Building and collapsing towers: the experience of a young boy in an inner city nursery

Abstract

This paper explores the development of a young child in a nursery setting. The observer focuses on the boy's preoccupation with building (and rebuilding) towers from a variety of equipment in the nursery, linking this with the everyday cycle of ‘growth’ and ‘collapse’ involved in healthy child development. Using Klein as a theoretical framework, the observer shows how through the course of the observations the young child uses the resources at his disposal to build a stronger internal object. In the context of an absent father, the observer also reflects on the relationship between himself as a male observer and the young boy.

Keywords:

• young child observation
• child development
• Melanie Klein
• play and building
• growth
• masculine identity
• potency
• containment

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Wendy Shallcross and fellow students in my Young Child Observation seminar group for providing the ‘fertile ground where ideas/seeds have a place to germinate’ (Caron et al., 2012, p. 228).

Notes

1. Freud witnessed his grandson playing with a cotton reel in his cot, throwing away the cotton and reeling it back with a pleased ‘da’ (there) Freud (1955). Freud interpreted this as his grandson managing the comings and goings of his mother.