Sarah Lawrence College DigitalCommons@SarahLawrence Child Development Institute Research and Resources Child Development Institute Summer 7-7-2003 Nurturing the Remarkable Powers of Children William Crain Sarah Lawrence College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.slc.edu/cdi_research Part of the Child Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Crain, William, "Nurturing the Remarkable Powers of Children" (2003). Child Development Institute Research and Resources. 2. https://digitalcommons.slc.edu/cdi_research/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Child Development Institute at DigitalCommons@SarahLawrence. It has been accepted for inclusion in Child Development Institute Research and Resources by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@SarahLawrence. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Child Development Institute occasional paper series Nurturing the Remarkable Powers of Children William Crain Nurturing the Remarkable Powers of Children by William Crain Thomas H. Wright Lecture Child Development Institute Sarah Lawrence College July 7, 2003 Recently I saw a toddler chasing after a bird consumed by the thrill of locomotion and explo- in a park. The boy followed the bird across a low ration that they forget about the mother’s pres- hillside, while his mother kept pace on the path ence altogether. After this, the child becomes a below. Whenever he got close enough to take a bit more wary. Children start worrying again look, the bird flew a few yards away, and each about their mother’s whereabouts, and injuries time the boy resumed pursuit. He tripped and affect them more. fell on the rough ground several times, but he As adults, we sometimes boldly explore the always bounced right back up and went after the world, too, as when we hike over new terrains or bird again. Smiling broadly, he was simply dive into unexplored waters. The difference is enthralled. All the while, the mother adjusted that the toddler’s full-tilt explorations last day in her pace to that of the child, remaining at a dis- and day out. The toddler’s whole waking life is tance that must have given him a great sense of one wonderful adventure. freedom. When the boy was chasing the bird, the mother exemplified an unobtrusive presence. She was, as Kierkegaard (1844/1946) advised par- The Boldest Explorers ents, “present and yet not present.” She was pres- This toddler’s behavior is an example of what ent in the sense of keeping watch on the boy for Margaret Mahler (Mahler, Pine, & Bergman, the sake of his safety, yet she kept at a sufficient 1975) called the “practicing phase” of develop- distance to enable him to explore the world on ment. Toddlers are the boldest of explorers. They his own. climb couches, chairs, and stairs, seeing what One might think that this unobtrusive pres- they can find. They energetically march along a ence would come easily to adults, but it doesn’t. sidewalk, elated by their ability to move upright. Adults have trouble just being present and avail- And they are impervious to knocks and falls. able. Instead, they constantly give directions and Along a walk, they will stop and examine the instructions. They say, “No, not so fast,” “No, most common objects—a puddle of water, an don’t climb like this, watch me,” “Let me show insect, a leaf—for long stretches of time. Then you how this toy works.” They rob the child of a they venture off again. chance to learn on her own. Later, I will go into Prior to toddlerhood, babies are curious, too. this topic in more depth. But first I will describe But the exploration drive seems to peak during four other remarkable powers of childhood. Then the second year (from about 12 to 18 months or I will discuss how we can best nurture them. so). During this period, toddlers can become so 1 Drawing ing rope. The child captures a lively harmony by balancing the curve of the rope with that of the Young children, from about 2 to 8 years of legs. Gardner places the child’s drawing next to a age, love to sing, dance, draw, compose poems, painting by the modern master Paul Klee, on the and engage in dramatic (make-believe) play. And right. Gardner wants to illustrate the similarity as Howard Gardner (1980) has emphasized, their of children’s work with that of the masters, but artistic development routinely goes through the child’s drawing is actually livelier than the periods when it blossoms in breathtaking ways. Klee. The most-researched artistic activity is draw- Indeed, Klee, Kandinsky, Picasso, and others ing. said that they try to capture the artistic attitude Toward the end of their second year, children they had as a child. Picasso said, “Once I drew begin to scribble. No one teaches