Learning Case 3
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 …
3V0247.01 Naming buttons in verbal imitation. Gretchen’s instruction “cookie”: 9/26/78; The older children in school and Gretchen chauffeuring a house guest to the bus depot, Peggy was left alone in my care for a few hours today. After her nap and my tending to a variety of her needs, Peggy decided my lap was the …
3V0246.01 Rejecting food: 9/25/78 Peggy being fed. Deciding she had enough, she stuck out her tongue, full and rounded, effectively blocking off her mouth. At another feeding, she did the same, then looked at me and smiled and opened her mouth for food — (Was it a test to see if she could refuse food …
3V0245.02 P035 is where Peggy’s verbal imitation began 9/24/78 9/24 On reviewing P 35, we can see that Peggy began verbal imitation RIGHT THERE! During the experiment, I thought she did not imitate my vowel sounds. On closer review you can see her imitate /b/\b/ /b/\b/ /b/\b/ – /ae/ and /m/\m/. Peggy is now able …
3V0245.01 Everyday prohibitions as source of naming 9/24/78 Peggy was crawling about on the living room floor as Gretchen chatted with a house guest. The floor was littered with her toys and the dog’s. “No, Peggy. Don’t chew on that. That’s Scurry’s bone.” RELEVANCE — The kinds of verbal naming formulae witnessed by Ninio appear …
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 …
3V0241.01 Bub-bub-bub now Peggy’s dominant sound. Peggy’s conversations today began with /b/\b/ /b/\b/ /b/\b/. 9/21 ff. /b/\b/ has now become the dominant phone in Peggy’s conversations. We’ve decided to do an extra tape on Sunday, P 35, to try to capture Peggy’s morning conversations.
3V0240.01 Substituting “bub” for /ae/ in conversations with Peggy. 9/19 /b/\b/b/\b/b/\b/ — Peggy’s conversations at table have continued much as previously described. Her primary phoneme is /ae/ in this use, which she repeats with many variations of tone, length and number of repetitions. In our conversations of this day, I tried to see if Peggy …
3V0239.01 Naming buttons. 9/18 NAMING — Peggy was sitting in Gretchen’s lap, facing her. She began playing with the buttons on Gretchen’s sweater, first handling them then trying to put them in her mouth. “Those are BUTTONS, Peggy, BUTTONS. Don’t put them in your mouth.” Stopped from playing with Gretchen’s sweater, Peggy turned to her …
3V0236.02 Miriam as Instructor (9/15/78) Miriam has been trying to ‘teach’ Peggy to sit up and walk. The latter especially makes me uneasy because I fear her dropping Peggy. Miriam typically props Peggy up on the bed and returns her toys when dropped so Peggy doesn’t fall over reaching for them. I discussed sitting up …
3V0236.01 Gretchen and Miriam with “Peggy, come here.” 9/15 COME HERE — Gretchen has been teaching Peggy to respond in specific ways to a variety of simultaneous gestures. When Peggy wants to get up, for example, she usually cries and arches her back. Then Gretchen holds out two arms to her, wiggling her fingers, and …
3V0234.01 Gretchen Instructing Peggy in Naming. 9/13 WORDS — For the past week or so I have been talking more to Peggy concerning simple everyday actions. The prototype is getting her out of the crib. “Peggy, give me your hand.” (Holding out my hand to her.) “OK. Give me your other hand.” “Good girl. Now. …
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 …
3V0233.06 Other Selves in Television and the Mirror 9/12 9/13 (in Guilford) Sunday morning (9/10) we had our first bedroom fire. To permit that I had on Saturday rearranged the furniture so there was none near the fireplace. After that initial rearrangement I set up the videotape and started viewing P 32 to make sure …
3V0233.05 Miriam as Instructor 9/12 MIRIAM AS INSTRUCTOR — Miriam frequently gets stuck with the job of caring for Peggy over short intervals of time. For example, she may care for her while Gretchen bathes in the morning. Miriam’s play varies considerably. Sometimes she plays interactively (cf. 8/26); other times she plays with Peggy more …
3V0233.04 Her Question /ae/? 9/12 This text has been absorbed into the preceding note “Understanding ‘No’.” for the time being….
3V0233.03 Understanding the command “No!” 9/12 UNDERSTANDING “NO” — Saturday I sat in my chair trying to write. Gretchen left Peggy on the floor of our bedroom/study while she tended to the wash. Peggy played with the sunlight and shadows made by trees moving beyond the porch and open screen door, then turned her attention …
3V0233.02 Peek a boo and the car trunk lid: 9/12 PEEK-A-BOO AND THE CAR TRUNK LID — Wednesday (9/6), when we returned Miriam to school after her appointment with the allergist, Gretchen bought some groceries and left me with Peggy. Peggy was very unhappy, having missed her morning nap and needing a diaper change — …
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 …
3V0225.04 Limits of Debugging and Body Awareness 9/04 Peggy not only crawls now, she goes over obstacles such as arms that are in her way. Playing on the bed, I tried to keep her from the edge by blocking her path with my arm. Since she could crawl over it, I held the arm off …
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.
3V0225.02 Recognition Vocabulary 09/04 What words does Peggy recognize at 32 weeks? It’s very clear she recognizes her name (and Gretchen avers she has for some time) with considerable discrimination. The evidence is of various sorts. When I fed her last night (pears on the spoon) she was distracted by her rattle and the liner …
3V0225.01 Introducing Books. 9/04 A few days ago Miriam and Peggy were together on my bed, i.e. Peggy was crawling all over and Miriam was assigned guard duty. But Miriam was reading her Nancy Drew mystery. To keep Peggy’s excursions constrained, she introduced her to books, explaining, “See, Peggy, This is a book. This is …
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 …
3V0221.02 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 …
3V0205.01 A Natural Experiment < from earlier title: "Rolling Over (earlier socialization)" Meeting Cousin Matthew. (8/15/78 ) Peggy rolled over today from back to belly, but the evidence is circumstantial. She had been eating a teething biscuit and was covered with glom from head to foot. I put her down on her back in 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” …
3V2000.03 Change of Babbling Vocabulary; relation of sounds to communication protocols 8/10 The babbling vocabulary is changing. Over past weeks, Peggy’s babbling was dominated by the /b/ sounds (with occasional /m/’s). Gretchen believes that once Peggy commands a consonant, she tries it with various vowels. My recollection of her dominant pattern is this: /bae//b/\//b/\//bwae/. During …
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 …
3V0189.02 Socialization and the use of Language: /ae……ae/ 7/30 When I left Peggy on the bed — on her stomach — while writing these notes, I set her looking out the glass doors of our second-story balcony because Peggy has much enjoyed looking at the play of light on moving leaves. I sat on the …
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 …
3V0182.02 Verbal imitation game: /aen/ 07/23/78 At a late supper, one even less formal than usual and after she had been fed, Peggy entertained us at the table. Somehow a game began, I think between Peggy and me, of specific imitations on variations of a single sound — an aspirated, nasalized short ‘a’ (/oen/). The …
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, …