Toddler memory

[marydell]

Saturday started off being a nice evening relaxing with friends.  It quickly morphed into an evening at the ER with Charlie and his badly pinched finger.  It's ok now, mostly--a little swollen and tender, and developing a bruise, but the bone and tendon are ok, and a dose of codeine before leaving the ER ensured a good night's rest on Saturday.

Last night he slept pretty well too, but it took about an hour to get him to go to sleep.  He's learned to climb up the rail of his crib but does not have the motor skills to catch himself if we were to let him complete his escape plan, so we're working on transitioning him to his toddler bed, with occasional success.  He sleeps just fine in it, and stays in it all night, when he's willing to get in it; but he still prefers his crib so that's an extra wrinkle.  Last night he would sleep in neither crib nor bed--he just wanted to sit on me and cling to me, and wouldn't put his head down to sleep on me either.  I think he was scared or traumatized from the ER experience the night before.  (Eventually he did go to sleep, and he was cheerful again this morning, and happy going to school. Whew.)

He's been to the ER a few times for illnesses which required some uncomfortable stuff (mainly nasal suction), and he's had a couple of X-rays including a skeletal survey, which is where they x-ray every bone in the body to look for anomalies.  He didn't like any of that stuff but he mostly was ok with it.  That was all when he was younger.  It's been about 8 months since he's been in the hospital other than the outpatient PT clinic.

This time, he was absolutely beside himself, even though the pinched finger didn't seem to be bothering him much after having some motrin.  When I got there (Mike was home with him when it happened; I was an hour away) he was screaming and trying to run away from the X ray room. He was fine when it was just us and no medical people--wanted to be held the whole time but otherwise his normal self. Wasn't bothered by the other people in the waiting room but any time a nurse, doctor, or technician came around, he flipped out, and he cried when he saw the little room we were being put in--same little room he'd been in before and hadn't minded.

Now I'm wondering if a 2-year-old can remember stuff that happened when they were 1 or younger, enough to make a cognitive processing run on it a year later and get upset about it with his brand-new complex emotions?  Because hoo boy, I think that getting x-rays was worse for him than injuring his finger, and I can't think why it would be, unless he'd already reserved a place in his mind for x-ray hating.

Comments

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Well, I've read, heard, whatever (in various media) child cognitive development "experts" say that it's impossible for children to lay down longterm memory prior to 4 years of age -- or X years of age.

...But:

I have very clear memories of moments from before I was able to speak (I talk about one such moment in my LJ profile), and I remember being 2 years old and pointing out pictures of myself in the premie nursery in the hospital where I was born and commenting: "head hurts."

I think, if you sat a two year-old down across a table, and asked him: "Do you remember what you did last spring?" (which may be how these "experts" may come to their conclusions), the toddler would not be able to answer. But, put them back in the same context of previous events -- with the same smells and colors and lighting -- and sure. Old memories will come flooding back.

I honestly think our species could not survive a single generation if we lived the first four years of our lives with no ability to remember things long term.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember things from when I was 2 and 3 that weren't things I discussed with anyone til years later--so they weren't reinforced by talking about them. And clearly babies remember routines and favorite people etc from day to day, even when they're quite small.

That's pretty interesting that your 2-year-old self was able to say what your preemie self was feeling.

[redrose3125.livejournal.com]

I can remember things from my second year of life - the summer after my birthday (2 years, 2 months), my brother being born (2 years, 10 months).... The latter drives him nuts!

OTOH, I know people who do not remember before about 7 years old, I think because things were so unpleasant for them.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

I'm glad he turned out to be okay, even if the process of getting there was unpleasant.

I'd usually expect toddler memory to work the other way--pulling up emotions experienced previously in the same situation, even if they couldn't remember it clearly. The doctors could be associated with his earlier allergic reactions and other discomfort--or he could be interpreting something about them as new and scary.

Honestly, we don't have a lot of good, clear evidence for how autobiographical memory works before language fluency develops. We just know that people hold onto very few of those early memories later.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

I don't have direct memory of what my < 5-week self was feeling. But I remember remembering, if that makes any sense.

(I think it was the lying on the back, under those flourescent lights that triggered the headache, probably).

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Ow for pinched fingers! Which is probably a lot more inconvenient for working around for those of us with five fingers than for those of us with ten.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

I don't think that unpleasant is the determinor, because I am a survivor of pretty bad abuse, and while there are some things that I'm pretty sure I don't remember, I have a more-or-less continuous coherent memory from a few months before my third birthday on, and my first memory is from before I was two.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Poor bambino, and poor you! *hugs everyone*