So it’s been a little while since I have posted in
here and wanted to give you an understanding as to why. The last subject I
wrote about accuracy and inaccuracy in perception. I am now just getting back
to writing about these topics in Psychology because of issues that have
required my attention with my family.
You see, I am a person that loves to achieve all of
my goals. When I set my mind to something, I will see it through to the end. I
love spending time with my family and simply being a person that everyone can
count on. As I was attempting to complete my assignment on the children's book,
I enlisted the help of my 2-year-old daughter to act as my muse. As I started
to observe her more closely I started to notice things that she was doing that
I did not realize she could do. For example, she started learning new sentences
and statements like, "Why do turtles move slow?" and "Why is it
hard to move my bike?" To where I would answer the questions as,
"Because the turtle carry's his house on his back. Pretend we would carry
our big house on our back we would move slow too." and "Because we
need to use our feet on the peddles to move the bike" At this point I had
absolutely no clue as to what was going on with my daughter until I read up more
on Jean Piaget's theory on Cognitive Development during Childhood. More
specifically how the various Schema's are developed in our children with regard
to Assimilation and accommodation.
My daughter began to ask a lot more questions in an
attempt to understand what was going on in "her" world. During those
times when she would ask me a question, I found myself giving her a short
answer and attempting to get back to what I was doing. One day she brought her
bike to me and asked me to fix it because it wouldn't move. I looked over the
bike really briefly and told her there was nothing wrong with the bike and got
back to my last discussion assignment for my Psychology class. A few moments
later, she kicked her bike from what I can only assume was out of frustration
and began to storm into her room and cry. My wife asked me what happened to
where I immediately answered I don't know. I went into her room and sat down
next to her. At this point all I could do was to be with her, try to calm her
down and let her know that everything was going to be OK. For the remainder of
the evening, I just spent time with my daughter.
I took her to school the next morning and asked her teachers what she
has been learning and how is she interacting with the other children. Her
teachers told me she was a natural "leader" in the classroom. She
likes demonstrating to the other children how things work and likes to figure
stuff out on her own however when she can't figure something out, she has no
hesitation in asking. I asked if there were any bikes around and if she ever
tried to get them to work. Her teacher stated there were 3 tricycles and she
would sit on them with her 2 best friends, Jaeden and Jack (yeah 2 boys and as
a dad I'm already cringing at my little girl hanging out with boys), they sit
on the bikes and talk to each other. I asked the teachers and the school
director if I could stay and just watch how my daughter is interacting with the
other kids and what is about this bike she is trying to figure out. Everyone
said that was not a problem and I sat in a room separate from the children and
observed my daughter go through her normal interactions with everyone.
As the day progressed through, I noticed that she would help clean the
class up, help get the kids into their bunks and help with lunchtime activities
the same way we taught her at home.
It was really amazing to see how much of our lessons she retained. After
their nap, it was playtime and we saw the dreaded bikes in the play yard. I saw
her climb onto the bike and attempt to move it by rocking back and forth. This
was ok for a little bit but then she eventually got frustrated and began to be
upset. She got off the bike, kicked it (just like she did at home) and began to
cry for a few moments. This broke my heart because she came and asked me for
help to understand something and for lack of a better term I blew her off
because I had something more important to do. I started thinking, riding a bike is one of my favorite
childhood memories but I know I didn’t learn to ride one until I was about 9 or
10 and I learned from the assistance of my friends.
When it was time to pick her up from school, I was already there and
pretended I knew nothing about what was going on that day. I asked her what she
did and how much fun did she have. She answered as best as she could and told
me she had fun. I then asked her if she wanted to ride her bike when she got
home. This question altered her mood and immediately showed signs of
frustration and sadness. I stopped talking to her about the bike and moved on
to another topic. She then became her normal self again.
I spoke with my wife that same night and told her what I found out. I
asked my wife to be even more so aware of what our daughter is doing and asking
for because it was really easy to just let what we consider minor things to be
overlooked. This little girl of mine is learning new things and although minor
to us, these are major findings for her. Both my wife and I agreed to stop
whatever we are doing and try to answer the question our daughter would have so
she can learn what she wants to learn.
My normal routine in the day is, take my daughter to school early, come
home and do my school assignments until it was time to go to work. I changed
this up a bit in an effort to help with my daughter’s understand more of the
things around her. For 3 weeks, I
spent my mornings with my daughter at her school and just observing what she
was doing. When she had a question, I would take my time to understand what she
is really wanting to know and explain it to her as best as I could. Once she
understood, she would politely say “thank you daddy” and go off and continue
being a 2 year old. We then finally worked our way back to the dreaded bike.
She asked me this time, “why doesn’t the bike work?” I told her because we need
to move it with our feet by using the pedals. I asked her, “Would you like me
to show you?” She was a bit hesitant at first to get on the bike but eventually
she did. As I explained to her that she needed to push the pedals with her feet
in order for the bike to move, she didn’t seem to get it right away. Which was fine because learning a new
skill takes time. But I can always see that determination in her to figure it
out. After a couple of weeks of trying and showing her what needed to be done
on the bike, she was able to move the bike a few feet, then a few more the next
day and so on. More importantly, I felt like she regained a little bit of trust
in more to know that I will be there to help her with anything she needs.
Currently, I believe my daughter is in the preoperational stage of
Piaget’s theory of Cognitive development during childhood. She is learning at an enormous rate not
only with her speaking habits but being able to put 2 and 2 together. The one
thing that helped me understand my daughter more was learning more about Piaget’s
theory; Specifically during these next few years where the importance of mental
imagery will play a big role in her development. What that helped me remember
is that explaining things to my daughter is important, however showing her how
to do it at this age is even more so important because that is how she is going
to connect with everything.
