Consciousness in children
Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 10:02 am
JJ made a comment in one of the Q&A sessions that he and his students at Princeton were researching the development of consciousness in children. Children cannot develop consciousness until they develop language and JJ hypothesized that this happened from 2.5 to 5 years old.
Is anyone aware of whether or not any of this specific work was published? I believe they were trying to determine markers and developmental milestones that indicated the state of consciousness development. I have unprecedented access to a developing child (my grandson) and I want to help accelerate his development in any way possible. JJ mentioned the following:
A mother is constantly instilling the seeds of consciousness in a two- and three-year-old, telling the child to stop and think, asking him “What shall we do today?” or “Do you remember when we did such and such or were somewhere?” And all this while metaphor and analogy are hard at work. There are many different ways that different children come to this, but indeed I would say that children without some kind of language are not conscious.
He also said:
I can give you one example that came from my being in a restaurant in Princeton, where I saw a little boy — I guess he must have been six — tagging along behind his mother, who seemed to be cross with him as she went up to pay the bill. He simply tugged on her coat and said, “Can I say it in my mind?” And the mother turned around crossly and said “Yes.” And the little boy just stood there and a glaze came over his face. So we turned that into an experiment. We started doing various things and finding out when children can say things to themselves and sing things to themselves in their mind, and it turns out to be about four-and-a-half — it is pretty clear. Now what does that mean? Does that mean consciousness? I’m not sure, we still have to work at it.
Is anyone aware of whether or not any of this specific work was published? I believe they were trying to determine markers and developmental milestones that indicated the state of consciousness development. I have unprecedented access to a developing child (my grandson) and I want to help accelerate his development in any way possible. JJ mentioned the following:
A mother is constantly instilling the seeds of consciousness in a two- and three-year-old, telling the child to stop and think, asking him “What shall we do today?” or “Do you remember when we did such and such or were somewhere?” And all this while metaphor and analogy are hard at work. There are many different ways that different children come to this, but indeed I would say that children without some kind of language are not conscious.
He also said:
I can give you one example that came from my being in a restaurant in Princeton, where I saw a little boy — I guess he must have been six — tagging along behind his mother, who seemed to be cross with him as she went up to pay the bill. He simply tugged on her coat and said, “Can I say it in my mind?” And the mother turned around crossly and said “Yes.” And the little boy just stood there and a glaze came over his face. So we turned that into an experiment. We started doing various things and finding out when children can say things to themselves and sing things to themselves in their mind, and it turns out to be about four-and-a-half — it is pretty clear. Now what does that mean? Does that mean consciousness? I’m not sure, we still have to work at it.