, 4, 18 text recovered from primary sources [6/17/25] A few days ago, after school, the older children were playing with blocks in the living room. I asked if Peggy could sit by and watch what they were doing. As they built their fort, Miriam talked to Peggy …
3V0138.02 Grasping and the Teething Jack (6/09/78) Laying on her stomach on the floor (with a spread out sleeping bag under her), Peggy’s world of mouthable things is limited to her reach. She extended her right arm and grasped, slowly and with readily apparent difficulty, a knob on one arm of the jack. since she …
3V0138.01 More on heads and faces (see note #9) (6/09/78) About a week ago I carried Peggy to the bathroom while Gretchen was in the tub. Motioning to Gretchen to be quiet, I sat on the toilet seat – directly across from Gretchen’s robe hung on the door hook. Peggy scanned up to the top …
3V0131.01 Peggy’s technique for eating cereal (a problem solved) (6/02/78) Yesterday I observed Peggy had a fully developed technique for coping with her cereal. She sat in her chair with a fist in her mouth. when a spoonful of cereal approached, she removed her hand, keeping her mouth open wide until the food was inside. …
3V0127.01 Grabbing and sucking an extended finger (5/29/78) Monday (5/29) we were preparing to make our first videotape of Peggy at 18 weeks. she sat in her chair while Bob got the camera set up and observed the effects on the bedroom TV. I came over to investigate and held out a finger to Peggy. …
3V0126.01 Nursing: socialization and vocalizations; “owl cup” fascination 05/28/78 text as recovered from primary documents This morning Peggy had her hand caught in her sleeve so that the thumb was hooked under the edge. She was happily sucking both thumb and material. When I freed her hand, she put her thumb and index finger back …
3V0125.04 Gradual advances in time of a response: 4;4 (5/27/78) I have mentioned that Peggy does not cry in the morning. Usually I will go to her when I begin to hear her move around, so often I find her doing press ups. When I lean over the crib and call her name, Peggy looks …
3V0125.03 Expecting a TV game on a display (5/27/78) Last Saturday (5/27), bob came back from Radio Shack with a TV game for the children. It has been attached to the TV in Miriam’s room. Since the weather over the weekend was quite warm, I occasionally fed Peggy in that room to enjoy the coolness …
3V0125.02 Grasping and sucking “foreign” cloth material (5/27/78) Over the past several days, Peggy has shown a persistent inclination to grasp cloth and put it in her mouth. It began with the diaper we keep nearby to contain her slobbering. Gretchen noted a few days ago that Peggy grasped at her drool diaper, pulled it …
3V0123.02 Videotape Series Beginnings 05/25/78 Peggy was 4 months old on Tuesday. I’ve thought of starting a videotape series on Peggy’s development — to begin at 4 months — but don’t really know what to do. I would buy the tape and begin this early — partly to keep for my own memory a sense …
3V0123.01 Mimi Sinclair; Meltzoff move (5/25/78) Yesterday Peggy came as Gretchen and I went to MIT to hear Mimi [Sinclair] speak on language and pre-linguistic development. Peggy put on a good smiling show for every one looking at her & was generally quite well behaved. She let out a few squawks during the lecture but …
3V0112.01 Edie Priemer and “Here comes Charlie” 05/14/78 My mother came to visit the first week in May. She and Peggy got along very well, and she managed to amuse Peggy for considerable periods by a new game, “Clap hands, Here comes Charlie,” [chanted or sung (tune vague) three times, with action at “clap hands” …
3V0111.01 Beginning of the “bathroom-robe incident” (5/13/78) Peggy now chews on her fist, holding both hands to her mouth. She does not show preference for a thumb, but rather sucks the thumb end of her hand, including the index and middle fingers. She has begun to vocalize extensively, maintaining a continuous noise, frequently in conjunction …
3V0094.01 Grasping: not releasing an object (4/26/78) While Gretchen was in the bath, Peggy played in my lap. After changing her diaper, I placed her on the bed between a set of pillows and arranged around her some toys. A musical lamb (a gift from the DiSessas), a clown doll (a gift from Miriam), and …
3V0092.01 Visually tracking a conversation (4/24/78) On 4/24/78 We went to visit the Clamans (and Peggy received the rabbit mentioned above). After the usual greetings and milling around, the children disappeared in the basement to watch baseball and the adults settled to talk in the living room. I sat on the couch with Priscilla, holding …
3V0040.01 Showing off Peggy at Logo; sibling reactions 3/3/78; 1;9 Peggy is gradually being introduced at the Logo Lab. On Saturday, the 25th, she, Gretchen, Robby and I trekked over to loan Robby’s camera to Jose Valente — who needed such a one for his project at Fall River. Peggy met Jose and Greg at …
3V0030.01 Why we abandoned Meltzoff Experiment; Infant communication 2/21/78; 0;30 Gretchen and I agreed to do Meltzoff’s experiment as requested by Sheldon but later changed our minds. Upon a close reading, I decided the only valid replication of the experiment would require both videotape and the mirror in my office. The only practical way to …
3V0015.1 Sheldon Wagner proposes Meltzoff Experiment 2/6/78 Sheldon Wagner called with congratulations on Peggy’s birth today. During a long conversation, he asked if we would be willing to informally try an experiment on infant imitation which seriously refutes Piagetian theory (I found the reference in a back issue of Science: imitation of Facial and Manual …
Vn38.01 Robby’s Place in the Project 6/28/77 Robby raised a very difficult question today — how much of the work he does at Logo will be a part of my doctoral thesis. The answer Robby required, and it is a superficial answer, that the thesis will be about Miriam’s development, was bound to disappoint him. …
Vn37.1 Explaining SHOOT 6/26/77 While visiting some friends with a summer place at Lake Winnepesaukee, the nature of our work at Logo came up in conversation. When I asked the children if they would like to explain any part of it, they agreed to explain how SHOOT works. They designated a mid-floor hot air register …
Vn036.01 Losing a Friend 6/25/77 Now that school has ended for the summer, Miriam will see much less of her schoolmates. Of her close, new-found kindergarten friends, most will be away for most of the summer. The child going farthest away, unfortunately, is Maria, Miriam’s closest friend. Maria is going to Spain, has in fact …
Vn035.01 Hatch Who? 6/24/77 The jokes and puns a child is capable of creating and under- standing are a fine developmental index of his ability to conceive of some object or idea in multiple contexts. (For examples of Miriam’s earlier, limited capability see the discussion in Pre-Readers’ Concepts of the English Word). Precursors of the …
Vn034.01 Candle Fire Crackers 6/23/77 We usually dine by candlelight. We enjoy making candles and using them, and the ill distribution of light in our dining area makes this practice a useful enjoyment. Having agreed that he will not play with fire, Robby has the responsible job of candle man: he brings the candles to …