What I wonder is if they can be taught the difference, and then apply it at that age. It must be difficult to discern genuine developmental stages from average learning achievements. We have these large flashcards with different objects on them, and some of the flashcards just have colors. My daughter is just 3mo, but I've been holding up two object cards, then holding up the color card that matches one object. I then drop the card that doesn't match the color, and then act like we just did something great. I am wondering how long it will take before she can start to anticipate which card I will drop.
- That's fascinating, and terribly cute. I'm determined to get my daughter to understand the equal volumes thing before that age. :)
What I wonder is if they can be taught the difference, and then apply it at that age. It must be difficult to discern genuine developmental stages from average learning achievements.
That's a long debate, if you can even teach that stuff. One side wil say: the kids just can't understand it. They haven't reached that stage in their development yet; others will say: the child is just lacking information: if you do it right, she'll get it. Let us know how that goes. ;) The flashcard game seems really great. Now I, too, am wondering how long it'll take! Science is fun. edit: Oh, oh! You know what you should do? You should keep a list of the first fifty words she speaks. The first fifty are easy to notice, because she is learning slowly in this first period: she's still trying to control the musculaure of her mouth while attaching meaning to the sounds. But after a while, about the second year, it becomes more complicated: I think she is going to learn about a word per hour.
Tonight, for the first time she started asking "How are you doing"? Of course, she asked the dogs as much as she did her mother and I. aside: One thing that has really fascinated me is how in tune she is with her surroundings. She will say "wow" when she hears a plane in the sky and it will take us a few moments to realize what she's excited about. The world is a noisy place and for her to pick out that sound is pretty cool. Now she can point up to the sky and say "plane". One of her first words was "moon". She loves the moon and looks for it every time we are out. When she sees it she'll often say "oh wow, the moon". -It's so great. Sorry, proud papa weighing in.
I bet that you can fast forward development some. If you keep doing certain tasks, I think that you could drive development. I'd never want to fast forward maturity, however. She can learn all sorts of stuff, but I wouldn't cut her childhood short for anything. Those Doogie Howser parents make a big mistake, IMHO. EDIT: The 50 first words is not a bad idea. Currently she squeaks and says "coooo" "mwaaaa" and "agoooo".