Developmental Journal #2

           Last weekend as I was babysitting the two little boys I routinely watch social referencing occurred. The boys are 5 and 3; the oldest one is a little anxious and needs a lot of reassuring and the youngest one is a wild child with no fear of anything.

            The boys and I were outside playing in their blow-up pool when the youngest one began to stand on the side of the pool and jumping into the water. He routinely does this type of acrobats so I wasn’t too worried about the consequences, as crazy as it looked. After he completed several flying leaps from the side of the pool into the water the oldest boy stood on the side of the pool and then glanced back at me for a reassurance. He was social referencing.  I chuckled to myself because this is something he often does I just never had a name for it before. He stands back and watches his youngest brother do crazy stunts a few times. Then after he sees that his brother is ok, he decides try it for himself. Then he looks to an adult to reassure him that it is ok to try. The smiling look on my face and my verbal assurance allowed him to know that it was ok for him to jump into the water, which he did. The acrobats continued the rest of the afternoon.