Child Proof
What Peekaboo Teaches Kids About the World
Researchers say hiding games play an essential role in child development
You cover your face with a blanket, then uncover it to see your baby’s reaction. Cover. Uncover.
Two years later, your toddler is standing in front of you with her hands over her eyes, yelling “Can you see me?” for roughly the hundredth time in a row. It’s cute and mind-numbing parental labor — and it says more about your child’s brain development than you might guess.
“Peekaboo surely must rank as one of the most universal forms of play between adults and infants,” wrote cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner with a colleague in 1976. Researchers have studied peekaboo games from South Africa to Germany to Japan (where a parent might chant “Inai inai ba!”), using the ubiquitous game to look at children’s smiles, laughter, expectations, and perception of others’ emotions. They’ve even studied the brain activity of nine-month-olds during a game of peekaboo.
Iris Nomikou, a linguist in the Psychology Department at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, has found the hiding game to be a powerful window into the developing mind. In a 2017 paper, Nomikou and her colleagues made video recordings of Polish mothers playing…
