Development of a Child

Posted on October 10, 2007
Filed Under Society, Consciousness |

Whether you have a young child or not, one of the best books you could possibly read for learning to understand early development is; “The First Three Years of the Child” by Karl Konig. The book talks about development stages, starting with physical development, then moving onto development of speech and finally development of thought. Karl Konig’s work is largely based upon the ideas of Rudolf Steiner. Steiner, whilst not very well known in the mainstream created the Waldorf Education system, which has been accepted into official education systems by governments all over the world, with over 350 schools world-wide. In many ways “The First Three Years” is based on more than just child development theories - with a lot of practical and observable ideas.

As a brief synopsis, the book moves through the course of development, beginning with physical development, which focuses on how the child learns about his environment from learning to move. This accumulates with the development of walking - this from the child’s point of view, is an early mastery of the environment. The next development milestone concentrates upon child language development, focusing on the distinctions between, saying, naming and talking. This part of the book very clearly illustrates how the child develops his language - I have found this part particularly useful because it gives a fantastic insight into how the child relates to their environment at each step of their second year of development. It has certainly helped me to communicate with my daughter in a more effective manner, and given me an understanding into how she tries to communicate with me.

The third part of the book discusses the development of child thinking, and is best summed up with the following quote from the book:

“First we must clear away the nonsense of the views that began with Kohler’s “Investigation of Anthropoid Apes”…Here he tried to show that the results he obtained [in his experiments] were primitive achievements of intelligence. For instance, some of the chimpanzees, after unsuccessful attempts, were able to reach fruit that was hung from the ceiling, by piling boxes on top of each other. In another experiment the “more intelligent” of the animals learned to put together previously prepared sticks so as to reach fruit lying outside their cage. Several other ingenious methods were used by Kohler to arrive at these so-called achievements of intelligence.

Karl Buhler, as an experimental psychologist, was lured by these experiments into subjecting children eight to sixteen months of age to similar situations. For instance, he put a pane of glass between the hands of a child and a biscuit the child wanted in order to test how and when the child would summon the “intelligence” to reach around the glass for the delicacy. But the child usually failed him. In another experiment, a piece of bread attached to a thread was put in front of the child in such a way that he could reach the thread but not the bread. The child was then supposed to pull the food toward him by means of the thread. The results of these experiments caused Buhler to say in all seriousness, “Indeed, there is a phase in the life of a child that one might well designate the chimpanzee age. In the case of this particular child it was about the tenth, eleventh or twelfth month.”

A person can accept or reject this as he pleases. The idea, however , that a ten-month-old child, in the environment of his home, hardly yet able to move, should be compared with grown-up chimpanzees in their cages is possible only with the kind of thinking prevalent at the beginning of the twentieth century. Furthermore, the word intelligence is thoroughly abused here. This animal behavior - and that is what was meant here - is by no means an achievement of thinking. When placing one box on top of the other, or putting sticks together, the chimpanzees are not intellectually putting two and two together, but their desire for the fruit dictates the movements of their limbs in such a way that they use the objects lying about to satisfy this desire.

It would be an accomplishment of real intelligence only if a chimpanzee would break a branch from a three and prepare it to use as a fetching stick. Or, again, if he could make a box out of boards by using smaller and harder pieces of wood as nails and a stone as a hammer in order then to put the box to a use thought out in advance.

Nothing like this is meant when we speak here of the awakening of thinking.”

For anyone that approaches life with an open mind, rather than with a reliance upon established data, this book is an excellent example of understanding human awareness. It thankfully avoids much of the modern day psycho-analytical BS and cuts straight to the heart of the matter. Steiner’s work has been a great influence on my life - and it has been built upon by many other individuals. What I find so fascinating and resonant with Steiner and those that continued his work, is that their understanding of human consciousness comes from viewing ourselves as a tool with access to consciousness, rather than using the human as the subject of study. Because of this it is very easy to relate too - even if on occasion the language is deliberately obscure (making you work in order to understand it).

Like much of Steiner’s work, Konig’s book can be hard going, but is a great place to begin for anyone seeking to understand how their personal awareness developed, as well as gaining insight into the development of your child.