This paper analyzes observed behavior of the author’s preschool children on the basis of child development theory.
This paper relates that the author’s twin girls often stare at each other for hours, making faces and laughing at each other, taking part in “social exchanges” by a “reciprocal matching process”, which is a process in which an infant will try to “match or copy each other by approximation of each other’s gaze, use of tongue, sounds, and smiles .The author points out that a recent study found that young children left in day care were not as close to their mothers as those children whose mothers stayed home during the early years. The paper stresses that games that involve both girls and use friendly competition always catch their attention.
Watching my girls at day care is enlightening. They all the preschoolers are still at that stage where everyone is their best friend. Sometimes it takes a half hour to pick them up in the afternoon because they all have to hug each other goodbye! Oden writes in agreement that children at this age do not differentiate between a best friend and an acquaintance or even a stranger. However, I have noticed that at church, they do have their favorite people they tend to seek out.”