My Fellow ADHDers: We Do Not Struggle With Object Permanence
That term does not mean what you think it means.
Fellow neurodivergents, lend me your…
eyes.
I have an announcement.
We have ADHD. We are not infants.
I have seen, heard, and read a lot of ADHD-related content perpetuating the misconception that we struggle with object permanence. Let me assure you: if you can read this blog post, you do not.
Object permanence is the concept that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible, and in typically developing babies, this ability emerges between six months and two years of age.
I’m neurodivergent, so I’m not typically developing… but even when you apply the estimate that some parts of ADHD brains develop approximately 30% later than typical brains, then we’d still have the concept of object permanence down pat between the ripe old ages of 8 months to 2 1/2 years.
This lack of object permanence is why babies get so excited when their caregiver uncovers their eyes and magically re-appears while playing a game of peek-a-boo, or when they become distressed because their parent has left the room, even when they’re just around the corner.
If you were to cover your eyes and could no longer see me, I hope you would understand you were not, in fact, invisible, nor did I disappear.
Piaget must be rolling in his grave
…or at least rolling his eyes
Object permanence was a concept first developed by a Swiss psychologist named Jean Piaget, way back in the early 1900s, a concept included in his Theory of Cognitive Development. I won’t go into great detail about this, as this theory has been covered in great length in many child development textbooks and articles.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of mental development as they grow. These four stages are as follows:
The sensorimotor stage: from birth to 2 years
The pre-operational stage: ages 2 to 7
The concrete operational stage: ages 7 to 11
The formal operational stage: ages 12 and up
The sensorimotor stage is the time when children master two phenomena: causality and object permanence. Infants use their senses and motor abilities to manipulate their surroundings and learn about the environment. In doing so, they come to understand a cause-and-effect relationship
Between 6 months and two years, infants and toddlers improve their awareness of object permanence, understanding that objects and people continue to exist even when they are not visible.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Neurodiversity MB to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.