The Child's First-self identification as "I"

CHAPTER TWO : THE CHILD'S FIRST IDENTIFICATION OF HIMSELF

AS " I "

2.0. Introduction

It takes time to mature. From early childhood up to the age a child can recognise himself as an individual is therefore demanding. This chapter is going to reveal, throughout the different answers collected, the period when a child is capable to use the first person singular " I " to refer to himself.

2.1. Presentation and description of the data

As pointed out earlier, our data is made up of answers to questionnaires administered to children and parents. The questionnaire conceived for children was supported by a mirror and / or recent photographs through which the child had to see his own image.

As this work concerns directly children, parents' answers were only to give lights about the ages of their children. For this reason, we only took into consideration what we recorded from children.

We got in contact with 40 children whom we put in four groups. Fifteen of these were selected randomly as the sample to work with. The formula we applied to get this sample is then

P===0.375

The first group was made up of 8 children aged from 0 : 6 to 1 : 5. The second was made up of 14 children aged 1 : 6 to 2 : 00. The third one concerned 11 children of 3 : 00. The last category was made up of 7 aged 4 : 00 to 6 : 00.

The fifteen children selected randomly were found by applying the formula px as in the following table.

Table 2 : Sample selection

Sample	Age range	Number of children	Xp	Totals of children selected
1	0 : 6 - 1 : 5	8	0.375	3
2	1 : 6 - 2 : 00	14	0.375	5.25 5
3	3 : 00	11	0.375	4.125 4
4	4 : 00 - 6 : 00	7	0.375	2.625 3
TOTAL	-	40	-	15

The fifteen children now selected represent the population for this work.

2.2. Analysis of the data

The analysis of our data follows a chronological order, i.e. from younger children to older ones.

The first group of children concerned are aged 0 : 6 to 1 : 5. Up to now, these children cannot talk. They use babbling, body movements and gestures to express themselves up until when they learn isolated words to express what they have in mind.

Elvis, a 0 : 11 year old child, is the first one we are interested to in this age range. Although he does not show us a satisfactory behaviour vis-à-vis his image in the mirror, i.e. he does not produce any word, he is any way trying to see the same image behind the instrument he has in hand.

To know why he does not "talk ", his mother justifies it by the fact that Elvis is very often ill. According to her, his normal growth must have been affected by diseases that occur each two months.

However, there is a positive aspect in Elvis' relationship with his mother, his brothers and sisters. He calls her " mama " all the time. On the other hand, he has a way to call his elder brother Leon, who is aged 5 : 5, using his hand.

We also followed Victor, our own son. He is a 0 : 11 year-old child as well. He is a toddler now. Though childish, his language productions and his doings may be, one may compare them to older children ones already. One can see him trying to use the telephone on the one hand. On the other hand, he already knows how to switch off a TV set or a radio set.

In addition, he easily grasps the message older people address him. For example, when he is asked to drum and dance he does it immediately.

Psychologically speaking, he is intelligent. He calls every body in the family. All the girls are called " dada " (sister) whereas his grandmother is called " tate ".

Accordingly, when we presented him the mirror for the first time, at around 0:6, he immediately reacted by saying " toto ", repeatedly. We understood this behaviour as a positive one since a child growing up normally recognises himself and other people to be " toto " at this stage. That is why it did not sound strange to us to hear Victor reacting like that to his own image in the mirror.

However, he still confuses the consonants / p / and / t / as, for example, in

" pot " (the container made of plastic used by children as toilet), " papa ", " popi " (toy) he pronounces "to", "tata", "toti".

The third child we followed in this age range is Marcelin. He is a 1 : 00 year-old child. He lives at Mbobero in a family where parents did not go beyond the second year of secondary school.

When we showed him a mirror, he was very interested to see his face in it. But what was more interesting was that he wanted to beat his own image. The reason was that it was the first time he saw a mirror.

Contrarily to Victor, he did not produce any sound, though he was older than the latter. According to his father, Marcelin is shy. When he wants to be carried by his mother, he only cries and weeps. It is then up to his mother to interpret his reactions.

