Liar liar pants on fire

Do you know many parents that get thrilled to pieces the first time their child tries to deceive them? Well yesterday I became a proud parent of a novice liar! This is what happened: Sadie took off one of her leg braces and then covered her leg with a little throw pillow. When I asked if she took off her brace (even though I could see it sitting next to her) she giggled and shook her head. Why pray tell is this so exciting for me? Sadie has been very behind on "theory of mind"- basically the concept of how we gain information is hard for her. For instance, if I walked out of the room and Sadie hid her doll in a box she would think that I knew where that doll was because she saw it. She doesn't realize that I didn't gain that info because I walked out of the room. Children start to figure this out around age 3. Trying to deceive is one of the first steps to understanding this concept.They don't start out deceiving very well, however there thought process will be something like this :" mom doesn't see me eating these Jelly Beans so she won't know" Children start to understand how we gain information from sight first then the other senses comes later. Mom knows he ate the Jelly Beans because she can smell them or there's some jelly drool rolling down his chin. Sadie got the first part of that concept, " if I hide my leg behind this pillow mom won't know my leg brace is off" Perception and how we gain information are just a few things we have been really working on so little break throughs like this are quite exciting. It sure is hard to take these developmental steps for granted when it comes to Bro. I am bewildered when it just all comes natural for him. That's not to say I wont bust him if he ever tries that Jelly Bean trick again!