Why do children like to play hide and seek? The principle behind psychological detailed analysis

Many parents will find that children are suddenly interested in the game of "hide and seek" when they are 8 ~ 12 months old. Every time we "hide" our hands in front of our children and open our hands to let them see our faces reappear, it will always attract a crisp and pleasant laugh from our children. This silvery laughter is like a booster, which makes us play with our children again and again.

As children learn to walk, the scope of exploration becomes wider, and you may also find that children are fascinated by Tibetan items. They will rummage through the closet and see what's interesting in the closet like exploring the new world; They will remove obstacles (such as cloth covered with toys), find the toys hidden behind them and have fun.

Why on earth do children like playing hide-and-seek games? What's the secret behind the action? Let's take a look today.

Children like to play hide and seek. Teacher Mei Yao thinks there are three main reasons.

At first, many of the baby's actions were purposeless. For example, when he waved, he accidentally touched his face, found his hand and put his finger in his mouth.

Piaget's famous "task of hiding things" is the best example. In this experiment, Piaget gave the child an interesting toy mobile phone. After groping for a while, the child covered it with a blanket and hid it.

Children aged 8 ~ 12 months will purposefully "tear down" blankets and "grab" toys. A series of action icons such as "move away" and "grab" are considered by Piaget as the basis for all children to solve problems. They will practice this skill repeatedly to make the movements more skilled and precise.

Children can find hidden objects, which is also a milestone in children's cognitive upgrading-understanding the concept of "objects forever". (Object Persistence)

At the beginning, their cognition was still: things are hidden. Does invisibility mean they are gone? So we often see babies crying when their mothers leave, and think: Mom can't see, has she disappeared? Will she come back?

With the development of experience and cognition, they will gradually master the "object eternity", that is, invisibility does not mean non-existence. Just because mom's face is covered doesn't mean that mom is gone, she will reappear, and she will even begin to look forward to the process of mom's face reappearing.

If you look carefully, children will find that what makes them feel most happy and excited is not "hiding" but "being discovered".

When I play hide-and-seek with our children, she even deliberately hides in places where adults can easily find her so that you can find her.

"I guess you will find me!" "You did find me! This psychological activity process is like a positive feedback. With more positive feedback, children will naturally be more willing to play. The process of "finding" gives the child a blank time, which makes her look forward to the surprise moment of being found and brings the excitement of learning.

Of course, once a child grows up and finds something more interesting, and the positive feedback of hide-and-seek games can't satisfy him, he is no longer interested in games.

When playing hide-and-seek with children, we will put down our mobile phones and distractions and accompany them wholeheartedly. For a baby, we can still hold him in our arms and look at him with our eyes, so that the baby feels wholeheartedly devoted and accompanied;

For older children, hide-and-seek makes them feel that their bodies are at a distance from their parents, but their parents' minds are still on them.

The game of hide-and-seek seems simple, but it not only conforms to the characteristics of children's staged development, but also brings many unexpected benefits.

For children aged 8~ 12 months, the game of hide-and-seek makes them understand cognitively that the disappearance of things does not mean that they do not exist. This cognitive upgrade can make children understand that parents' temporary departure is not abandonment, and mom and dad will still come back.

This has laid a positive psychological foundation for children's transition to "separation anxiety".

After children play a game of hide-and-seek with us, they will begin to think: how can we hide better without being discovered by you? How can I find you faster? Your body is relatively large, where can you hide and where can't you hide?

At this time, they began to learn to think from the perspective of others.

Piaget, a famous child psychologist, once pointed out that children are self-centered in their thinking when studying child psychology.

In the process of playing hide-and-seek, children will learn to "decentralize" and understand others by comparing and contrasting their own ideas with others' behaviors. These processes are very helpful to the "decentralization" of babies' thinking, and they will become more likely to empathize with others and understand themselves more easily.

Peekaboo can also make children's thinking and actions more active and effective. The process of "hiding" and "seeing" will coordinate the child's body movements and brain thinking at the same time. They also need to adjust their strategies and methods in socializing with adults to keep the game exciting and interesting, so that children will become more active people who interact with others and the environment.

When children avoid cats and dogs, in order to find hidden parents faster, they need to activate their keen sensory system. By actively listening to the sounds in the environment, you can judge where your parents may be hiding.

We all have an experience: when we are walking on the road, if a car passes behind us, although we don't look back, we can judge the distance between the car and us by the sound, thus avoiding possible dangers.

This is the sensory experience of keen hearing, which allows our brain to direct the body to make more precise and safer actions without thinking.

Similarly, judging the position according to the sound in the process of hide-and-seek can also help the child's senses to be more accurate and help him make more accurate judgments in daily life.

In order to strengthen children's understanding of "permanence of objects" and help them learn to solve problems with "diagrams", besides playing hide and seek, we can also have some interesting activities with children.

Montessori has many similar "eternal boxes of objects". (Object Persistence Box)

The exploration of these small drawers and balls can help children feel the process of things being stuffed into holes, disappearing and reappearing. Such a small game can not only increase children's cognition and reduce their crisis anxiety, but also allow them to interact with the environment in a more positive state.

Many similar Montessori teaching AIDS can be bought online. Of course, we can also transform them through small items in daily life, so that children can enjoy the fun. Young children have a short time to concentrate and play with teaching AIDS, so it is a good choice to make a hide-and-seek box.

The most basic "hide-and-seek box" only needs a shoe box, a few wooden balls and tape. Cut a round hole about the size of a ball above the shoe box and let the child throw the ball in.

Children can also watch the ball roll out of the hole and intuitively see the process of the ball from "disappearing" to "reappearing".

Tissue boxes that are common in life are also good materials for hide-and-seek boxes. Just cut a door on one side of the tissue box. We can easily harvest a child whose hands and mind work together.

If you carefully observe children's hands, you will find that their hands are getting more and more developed. From grasping reflex, it was very tight at first, but gradually relaxed. You can use four fingers and three fingers flexibly, and gradually you can pick up very fine hair with your thumb and forefinger. The development of hands will bring great leap to children's intellectual and mental growth.

/kloc-about 0/0 months, children can develop a preliminary "grasping ability with pliers", that is, thumb and forefinger grasp small objects relatively. Their hand movements will become more and more exquisite and intelligent.

As their hands become more capable, they can do more meaningful things and become more independent. For example, throw changed diapers into the trash can, put toys in the basket and so on. (Care for the environment)

We can also provide children with more challenging activities and make their little hands more flexible to support their intellectual development.

For example, transforming this small box into a "hide-and-seek box" can support children to use the skill of "grasping with their fingers" for activities. Small holes need children to use hand-eye coordination ability, and also lay the foundation for children to integrate their body and mind and develop their concentration.

We can also provide children with different shapes, weights and heights, so that children can explore with multiple senses.

As the child's experience and cognition continue to enrich, he will have a deeper understanding of space. He can visually judge what shape can be put into what space.

In the picture below, we see a child putting a small square building block into a square hole. He will feel that things disappear through repeated attempts to reappear, and at the same time feel that he is a person with the ability to make things happen.

If we put down our posture and observe children carefully, we will find that children like to play hide-and-seek repeatedly, which is not just a "practice" action. Behind the action is the child's mental development and growth needs. Games are the most legitimate behavior of children, and playing teaching AIDS that conform to children's physical and mental development is their angel. As Shakespeare once said:

If children's environment is full of activities that attract them, they can not only develop their thinking, enrich their knowledge and ability, but also enjoy the really simple and simple fun of childhood.

References:

[1] Burke's lifelong development psychology

[2] developmental psychology, 6th edition.