Attention, problem solving, memory and early reasoning.
Dropping the same object over and over is a baby running a controlled experiment: same action, same result, every time. Handing it back is what supplies the…
6 minSmooth visual tracking is a motor skill of the eyes, and it has to be trained before a baby can follow a rolling ball or, much later, a line of text. Moving too…
4 minEvery disappearance and return rehearses object permanence — the understanding that things continue to exist when they cannot be seen. It is one of the first…
5 minSearching for a hidden object is object permanence made active: the baby must remember what was there and act on that memory. Leaving a corner visible creates a…
6 minContainer play is how babies work out that objects and spaces relate to each other, and it is the practical root of later concepts like inside, full and empty…
8 min