Child Development | Beyond Object Constancy

It has been a wonderous journey watching my son transform from an immobile, newborn infant into a precocious toddler, passing through various phases of development the way a race car passes checkpoints. He is beyond 30 months now and while I had not been specifically tracking his landmarks relative to Piaget's cognitive development theory, it's hard not to recognize events that offer definative proof of his progression. For example, I don't know precisely when he developed a sense of object constancy, but the fact that he tends to always find my car keys regardless of where I attempt to safely store them demonstrates his mastery of this concept.

At this point it has become obvious he has been developing an imagination. He invents games and attempts to coax his peers and elders to play along, not a trivial matter when they involve concepts and actions beyond his vocabulary. This new imagination, unfortunately, also manifests iteself in the form of nightmares. How cruel that the ability to retain memories and impressions of dreams into a waking state coincides with the brain's ability to invent monsters. Whatever images and fears are interrupting his sleep, they are enough to rouse him, then alone in the darkness of his room, he works himself into a panic, running to the door and crying for parental intervention. All that is required is a hug and gentle caress from a parent to bring him back to reality, back to calm, and ultimately to sleep.

After recovering from such moments, a parent has to wonder about the phases of development of a child, of the specific measuring points devised by the developmental cognitive researchers, child psychologists, and therapists. There are so many to categorize, how arbitrary it must be to determine which ones are the important ones. Of course it is a landmark when a child realizes object constancy, illustrated by his determination to relocate my car keys despite our best attempts to store them out of sight. What I haven't seen yet, and what I am hoping for is the development of emotional constancy, the awareness that his parents still love him even when they have left the room. It would make it easier for them to return to sleep once he has.

On the other hand, if young children ultimately develop emotional constancy, what about all the adults who don't?