Your cognitive functions as a child

[strychnine]

From what I remember, and what my parents tell me, I was probably not an Fi child. But then, I don't really believe that I could have had a different dominant function back then. That doesn't make sense. So my parents must be wrong, I guess.

 

[Thalassa]

Hmm...apparently I was into mirroring at a young age (j/k), but yeah I was told at the age of two my grandfather was fixing a lawnmower and cut himself, and exclaimed "dammit!" and I mimicked him perfectly, stomping my foot and saying dammit, which made everybody laugh.

I liked attention when I was a kid. I was always smiling brightly for a lot of my pictures, I wish I had better pics to post here than the ones my aunt uploaded on-line, because they reminded me of Petra Pan's pics (also ENFP) just smiling these big huge smiles.

I danced on the coffee table, sang songs from the radio and musicals, was quite good at keeping myself entertained with imaginary games...I remember one time I fell down and skinned my knee, and my great-grandma was walking with a cane, so I grabbed my baton and used it as a "cane" since we both had bum legs.

I loved stuffed animals and dolls and pink and wanted everything I saw. People tell me I was kind of a brat, but the funny thing is when I started school I cried and cried the first day, and was nervous about talking to the other kids.

I learned how to read before I started school and liked to show this off, especially to adults. I remember reading a book to my class in first grade, and one of the kids accusing me of not actually reading it, and I became quite indignant. LOL.

I also remember not wanting to settle in to class in first grade and having mud on my dress shoes, and spending an inordinate time cleaning them so I wouldn't have to sit at my desk, and my teacher stopping me and making me sit down.

I loved being outdoors, one time ran off in the woods near my house with my dog, and got yelled at. Except I kept doing it secretly because I felt perfectly safe and kept ending up in the farmer's yard down the street. We lived in a rural area, so I don't know my grandparents got mad. I guess they thought I'd get bitten by a snake or hit by a car, but there were very few cars on our road at that time. It wasn't even paved, it was gravel.

I had two imaginary friends, their names were Tommy and Lisa. I also liked to jump on my bed a bunch and listen to records.

 

[wolfy]

I remember being really sad a chick I had died when the cat scared it. Just the feeling in my body, the emotions, and controlling it. I also remember the feeling when I won a ride to school on the back of a pick up on my birthday and invited all my friends. I don't know what functions they are but those two kinds seem to be pretty characteristic.

 

[Thalassa]

Well, I don't have a lot of memories from before age 5 either... that's about when it starts for me, and I remember the birth of my sister. My recollections were focusing on the 5-10 years old segment, and I always remember looking at everything in the framework of "Does this make sense?" And if it didn't, then I wanted to understand it better until it did make sense or I could be sure it was non-sensical. I didn't realize until I got older that many people don't start with that framework any time something happens or they get a new piece of information.

And there were those intense experiences, like when I cried most of the night because I was trying to imagine eternity but my mind couldn't grasp it because it was impossibly huge. (I had already moved past death, since I could understand that.)



Sometimes it's hard to tell what we're reading back into our past vs experienced at the time. (I wondered that when reading Dave Pelzer's memoirs, including "A Boy Named Dave," for example -- much of the narrative is inundated by references that seem to be coming from the adult Dave but are attributed by the writer to the child Dave, where I honestly perceive the child Dave being more "in the moment" and not mentally articulating those things to himself at the time.)

I have some very vivid memories of being three and four years old, which is why I remember my grandmother and great-grandmother so well. I remember those as being some of the happiest years of my entire life.

I don't claim to remember being any younger than two, though, no way.

I do think I had nightmares about being born, though. When I was three or four I remember waking up screaming from nightmares that I was being suffocated by something that reminded me of raw hamburger. I remember this VIVIDLY. I couldn't have been more than two or three, because I was still in "the middle room" with the twin bed that followed my crib, I remember sitting up being terrified that I couldn't breathe and the nightlight was on...I was moved into the back room, they painted it pink, and I got a double bed when I was around four, so I was pretty young.

A lot of it blends together, though, I think. A lot of my 2/3/4 year old memories are very "atmospheric" with only a few things being sharply clear. Everything else is the general feeling, days blended together in the routine of childhood, and my childhood was pretty quiet because of where we lived, I never had to go to daycare or anything, so my days were assuredly quite similar.

