Anticipation and child development

Abstract

Anticipation serves as an interesting clue in the field of developmental psychology since it can be assessed at a behavioral level during interaction within both social and physical environments. Assessing anticipatory behaviors leads to a better understanding of child development, providing clues to the development of a child’s cognitive skills. On a theoretical level, several questions arise. Does a child who anticipates necessarily understand the situation he is in, or does he merely make a perceptive association learned through conditioning? Can it be stated with certainty that a child who does not (or cannot) anticipate does not understand? In the case of a child’s typical development, anticipation is also one means for understanding atypical development, such as autism spectrum disorder. On a practical level, whatever the underlying explanation, anticipation deficit could be one interesting screening procedure for detecting developmental disorders as early as possible.