them to scrib- like Raphael, but it has taken me a whole life- ble; they just begin doing so. Over their next time to learn to draw like children” (Gardner, several years, they pour out drawing after draw- 1980, p. 8). ing. And while they draw, they often become so Then, at about the age of 7 or 8 years, a shift absorbed in the process that they are largely takes place. The drawings become more geomet- oblivious to what’s going on around them. rically precise (Gardner, 1980). Figure 3 shows Children begin drawing distinctly human two pictures by neighbor Andy. The first, which figures at about age 4 years. They draw the head Andy drew at the age of 6 years, is lively and with a face, and then they attach legs to it. freely expressive. The character seems to move. Researchers call these drawings tadpole figures The figure on the left, which Andy drew at the (see Figure 1). The striking feature of the tadpole age of 9, is more geometric—rigidly so. is that the legs come directly out of the head. The shift to geometric precision may have There is no trunk. Sometimes children also draw more than one cause. Gardner (1980) points to arms, but they draw the arms sticking out of the the effect of schooling, which emphasizes preci- head, too. There is still no trunk. sion. I am more inclined to think of it as the part Most researchers assume that the tadpole of the general cognitive development Sheldon reflects a deficiency on the child’s part. For exam- White (1965) called the “5 to 7 year shift.” ple Norman Freeman (1971) has tried to figure Thinking that was so free and imaginative out what’s lacking in the child’s planning or becomes more rational, logical, and precise. In memory. Some scholars, however, don’t see tad- Piaget’s terms, 7- or 8-year-olds move into con- poles as deficient at all. These scholars include crete operations, where they use mathematical Gestalt theorists such as Rudolf Arnheim logic to bring order into the concrete, real world. (1971), who taught at Sarah Lawrence for most of In any case, I want to emphasize that chil- his career. Gestalt theorists, as the name implies, dren—and as far as we know, all children—go are interested in gestalts, or forms, and point to through a Golden Period when drawing blos- the aesthetically pleasing quality of the tadpole soms in a magnificent way. form. As the Gestalt researcher Henry Schaeffer- Simmern (1973) said, the child isn’t interested in putting together memorized parts of the human Dramatic Play figure. The child wants to create harmonious forms. Note that the tadpoles in Figure 1 have a One afternoon, our daughter Sally, who was balanced, pleasing quality. Another aesthetic 2 years old, pointed to something on the top of value is simplicity; it’s better to convey an image our vacuum cleaner and said, “Deed.” I couldn’t with fewer lines than many, when fewer will suf- see anything she could be pointing at, but she fice. With a few simple lines, tadpoles capture just kept pointing and exclaiming, “Deed,” the essence of an animated human being. becoming increasingly frustrated by my inability Next, between about 5 and 8 years of age, to respond to whatever she saw. drawing goes through what Howard Gardner I was shaken. Was she hallucinating? I decid- (1980, p. 99) has called the “Golden Period.” ed to push the episode out of my mind and get Children routinely produce drawings that are on with the tasks for the day. fresh, lively, and beautifully organized. Figure 2, The next afternoon, I took Sally to the park from Howard Gardner’s book, Artful Scribbles and pushed her on a small merry-go-round. (1980), is a 6-year-old’s drawing of a girl jump- When she got off, she said, “Want ride, Deed?” 2 Then she pushed the merry-go-round for her Lawrence (Drucker, Franklin, & Wilford, 1999), imaginary companion. illustrates how rich the scenarios can be. It was not long before Sally talked to both Deed and another imaginary companion, “Bissa.” No one in our family had the faintest Sensitivity to Nature idea where the names came from. Both Deed and Early on, children take a keen interest in the Bissa were less than an inch tall. They sometimes natural world. I mentioned at the beginning a rested in Sally’s pockets or in the armrest holders toddler’s thrill at the sight of a bird, and toddlers inside our car. They left Sally’s life sometimes generally react to birds, dogs, and other animals before she was 8 years old. the same way. Their fascination with nature is After I got over my initial reaction, the pos- also prominent at the beach, where they will sibility that my daughter was hallucinating, spend hours sifting through the sand, feeling it, what struck me most was the sheer creative patting it—completely absorbed.