Social relations
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 …
3V0233.03 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.
3V0221.02 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 …
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 …
3V0216.04 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 ? …
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 …
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 …
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 …
3V0180.05 Sounds. Peggy and Bob sing a duet: “Going for a Ride” 07/22/78 Over past days, a week or so, I have bounced Peggy in my lap while singing the song from Sesame Street “we are going for a ride.” At one verse, instead of standard lines such as “and the train goes ‘toot-toot’” i …
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.
3V0179.01 Temperament Peggy is always responsive and cheerful in the morning. For some time now [vide 6/2 entry] she has responded to the sound of “Hello, Peggy” with a big smile, even before lifting her head up to see. It is clear she no longer needs to SEE me to react, and the lifting up …
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 …
3V0138.01 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 …
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 …
3V0125.01 References for “Three Years and Talking” 05/27/78 In Thursday’s discussion with Mimi Sinclair, I showed her my “lifetime living plan,”. she asked about the work with Peggy, why I should wait until she’s four, I responded, “That’s what I want to talk with you about. She gave us directions (to me, the “us” refers …
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 …
3V0121.01 Moving Peggy in with Miriam; verbal imitation: 5/23/78; 4;4 On May 23rd, Peggy’s fourth “month-day”, we moved her crib into Miriam’s room. For well over a month, Peggy has been doing without her 10 pm feeding, going to bed between 9 and 10, sleeping through the night and waking without fussing around 7:30-8 am …
3V0114.01 Feeding Cereals (5/16/78) Peggy started solid food on 16 May — a small amount of rice and cereal prepared with expressed milk. At first she reacted as though she expected medicine of some kind; the only external material fed to her for some time has been vitamin/fluoride drops. (She has not had supplemental formula …
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 …
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 …
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
3V0091.03 Mothers-view 4/23/78 While Bob entered the previous notes, I was playing with Peggy on my lap, making noises. At one point she laughed, a set of three distinct sounds. She now, more often than not, takes one long nap (as long as 4 hours) in the day, usually after her second feeding around 11. …
3V0091.02 Peggy’s Vocalization 4/23 serial 0091 Peggy is 3 months old today; 13 weeks tomorrow. Gretchen has been making noises at Peggy for quite a while. Her favorite seems to be a drawn-out /kI/ with a moist tongue so that a slight bubbling sound is added. Within the past 7 – 10 days Peggy has …
3V091.01 Social development: outgoing; interactions with family 4/17/78; 2;26 Later note by Gretchen on the previous fussing (reference to 2/23/78 vignette): This text is also appended to Vignette #6, V0032.01 By the time of the visit to the doctor, we had realized this was not a hunger problem. We simply resigned ourselves to putting up …
3V0085.01 Social development: outgoing; interactions with family 4/17/78; 2;26 Peggy is considerably more outgoing than a month ago.. She lets us know we should pick her up by crying, and she wants to be picked up most of the time. Over the past week, she has become distractible from wanting to be held if anyone …
3V0052.01 Peggy begins sleeping through the night 3/15/78; 1;21 Peggy is sleeping better now — and so are we. Last night is the first time she slept through (10pm to 6am) two nights in a row; that makes 3 out of 4. It still seems to me she cries a lot, but I was not …
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 …
3V0018.1 Bob comforts Peggy during the night 2/9/78; 0;18/ Near midnight this morning, Peggy woke Gretchen, apparently ready for a late night snack. After nursing for only a few minutes, she lost interest. Gretchen got quite frustrated at being waked to no purpose and returned Peggy, crying again, to her crib. When I could stand …
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 …
3V0001.01 Recollections of Peggy’s birth 1/23/78 After telling our landlord, as I returned from walking the dog Sunday night, that the baby was not expected for a week, I realized on coming inside that Gretchen was showing the classic signs of imminent labor. All day she suffered lower-back muscular pains, she frequently experienced shooting pains …
Vn40.1 Logo After Hours 7/4/77 During the bicentennial year Miriam was too young to enjoy the fireworks. She was frightened by the noise of amateurs’ exploding firecrackers and so sleepy by 9 o’clock that we abandoned a half- hearted attempt to watch the display from the vantage of Corey Hill in Brookline. Radio forecasts promised …