Boy, was I bored today.

[conuly]

Really bored.

So bored that when the only thing I could think of to do was to impose the Sally-Anne test on Evangeline, I just went ahead and did it. (Yes, I am aware that I'm not any form of licensed or educated psychologist, why do you ask?)

Apparently most typical children don't get the correct answer until they're four, but Evangeline got it right off the bat and thought I was silly for even asking. All righty then.

That afternoon - because I'm still bored - I tried it on Ana.

And Ana got it wrong. Sally, she said, would look in the *actual* hiding spot because she's smart and that's where it is.

I was surprised - she's five and a half, after all! - and I guess that was obvious, because when we did it again (just the fact that we were doing it again was a clue, I suppose) she got it plainly right after thinking it over for a second.

But now Evangeline has seen this three times today, so she puts on her own credible version of the show. And Ana looked for a long time at the *actual* hiding spot before declaring that Sally would look where she left it. On a hunch, I asked her what Sally's gonna do now that she can't find her marble and - with no thought of anything else - Ana declared that of course she'd look where it was actually hidden, she wants to play with it!

Huh.

Well, if this means anything I'm sure all will be revealed sooner or later. She's not having trouble of any sort, so I don't see the point in thinking too hard about this sort of thing.

(For the record, by the way, I totally get the Sally-Anne test and why Sally isn't going to look where her marble is really hidden. I don't know when that became clear to me, but it certainly was the first time I ever heard of this.)

Comments

[sayga.livejournal.com]

I just tried a version of it on Kira, and she insisted that the Bear would look in the Rabbit's cup for the penny, instead of in his bowl where he left it.

[conuly]

You can spend all day forcing your children to go through obscure psychological tests if you get bored enough :)

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

Just did this the other day on my 8 year old (I suspect she has Asperger's syndrome) and she launched into a long monologue about it. "Oh! I know about this Mommy, I saw it on NOVA. They asked children, little children like four year olds and they didn't all get it right and then they asked, well, they did something sort of like it with chimpanzees, and then they said that autistic people don't get the same answer as people who aren't autistic and and and..."

So, yeah.

[conuly]

So? What answer did she give? (And really, if that monologue is any indication of, well, anything...!)

[feebeeglee.livejournal.com]

She didn't have an unsullied answer, since she already knew all about the test and what it meant. In grand detail.

She's self-dxed herself though, the little smarty pants. She said "I'm like Bede (he is classically autistic) but I can talk and I wear clothes. I have a little bit of autism."