Variabilidad y cambio en la comprensión de deseos en niños preescolares: un estudio microgenético

This study analyzes the ability of 14 children (65% girls) between 2 and 3 years old (M = 2.8; SD = 0.17) to understand wishes. The literature has taken for granted that children of these ages understand simple desires, relying on a structuralist posture of development, where there is basically a description of milestones that are related to age. In contrast to this tradition, this study seeks to account for a change and rely on the theory of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems. Therefore, using the microgenetic method, the children's ability to use the wishes of others to predict emotions and behaviors was assessed during several sessions. Wellman and Wooley (1990) classic tasks were adapted and presented to children in 5 sessions, where there were 3 variations of the tasks. The data were analyzed with the minimum and maximum technique, finding a set of trajectories with many fluctuations, which are far from showing high and stable performances as stated in previous studies. In development research, cumulative and homogeneous views make it difficult to observe change, and its amplitude, therefore it is necessary to emphasize variability.