This is about a fascinating new study about what toddlers do with the information we provide. You can stop repeating yourself!
Excerpt:
The pupil measurements showed that 3-year-olds neither plan for the future nor live completely in the present. Instead, they call up the past as they need it.
"For example, let's say it's cold outside and you tell your 3-year-old to go get his jacket out of his bedroom and get ready to go outside," Chatham explained. "You might expect the child to plan for the future, think 'OK it's cold outside so the jacket will keep me warm.' But what we suggest is that this isn't what goes on in a 3-year-old's brain. Rather, they run outside, discover that it is cold, and then retrieve the memory of where their jacket is, and then they go get it."
It makes me wonder if there aren't older kids and adults who continue to process information this way, such as anyone who has ever been referred to as a space cadet.
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8 months ago
4 comments:
Makes me think of an interesting aside. Koko the gorilla, IIRC, looks behind her when discussing the future or anticipating an upcoming event and conceptualizes the past as being in front of her. This is opposite the typical human perception but it makes sense. You can see the past and see what's in front of you but you cannot see the future just like you can't see what's behind you.
That sure sounds like how I process information, and I'm 23!
I think their suggestion to say something like "Perhaps you could say something like 'I know you don't want to take your coat now, but when you're standing in the yard shivering later, remember that you can get your coat from your bedroom." is stupid, though. That sounds passive-aggressive and condescending. "Well YOU may not think you need your coat, but later you'll see how right I was! Then you'll just have to remember what I said an hour before because I won't help you then!" Why not just let them get their coat when they want it?? Conventional parenting boggles my mind.
Yeah, or just get the coat yourself!
I resemble the last statement of your post :)
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