Peekaboo! I see you.

You are on your way to work and see a baby in a stroller. This tiny human is staring into the depths of your soul, melting your heart with her big watery eyes and meaty face. So being a professional baby whisperer, you make it your quest for the rest of your journey to make this infant laugh. You whip out the oldest card in the book, Peekaboo. You wait patiently for the child's gaze to find yours. You smile, maybe cross your eyes too and pull a silly face, she is unimpressed, but you’re just getting warmed up. Your hands cover your face.

Three, two, one…

PEEKABOO!

I see you.

There are giggles all around with a bit of dribbling, a brilliant performance, once again, by the baby whisperer. You do it a couple more times, and she is loving it, almost rocks herself out of her pushchair from laughing so hard. Her mother searches for the source of her infant's laughter and hysterics and finds you.

The Peekaboo technique is quite popular amongst babies, but, as adults, we fail to see the punchline in the joke.

What makes Peekaboo so funny?

It is unclear where the game originated from or its true meaning but, it is a universal game concept known by many names.

The game demonstrates the lack of understanding that babies have of object permanence.

Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or otherwise sensed. - Wikipedia definition.

In the mind of an infant, by disappearing behind your hands, you have totally vanished from existence. Suddenly revealing yourself surprises the child and causes them to laugh because, to them, you have performed a jaw-dropping magic trick.

The awareness of object permanence usually comes to children after 4 to 7 months. However, the lack of perception does not always work in your favor. This also explains why babies throw themselves into a fit as soon as you leave the room.

Over time through experiences, they realize that you will always come back and that you still exist regardless of whether you are insight or not. Object permanence is the reason why babies later develop the curiosity to search for things that are hidden. It is also why they become upset when things are taken away from them. Upon this later gain of knowledge, they know that the item still exists and can begin to want it back.

Imagination

At early ages, children struggle to envision things in their minds. This also links to their short-term memory of things they have seen. If you think your memory is terrible, just know that babies have it much worse. Imagine looking in the mirror and being surprised by your own reflection. I personally would not be amused.

Propositional imagination is the idea that children can picture familiar things like their mother in a different room out of their own sight.

Mental imagining has been proven to appear later on in a child's development, as it demands a more sophisticated cognitive ability.

Object Permanence Testing

The concept of object permanence plays a role in the cognitive development of children. It is a theory created by a psychologist called Jean Piaget. This theory discusses how children learn things through experience and their motor abilities, touch, taste, vision, etc. Through frequently touching and interacting with objects, the child begins to understand their permanence.

Piaget had experimented with this by having the favorite toys of infants hidden under a blanket. The babies who had not yet developed an understanding of object permanence would remain confused or become upset at the loss of their toy. The older ones, however, would attempt to pull off the blanket and find the toy.

I tested this out on my baby sister and her favorite toy, chicken. She is a 1-year-old and the perfect subject for my test. Taking the chicken away and hiding it behind my back, I was met with a blank expression.

She looked confused and a little bit irritated, staring at the leftover grease in her hands. I then brought it back after a few moments, and she started bouncing up and down with her arms stretched out to take it from me. I concluded that she might not fully understand the whole object permanence thing. Although she is slowly making her way by looking at the leftover evidence, her greasy chicken hands.

With all this power comes great responsibility, and that responsibility is huge when it comes to children.

There are many ways to put babies at ease, as you know they do not understand much. Playing a cheeky game of Peekaboo might get them used to your permanent existence. Singing or making noises while you are in another room can reassure them that you are still around even though they cannot see you.

Sometimes it's alright to have a little laugh at the frequent confusion of these tiny humans, as long as you come back and remind them you still exist.

Citation

• Claudia Passos-Ferreira. Imagination in Infants. The Junkyard. March 21, 2018. https://junkyardofthemind.com/blog/2018/3/19/imagination-in-infants
• Wikipedia. Object Permanence. January 18, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_permanence
• James A. Kleeman. The Peek-A-Boo Game. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 22:1, 239-273, 1967