A Naturalistic Study of Young Children's Explorations Away from Caregiver

Abstract

29 child-caregiver pairs were observed in a public park without the adults' preknowledge, to examine the effects of mode of locomotion and age of child on exploration. A clear relation was found between child exploration and both age and walking vs. crawling ability. Ability to walk seems to be the most important determinant. No effect of age was found on mean length away or number of explorations away from caregiver among walking children ages 12-36 months. Age differences, however, were found in mean distance (computed from measurements taken every 10 sec) to caregiver. On this measure children who were more than two years old tended to be farther away. The divergence between the two measures 'mean length of distance to caregiver' and 'mean length of exploration' may be explained by group differences in the amount of time spent in vicinity of the caregiver. No differences were found in a number of sorties or time spent away between groups aged 12-18, 19-24, and 25-36 months. The duration of sortie was lower in the youngest age group. The younger children seemed mainly to make short and brief sorties punctuated by equally brief moments of proximity and tended not to return from their longer sorties. The older children made fewer and longer sorties and they returned regularly. The findings are compared in some detail with the findings reported by Anderson (1972a, b).