Why Toddlers Don’t Do What They’re Told
Though none of them belong to me, there are a fairly large number of people under 3 years of age in my life. This article shed some light on their behavior in ways I never imagined. Unlike some scientific studies of why we do the things we do, this one really made sense to me. It was actually quite enlightening.
The gist of the article is that toddlers lack the capacity to plan for the future, but that doesn’t mean they forget the past. The article gives the example of telling a toddler to wear a jacket before going outside when its cold. The child lacks the capacity to connect the idea of wearing a jacket to fend of the cold, but once the child is in a cold situation, has the ability to recall that a jacket would be helpful. Fascinating…
For those of you out there with kids, especially toddlers, hopefully this will clear things up for you as well. Enjoy!