Memories of Childhood

Memories… Can you hear background humming of that song from the musical Cats?

I was visiting a friend yesterday and was watching her grandchild playing quietly on the floor while we had our coffee. The four year old, working intently on a puzzle, had tipped the puzzle pieces out of the puzzle, so they were all upside down. He looked at the pieces for awhile, mulling the problem. He tried different strategies. First he turned them over with his fingers (hand-eye coordination and manipulation skills). He started at the outside, using the smooth shape of the outside border to try to find the right pieces (logic and visual discrimination). He ‘asked’ his grandmother for her help by just looking up at her (non-verbal language) and she immediately leaned over to play with a piece to put it in the right spot to get him started.

They both smiled at each other (love and trust). He then put the pieces where they belonged, actively selecting and matching the colours and shapes this time (visual discrimination). Then, he showed his grandmother the completed puzzle (independence and perseverance) before racing off (as four year olds tend to do) to see what grandpa was doing. What memories will this little boy take away from his day? What skills has he practised? What a wealth of information this young man gave me, as an interested observer of his developmental achievements.

Contrast that with a child who does not have the well-developed manipulation skills to turn the puzzle pieces over, or the logic skills to determine that starting from the outside of the puzzle is a good strategy. This is likely to be a child who loses interest in puzzles very quickly, but also has troubles even putting the darned thing away. Who cares? It is only a puzzle, isn’t it? Well, yes but it is a also a tried and true school activity which encourages visual perception, independence, logic and the ability to take risks when choosing strategies. What memories would a child with delays in these areas take away? What behaviours would this child show, when faced with the same activity? How frustrated would this child be? Imagine a childhood where the overwhelming memories are of frustration, anger or confusion…

Parents have such a wealth of information about their children. It is these simple daily tasks that soon add up to an overall picture of a child’s abilities. Our aim is to create wonderful childhood memories, ones that bring feelings of satisfaction and success. If a parent is concerned about his or her child’s progress, how fortunate that we live in a time where help and advice are available from a general practitioner, occupational therapist, speech pathologist or from 5energies©! What do you think?