Pushing Buttons
Written By Jody Mace
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He turned on the windshield wipers: first fast, then slow, then intermittent. He moved on to the headlights, the turn signal, the radio, and (heaven help me) the horn. For 20 minutes we sat there (my hands protecting the gearshift; I had some limits) while he tried each and every button. This button makes a light go on. This one makes a noise. He was taking a crash course, so to speak, in cause and effect
Like most toddlers, Charlie didn't have a lot of control over his life. I told him when to go to bed, what to eat, where to put away his trucks. But with a touch of his finger, he could make the radio come to life.
Then, as abruptly as the honk of the horn, he was sated. He hopped down, went inside, and didn't touch a button for the rest of the day. For awhile, Charlie's button-pushing dwindled. My appliances were safe again. But everyone needs a refresher course once in a while. A week later I saw him making a beeline for the VCR. I stopped him and asked what he needed. He beamed. "More Button Day!" We had just two more Button Days after that, and he never asked again.
Now, at 8, Charlie's got his own "shop," where he keeps everything he finds — toilet-paper tubes, rubber bands, and the like — and builds contraptions. He recently made a cardboard gizmo with which to bop his older sister on the head. I had to let him try it — just once, in the name of science.
Sticky Fingers
Preserve your thermostat settings:
Why Kids Do This
Tina Grotzer, assistant professor of education at Harvard, says that children's interest in button pushing has to do with beginning to understand space and time — that you can do something in one place and it has an effect somewhere else. When a toddler pushes a button on his toy, its lights may go on. But when he pushes a doorbell outside, the sound comes from inside the house.
And yes, some kids may love button pushing exactly because parents prefer they didn't do it. Grotzer says a reaction of any kind is exciting to children.
She says parents should try to see button pushing as growth. Children are learning to make predictions about how the world works. "They're not trying to "push your buttons." They're building scientific minds.
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