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Comment by TeMPOraL | Hacker News Reader

My wife recently left the computer unattended and the chair unflipped for 30 seconds. I come into the room and see our almost-2yo daughter handling the keyboard and the mouse like a pro. Despite never doing anything with a computer before.

Toddlers are truly keen observers. You think they're just trying to smash a toy or eat their picture book, but they're constantly watching everything. In the recent months I had a whole lot of stories that follow the pattern of "how in hell did you know these items belong together?!". There are moments when I wonder if toddlers have a secret worldwide community, and communicate with each other while parents are asleep...

(Also our cat learned to use our daughter as a distraction sometimes, making her noisy so that we vacate the kitchen, while it runs in to snatch our dinner...)

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> I had a whole lot of stories that follow the pattern of "how in hell did you know these items belong together?!"

Do share! This is interesting for two reasons: how adult and toddler perception might differ, and how we design everyday objects to be maybe discoverable to a toddler.

In my experience, toddlers do not have a need for discoverability of everyday things, as they don't seem to figure objects out on their own, beyond trying to push, pull, bite or throw them - but they do pay close attention to what others do with various objects and try to replicate the behavior.

So, for instance, my daughter figured out twisting and untwisting of bottle caps in a manner of days, and it was a clear progression from observing us handling various bottles, trying it on the same bottles she saw us use, and then picking up on some pattern (round shape? grooves?) and trying to unscrew new things - but only ones that fit the pattern.

Or the other day she escaped into the kitchen while my wife was unloading the dishwasher, silently grabbed a fruit peeler and an apple, approached my wife and tried to peel the apple herself. We've maybe ever used the peeler once in our daughter's presence, but that was enough for her to both associate the two objects and remember how one is operated on the other. I'm not sure if this was goal-oriented behavior (i.e. whether she wanted to eat an apple) or just "look at me, I'm doing the same as you".

> In my experience, toddlers do not have a need for discoverability of everyday things, as they don't seem to figure objects out on their own, beyond trying to push, pull, bite or throw them

Toddlers are preternaturally patient - they will try all possible combinations of push, pull, bite and/or throw until they find a combination that works.

Also, they can easily transfer skills that may not be seem related to an adult - I encouraged a toddler to understand how carseat buckle works (they wanted to "help"): unfortunately, those skills are directly transferable to defeating buckle-based child-proofing products <facepalm>

> (Also our cat learned to use our daughter as a distraction sometimes, making her noisy so that we vacate the kitchen, while it runs in to snatch our dinner...)

That's some Garfield quality action right there!

In between all the worry and crying, life with a toddler is one rolling comedy show! I have to consciously stop myself from talking about it, because I realize it's super-boring to anyone who isn't a parent.

I think I saw a documentary about that once... ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP5kcUhMK1I

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