From the three children here above, only one happened to recognize himself as " toto " and did not neither look for the image behind the mirror nor beat it. This is because this one grows up normally in a family where he has allowance to a mirror. This result represents 33,3 per cent and that very few children of this age can have a positive reaction towards it. This is because many children have no access to a mirror since parents hide it with the fear that their children may break it. Another reason is that, as Elvis' mother let us know, some parents, especially in villages, argue that a mirror may cause a child become epileptic" But this has to be looked at as superstitution.

The second group of our sample is made up of 5 children aged between 1:6 and 2:00. This is the age range which will make us confirm or reject our hypothesis.

Fernand, the first child we examined, is 1 : 6. He lives in a family where his father attended the Nurses college and obtained an undergraduate degree in Laboratory Sciences. His mother attended secondary school and got a certifcate in nutrition.

Despite all the language advances he has mastered in for example asking for food, calling his father's name, identifying and naming things, Fernand has not got any notion of himself yet. This is what was observed when he was shown a mirror. He did not know that the image in it was his. Instead, he called it " toto ". We also showed him a photograph of his. He did not even happen to know who was printed in.

We went on and got in a family where it is only father who attended class. There, Emile, 2 : 00, was our subject. We greeted him but he did not answer. Physically, Emile has not learned to walk yet. Her mother justified this by saying that he has always been ill. This may even have affected his language acquisition because we did not record any word from him.

When we showed him a mirror, his first attitude was to kiss it. The second was to look for the image in the mirror behind it. This is to suggest that he is still reacting as a child of 0 : 6.

As the child between 1 : 00 and 2 : 00 can now produce his first words if he grows up normally, we came to a child who was asking for a sweet from her mother. She is called Jerry. She is a 1 : 7 year-old girl. Even though she was capable of asking for a sweet (bobo), she did not recognize herself in the mirror. She instead exclaimed " toto ", a word used to refer to babies in general, when she looked at her image through.

Of this age range Emma, 2 : 3, is our fourth child. He is a boy whose father is a mechanic. All her uncles and aunts are still at secondary school. They constitute a big family in which, we assume, Emma picks up all his language which evolves positively.

We showed him a mirror after the greetings and the following conversation took place.

Interviewer : Aye Emma ? (How are you, Emma ?)

Emma : Bien (Fine)

He immediately asked me for the mirror.

Emma : Nipe iyi Kio (Give me this mirror)

And he called the girl with whom he was playing and said :

Jutine (Justine), Kuya Ona, Mie uyu mu kio (Come and see, Justine.

"Look at me in the mirror).

Then we went on asking him.

Interviewer : Ni nani ule mu kio ? (Who's that in the mirror ?)

Emma : Mie, di ! (Me, of course !)

Interviewer : Papa njo nani ? (What's your father's name ?)

Emma : Ye njo papa Ndata. (He's Papa Ndata).

Finally he spoke to the image in the mirror as to say :

"We njo Emma ?" (It is you Emma, isn't it ?).

However, we discovered that Emma was jealous, greedy and selfish. He did not want Justine to touch the mirror, he did not want to share food with her neither, though he had called her to show her the mirror. This is to say that he has developed a strong ego.

The last informant in this category is Neema. She is 2 : 6. She lives at Mbobero, particularly at Ikambi. We also asked her questions, but in Mashi, as follows :

Interviewer : Aye ? (How are you ?)

Neema : Bien (Fine, thanks)

Interviewer : Izino lyawe we ndi ? (What's your name ?)

Neema : Nie Neema (I'm Neema)

Interviewer : Bici ebi ? (What's this ? ) (Showing her a mirror).

She did not know it. Then we asked her mother Neema's recent photograph when she got baptized and she reacted to the following question.

Interviewer : Ndi oyu ? (Who's this ?)

Neema : Nie oyu Neema (This is me Neema).

The question is to know why she could not recognize herself in the mirror whereas she could on a photograph. The reason is, according to villagers, that children, as already mentioned, should not have access to a mirror.

The following conversation indicates that Neema has already entered kindergaten, where French is their school language.

Interviewer : Bonjour ! (Hello !)

Neema : Bonjour ! (Hello !

Înterviewer : Comment ça va ? (How are you ?)

Neema : Comment ça va ? (How are you ?)

The above conversation suggests that even if she goes to school, she does not differentiate between a question and an answer in French. But in Mashi, her mother tongue, she does. However, this conversation is an indication that Neema is at the three-word stage where she has already got some traces of word inflections.

