Learning from our childhood

Childrenʼs playings are not sports and should be deemed as their most serious actions – Montaigne

Learning from our childhood

Children predominantly learn about the surrounding world through many forms of play

alone

role play

in groups

but all creative

It is their work, always taken extremely seriously and “is the hallmark of the paradoxically useful uselessness of extended immaturity” From butterfly to caterpillar: How children grow up by Alison Gopnik

There is much we do not recognise and there is so much we ignore from our immature days of play, learning and discovery

Many examples of how children view the world. How behaviours change as babies mature and develop

Many lessons interaction designers can learn from the behaviours and interactions a child has with its environment

Looking

How do small children look at the world around them and the things in it?

Very small children have no concept of where their physicality ends and the world around them begins

when the mother is gone, the mother ceases to exist

Children look at things in a particular way

An object appears and catches a small childʼs attention 

The length of looking indicates the level of interest it has in what it is looking at 

The object then disappears and then reappears. If the pattern is ʻpredictableʼ they will look for X time. If the pattern is broken, say for example it appears higher or lower than anticipated, the baby will look for X + Y time (longer) and can be said to be more interested in the object

small children will only ever look at the adultʼs finger pointing, not where it is pointing

(Up until the age of approximately 12-15 months) The human is the only mammal that does this. This is a fine example of not taking for granted that everyone sees what you expect them to see (or hope they will see)

later they begin to look where in the direction of where it is pointing...

Just because you design something and point people at it doesnʼt necessarily mean they will see it the way you anticipated. Sometimes they will only look at your pointing

Hiding and finding

young children learn how to look and discover where things are, go to and appear

There are two places to hide a ball: either behind point A or behind point B. To begin with a ball is hidden behind point A. Then while the child is watching, take the ball and hide it behind point B. Then ask the young child: “Where is the ball?” The young child will first look behind point A and then move onto looking behind point B. As they mature, they will find the object behind point B at the first attempt.

Object permanence

when an infant can no longer see an object it ceases to exist

“out of sight, out of mind”

Adults have a propensity to look everywhere

that is why they are so complicated to design for

Separation and attachment

Up to 4-6 months infants are undifferentiatedly attached

happy to be held by anyone

After 6 months it becomes attached to 1 person (usually the mother)

Separation anxiety begins

The self is now recognised as separate from the caregiver. For children up to the age of 6 years old, it is widely accepted that separation anxiety is their predominant concern

Theory of mind

It is a huge development in small children when they learn that people see things in a different way and from different angles than themselves

Jean Piagetʼs A, not-B error: Person A hides an object from Person B in Place X. B then goes away. A then moves it to Place Y. When B returns, A asks B where he will look for the object. Up to a certain age, children will say X

one of the great insights into human interaction and behaviour

Children will stand in front of you when you are watching the television when they want to watch it too

They donʼt know that what they see, the television screen, is not what you see (their presence blocking the television screen)

Reading a book with a child. The child will hold it so they can see the book. After acquiring Theory of Mind they will hold the book so that you can see the book too

Preoperational Thought

Young children do not understand the significance of the transformation between states

transforming the shape of a liquid (pouring it from one container into another) does not change the amount

In front of a 5 year old child, pour the same amount of milk into one squat glass and one tall glass and then ask the child which glass has the most in it? The child will say the tall glass. Again in front of the child, pour the milk out of the squat glass into a new tall glass and the milk out of the first tall glass into a new squat glass. Again, ask the child which glass has the most in it and it will say the tall glass.

Feedback

At approximately 6 years old, most children can tell you what they think you want to know

you can actually conduct an interview with a child and discourse analysis is possible

Conclusion

The closer attention we pay to the way that children interact with the world around them

– whether they are our own offspring and we view them in close proximity or through relations and or friends

– the stronger interaction designers we will be

Matthew Solle

images by Helen Stratton from Grimmʼs & Han Andersenʼs Fairy Tales published by Blackie 1903