When your two-year-old is lying on the floor screaming because he wants an ice cream and you have said "no", how does it make you feel? It may help to know that he does it because he "knows" you want him to have an ice cream too - he is unable to understand that your mind can hold a different idea from his.
Connie St Louis concludes the series that explores what makes children behave the way they do.
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Life as an Infant 9.00pm R4
If the toddler will let you hear this, he or she will have done you a favour, for this programme, the last in a series, at last explains why infants seem not to have the slightest notion as to why it is that their wishes do not always coincide with our own. The reason appears to be that when a child lies on the floor screaming for a toy or a fruit drink, it is convinced that you have exactly the same thought in mind: the concept of two people holding different views is not one the child can grasp.
(Peter Barnard)
Music choice: Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro Radio 3: see Music page 19