The conclusion to this age range is that from five children, only two are now able to identify themselves as " mie, nie oyu " (me). They represent only 40 per cent of the cases recorded.

The third category of children in our sample are aged 3 : 00. They are four as presented here below.

The first, Binja, aged 3 : 6, is the elder sister of Neema, the preceding child of the group of children under the age of : 2 : 00.

Although Binja proves to be an old child throughout the question she put us when we wanted to interview her, she did not want to answer any of our questions. Her question, in Mashi, " Bici wampa ? " (What are you going to give me ?) let us undestand that she did not want to collaborate.

According to her mother, this question is one way asking us to offer her something like an avocado, a sugar cane or a sweet if we want her to talk because she hardly talks to " strangers ".

To induce her into collaborating with us, we brought her a sweet the next time we met her. She immediately reacted, saying " Merci " (Thank you).

Then, the following conversation took place :

Interviewer : Aye sasa ? (How are you then ?)

Binja : Bien (Fine)

Interviewer : Izino lyawe we ndi ? (what's your name ?)

Binja : Nie Binja (I'm Binja)

Interviewer : Papa ye ndi ? (What's your father's name ?)

Binja : Ye Defo. (He's called Defo ) (Ildephonse)

Interviewer : K'onaj'oku masomo ? (Do you go to school ?)

Binja : Ntacikuja. (I've given it up).

Despite the avoidance technique she uses very often, it is clear that at her age she has acquired a sufficient language to communicate with.

As Halliday (1973 : 8) points it out, a three year-old child is well aware of what a question and answer are. The three other children here below happened to answer the questions we put them.

Carine is a 3 : 8 year-old girl. She lives at Mbobero with her mother who attended the second grade of secondary school. Her father did not attend school. But together they happen to provide their children with good education. That is why Carine is at kindergaten.

When we showed her the mirror, she directly said "Mie uyu " (this is me). To be more satisfied we put her some questions to which she answered satisfactorily.

Interwiewer : We njo nani ? (Who are you ?)

Carine : Mie njo Carine (I'm Carine)

Interwiewer : Nini ile uko nayo ? (what's that ?) (Referring to the mirror)

Carine : Kio (mirror)

Interviewer : Unasomaka ? (Do you go to school ?)

Carine : Ndio (Yes)

Interviewer : Wapi ? (Where ? )

Carine : Mu Ndeko ^*(*) (at the " Ndeko ").

These short good answers encouraged us and they are an indication that Carine has already matured.

Rosette is another child who impressed us very much. She is 3 : 9 and is now at kindergaten. When we met her, she had a pencil and told us that she was drawing a table. We wanted to know to whom the pencil belonged ; she replied : " Ni yangu " (It is mine). Through the mirror, she said :

" Ona mie, ona Lucienne "

(Look at me ; Look at Lucienne).

Lucienne is her younger sister.

Then we interviewed her. She told us her father and mother's names. She also told us that she is at kindergaten. To prove it, she started reciting a piece of text she had learned at school and that we recorded as follows :

" Le reveil de Nina. "

Nina, lève-toi, il est temps.

Oui, maman.

Bonjour maman, j'ai bien dormi

Maman, regarde, Dina est là.

Oui, ma fille, il est temps

d'aller à l'école.

Au revoir maman, à tantôt

Sois bien sage en classe. "

The above piece of recitation can be translated as follows :

" The Waking-up of Nina. "

Nina, wake up ! It is time

Yes, mommy.

Hello, mum. I've slept well.

Hello, my daughter

Mum, look. There's Dina.

Oh yes, my daughter. It is

time to go to school.

Goodbye mum. See you.

Ok. Behave wisely at school. "

Not only is Rosette intelligent but she proves to have a form of her own individuality throughout the language she uses.

Schola Faida, the last interviewee in this group, is also 3 : 9. Her father has already passed away. Her mother, who lives at Mbobero, earns a hard living by selling beer. She told us that her child is very clever and can answer any question. We asked her to bring us a recent photograph of her family and we showed it to her daughter. She immediately showed us her image and that of his brother, Junior.

" Mama, si mie uyu na Junior ! "

( Mum, this is me and Junior !).

We went on and asked her these questions.

Interviewer : We njo nani ? (What's your name)

Schola : Mie njo Schola. ( I'm Schola)

Interviewer : Unasomaka ? (Do you go to school ?)

