Read the case below and complete the questions below an submit in the link:
The Mysterious Case of the Spinning Peg
Felicia, an afternoon assistant in an infant and toddler child care center, is sitting on the floor and pulling the string of a See and Say toy. Lisa is laughing. Felicia asks, Where are the fish? Can you see the fish? There they are, seven of them. She laughs and tickles Lisas tummy. Other toddlers push close to Felicia as they play and interact with her. They watch every move that Felicia makes.
Lisa, who is 18 months old, wanders away from them toward me as I sit on the vinyl padded tunnel. Lisa accidentally drops a large plastic peg she is carrying. When it hits the nearby wooden stair, it spins for several seconds. She stares at it with a look of wonder. She carefully picks it up and with great concentration, drops it on the step again, but this time it does not spin. She stares at it, squats beside the stairs, and then proceeds to drop it again and again on the carpet.
It does not spin. She stands up and throws it down on the carpet. It does not spin! She bites it hard and throws it two more times, but still it does not spin. She leaves the peg lying on the floor and walks away. Felicia picks it up and puts it away.
Lisa comes over to me, looks at my writing and at my face. She pats my tablet and then pulls at the pages. She looks very seriously at my eyes. She then walks away. I hear her whine as she walks over to the play sink. She stops abruptly, looks at a plastic fruit, then with great interest she watches it as she drops it to the floor. It does not spin.
She sucks her finger and starts to cry. Felicia picks her up, comforts her, then walks away saying, Youre getting a little fussy. I wonder if youre hungry. Let me see if you get an afternoon bottle.
Case Discussion Questions
1. What are the subjective interpretations you would have made if you had been observing this interaction?
2. When the peg didnt work for her, what else did Lisa try?
3. What did you learn about toddlers persistence?
4. What can you tell about the relationship between Lisa and her caregiver, Felicia?
