Peek-A-Boo and I Love You: Object Permanence

I’m continually amazed at parental instinct.  Quite unconsciously, we often behave in ways that concur with healthy development of our children.  Picture a daddy tossing his little baby up in the air and catching her to the sound of her utterly joyful giggles.  This mother-frightening behavior is actually very helpful in developing baby’s vestibular system.  The inner ear stimulation contributes to the baby’s overall sense of balance and orientation! 

And so it is with many other parent-child activities including Peek-A-Boo.  Babies love this classic game because of the concept of object permanence!  When baby is under 4 months of age, he does not have the cognitive ability to hold an image in his mind.  So when something leaves his visual field, “Poof!” it’s gone.

When the area of the brain associated with object permanence begins to develop between 4 and 8 months of age, parents and babies naturally play Peek-A-Boo.  Baby finds great delight in how objects or faces seem to magically appear and disappear.  And she loves to participate in the wonder by moving mom or dad’s hands away from their face, or by pushing a button and making a clown pop up, or opening a door and seeing a picture of a ball appear out of thin air! With great delight, she’ll open that door over and over again.

At about 8 months, babies have usually achieved the cognitive development of object permanence.  So when his binky or bottle or a toy disappears, he will look for it.  He knows it still exists and is somewhere else. 

Interestingly, now that baby knows there’s always going to be a clown face behind the door, it’s not nearly as fun to open and shut it as when she felt she could make it appear.  She’ll toss her once beloved toy aside and set out to find something new in her world.  She’s driven to explore the next frontier; to climb and pull up to see and touch all the “permanent objects” out there. 

And her parents will be right alongside, instinctively offering her two fingers to grab and hold onto as she reaches toward her next developmental milestone: walking upright.

-posted by Donna Mershon Detweiler who would love to hear if you have a fun object permanence anecdote to share.