Schola : Ndio. (Yes)

Interviewer : Wapi ? (Where ?)

Schola : Mu Ndeko (At the " Ndeko ").

Interviewer : Mu somo gani ? (In which class ?)

Schola : Mu maternelle. (At kindergaten, as to say that there is no class

differenciation.)

Interviewer : Banakuitaka nani ku masomo ? (How are you called at

school ?)

Schola : Schola FAIDA MUTABESHA.

All these four children show satisfaction concerning their language development as well as their individuality. They use their language to prove that they know, not only about themselves, but also about other things they have already learned. Therefore, together with Weeks (1979 : 8) we can say that

" the child offers to someone else something unique to the child_____

somethig he has to say. It is the child's own gift. And it is throughout

this kind of personnal offering that the child's personality develops. "

The last category of children concerned with our research were those aged from 4 : 00 to 6 : 00. Unfortunately, no child aged 4 : 00 was selected in our sample. But between 4 : 00 and 5 : 00, children are characterised by making noise, drawing, play-group activities. Together with 6 : 00 years-old children, they use their language in all their everyday activities. And it is only at 6 : 00 that a child can qualify for primary schooling.

The first child we contacted was Amisi KANINGU, aged 5 : 00. He lives in Bagira and is at kindergaten.

Here are his answers to the questions we asked him.

Interviewer : Aye ? (How are you ?)

Amisi : Bien (Fine, thanks)

Interviewer : We njo nani ? (Who are you ?)

Amisi : Amisi

Interviewer : Nini hii ? (what's this ?)

Amisi : Kio (Mirror)

Interviewer : Ni nani ule mu kio ? (Who's that in the mirror ?)

Amisi : Ni mie Amisi (It is me, Amisi).

Interviewer : Unasomaka ? (Do you go to school ?)

Amisi : Ndio (Yes).

Interviewer : Wapi ? (Where ?)

Amisi : Ku Foyer ^*(*) (At Foyer)

Since his answers were satisfactory, we profited from asking him his parents' identities ; they were absent at the time. He told us that his father's and mother's names were Philippe and Modestine.

What we observed was that Amisi is a stummerer. He often hesitated in pronouncing words and nouns as in " Ki - Kio " , " Mo-Modestine', etc. We understood this phenomenon as normal since there has been some people whose language did not develop earlier on because of fright or any affective shock in their childhood.

A help to such a child is to talk to him calmly, friendly and slowly until he learns to produce words naturally.

The last but one child is Adrien, aged 6 : 00. He is in the first grade at Bulenga Primary School in Bagira Commune. His father and mother work at Saint Paul Secondary School as teacher and cook, respectively.

Adrien is a noisy boy. When he was shown his family photograph her aunt gave us, he ran with it outside and started calling his sisters and brothers names.

" Mie uyu, Padiri Sota " (This is me, Father Sota).

" Ona Judith : Machafu " (Look at Judith : Cheeks !)

" Ona na ki Bony : Mutebusi " (Look also at Big Bony : Mutebusi !).

He made everybody laugh so that no more than the above sentences could be recorded.

Philemon, aged 6 : 00, is the last subject for this piece of research. He is in the first grade of Mbobero Primary School. When he was presented a mirror, he laughed. Then, we asked him why he laughed.

He told us that it was because he saw how he was dirty as follows :

" Minajichekea ju niko buchafu ".

This sentence let us understand that this boy was already old enough to feel ashamed in some circumstances.

Philemon told us that his father is called Emile Ntakobajira and his mother's name is Honorine. We finally learned from his uncle that his father studied up to the second form of secondary school and her mother has no school education.

The last three children give evidence to the fact that the language they have already acquired is a tool to qualify them as grown-up children. Their interactions prove sufficiently that their self-identity has already developed since they can know what is good or bad as in " niko buchafu " or " ona Judith : machafu ".

* ^* " Ndeko " is a meeting room of a local Catholic Church. It is a place where kindergaten is organised in the morning and in the afternoon Christians meet in to pray and discuss about any topic concerning their lives.

* ^* In the Democratic Republic of Congo school system, " Foyer " is an adult women's education centre. But in Bagira this centre is no longer used for the benefit of women. The building is now rent by a private kindergaten called MAENDELEO, but people still refer to it as " Foyer ".