Child Development

Andrew spent most of the time that 1 year old Seth was awake trying to teach him about the world. Mostly about nouns. In this first video, Andrew is teaching Seth how to spell ball...and what the letters sound like. The funniest part about this is that we never did phonics with Andrew. I tried it for about 3 months. He just learned how to read. Thank you Jesus. But notice what baby Seth does when Andrew tries to teach him directly by pummeling with information. He flees.....

In the second video, Andrew is still trying to teach Seth. Another child is shoving something in Seth's face and then Andrew tries to physically move his head to look at him. Somehow Andrew knows that someone needs to look at you to learn..YET..he gets that perhaps that isn't the right way to do it so he moves his own body to be in line with Seth's and decides to teach him the word 'mom' because I am right there. Seth is once again 'outta there' because this pummeling with information is just a tad too much. There were also three other girls there giving him 'attention.' He flees yet looks back in a game of cat and mouse.

I will say that Andrew was doing this 'direct teaching' for quite some time. But there was much 'inviting' by Andrew to participate. In some ways, Andrew's development is not much different than Seth's. There is another clip I won't bore you with. In it, we discover that Seth does indeed know the name of the word ball, and when Andrew says it he goes and gets one. Andrew does not know how to 'be with' kids his own age. He doesn't get the subtleties of relationship interaction of early elementary. Yet I don't believe he could be taught with 'verbal instruction' how to interact with kids his own age. He will get there..but he does get Seth. He gets what Seth needs. Because he is not much past him in some developmental areas. He spent quite a bit of time playing peek-a-boo with him and that was precious. I wish I had gotten that on video. We offered to babysit him because, quite frankly, in the 5 hours we spent at our friend's cottage, the time with Seth was the most enjoyable and easy because they understood each other.

One more random thought. Andrew never got upset with Seth for not 'getting it.' He just kept trying...hmmmmm......