Developmental psychologist Dr Aliza Pressman has urged all parents to play one popular game with their babies to help with their emotional development – and you might already be doing it
A developmental psychologist focused on parenting and family matters have shared the one game she urges all parents to play with their babies to help with their emotional development.
It can be difficult to find ‘the right’ way to raise and parent your child. With a lot of parents taking to social media to share what they believe all other caregivers should do, it can be a confusing road to navigate.
Now, one developmental psychologist has shared what she believes is ‘the best game to play with babies at it will teach them that you’ll always be there for them.
Dr Aliza Pressman is a developmental psychologist who has focused her career on helping parents find the best ways to raise their children.
She appeared on Jamie Laing’s Great Company podcast, where he hosts interviews with a different person for every episode, to talk about the best games to play with children.
“Why is peek-a-boo such an important game,” Jamie asked Dr Aliza in a clip that was posted onto TikTok.
“Watch, I’m gone” she said as she hid her face behind her hands before revealing it again. “I’m back. I’m gone, I’m back.”
She went on to explain: “When you have a young child, if you show like a six-month-old, like, a pair of glasses on the table. You cover it with a napkin, they like move on. They don’t realise that it’s there anymore. They don’t have what’s called object permanence.”
“Object permanence is your cognitive capacity to understand that things and people, person permanence, exist even when they’re not with you,” she said. “And so when you’re nine months old, ten months old, and certainly by eleven months, you have object and person permanence.”
Dr Aliza went on to explain that hiding games, such as peek-a-boo, provides a great way to help babies practice their object and person permanence skills, while also teaching them that people will always come back if they ever leave.
“So now, if I’m a baby looking at the glasses and my dad covers the glasses up with a napkin, I’m gonna lift up the napkin and find the glasses,” she explained.
“And when my mum or dad goes like this [hiding their face behind their hands before revealing their face again], ‘peek-a-boo’, they’re saying ‘I’m gone, I’m back, I’m gone, I’m back. I always come back’. And they’re exercising that muscle and that’s why it’s such a, really important game to play with kids. And that’s why they love it.”
She continued: “No one is tricking you or sneaking out on you. It makes you trust. It just teaches you, like you grow that muscle that people still exist, even when they go away.”