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Seeing IS Believing
Thursday, October 25, 2012 by Jeannie Fleming-Gifford from Child Development
I hope your Halloween is filled with more treat than tricks. As a parent of a young child, I often find this holiday a bit trickier than I like it to be.
You see, my kiddo - as does yours - believes what they see, and then has the power to add a little magical thinking to make it even more than it is. Thanks to Jean Piaget (Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher) for creating a great little theory on cognitive development (or how children think). Essentially, what Piaget theorized is that young children learn through their senses and, at the earliest stage, do not have the ability to logically manipulate the information they intake.
What does all this have to do with Halloween?
Every Halloween we walk into some store. Sure enough, there has to be some gory mask hovering, larger than life. My kiddo's eyes are magnetically drawn to the sight. She starts to ask questions about it. Throughout the day, it's her favorite tidbit to share. Scary mask. Blood. Eyes. At nighttime, the questions keep coming: "What happened to that guy?" "Why is he like that?" "Will he get better?" "Does he have to go the hospital?"
Most of the time after a little Q&A session, all ends well. I am always thankful for the next morning when we conquered the night without interruption.
After surviving the stores, on Halloween night we have to take on the neighborhood. Of course, we encounter a few more frightful creatures along the way. Now that I've been at this a few years, I also know what streets to bypass. Those are the streets where the folks who live there go all out. They are the ones with the spooky music and they often find joy by scaring the daylights out of anyone who dares to come on to their property.
See what I mean about wishing you more treat than tricks? How do you and yours successfully navigate the "tricks" of the Halloween season?
This can be a tricky season indeed. Happy treating to you and yours!
Jeannie Fleming-Gifford
Jeannie Fleming-Gifford is a mama to one little lady, freelance writer, and the director of education for a non-profit community school of the arts. Graduating with a B.A. in Music and a M.A. in Child Development, Jeannie began her career in quality child developme...Read More