I remember special things, like my grandmother teaching VBS - I again couldn't have been more than three or four, because she got really sick when I was five and died a month before my sixth birthday - and making a plaster of paris mold of my hand and painting it yellow with the materials she had gotten for her class.

 

[Mal12345]

If I was by myself, I was an introvert. If I was with my friends, I was an extravert.

 

[Orangey]

I was apparently a very hyper, destructive child. I was the only kid in the family to actually electrocute myself by sticking a paper-clip in an electrical outlet.

 

[Thalassa]

I was apparently a very hyper, destructive child. I was the only kid in the family to actually electrocute myself by sticking a paper-clip in an electrical outlet.

That's funny because that's exactly what I picture an STP child being like.

 

[CrystalViolet]

What I remember...I was actually a pretty outgoing kid, but I wanted to do every thing on my terms. I remember informing every one at 4 1/2, I decided I was going up two class because I liked the teacher better. This was about a week after I started. Also I didn't like being with all the dumb babies (I was the youngest, mind you)and everything was too easy. I actually took my stuff and and sat down in her classroom. I could already read and everything, so why did I have to stay with the dumb babies.
As an kid, I didn't know they didn't believe I could read. I'd only just learned to talk six months before, because I had been profoundly deaf (I had a very severe case of glue ear which had been treated, long story) and that my mum had been fighting for me to be put in a main stream school, with the combined efforts of my speech therapist and next door neighbor (a childhood educational specialist.) So I couldn't work out why they thought I couldn't do the work because I helped half the kids with their work at playtime and lunch.
Memories before that, are blurred. I remember the hospital when I had my first pair of grommets. A few memories of my dad and me. I remember our first house. And I remember seeing my sister before she died. (I also have some really awful memories, stuff I won't go into here. Think textbook INFP and traumatic childhood associations. )
I was a very Ne kid. Couldn't shut me up, LOL, and a whirlwind. I was also extremely determined to get my way. I was a day dreamer too. I questioned every thing. It all changed, when I moved to NZ. I was very tall and gangly with a Scottish brogue, not good at sports and a ginger to boot. I also committed the fatal crime of being really brainy. I got teased and bullied mercilessly (although not psychically, because I had a mean temper.) So I withdrew and never really came back out. I became very morbid and dark, wrote lots of stories about people committing suicide. And ended up being questioned by the principle and child psychologist, about whether I was depressed or not. I was ten, and a little too knowing for a ten year old. Personally I thought it was funny. I wrote a lot poetry too from about 8 on wards, and I drew alot, and read even more. I had been going to library by myself since I started school. All in all, I was a really strange kid. Nobody knew what to do with me. I also remember never knowing how to feel about things. I tended to go numb....I was dealing with massive emotions, and suppressed, because I had to stay strong but being built the way I am, I did my damdest, but they'd leak out. Sometimes I'd react oddly. I was very sensitive. They say kids from abusive homes make the best criminal profilers, especially if they are empathetic....I think that statement is true. One of two things happens, you either shut down that side of you, or it gets fine tuned and you used it as a tool for predication. I remember I had a very percuilar sense of justice. I stood down big kids of ten when I was six because they hurt my friend and spilt his smarties. My mother said I was very close to him until he died (he was hit by a truck), she said I was never quite same after he died. I kinda blocked it out of my memory. Apparently I missed him some thing chronic. I stood up to teachers too when they were wrong (or I thought they were being injust). And I'd do things like wonder out of classrooms and hide in the bathroom or closets (okay with one teacher in particular, because she hated me, and made me sit by the stinky boy all the time.)


Um, sorry for the wall of text.

 

[INTP]

I remember one time I fell down and skinned my knee, and my great-grandma was walking with a cane, so I grabbed my baton and used it as a "cane" since we both had bum legs.

 

[entropie]

Prolly nobody believes me but my first words were "light on" and "light off" lol. I said that of course in german and I spoke very unclearly until the beginning of age 3. I was standing in the living room and switched the main light on and off saying, lights on and lights off rofl. Must have been the demon child

I 've been as a child constantly been fascinated by lights of all sorts. Until today I like nice ambient lightining and nearly all of my electroniic and mechanical projects have some sort of background lightning or signal lightning which is actually not needed by the devices main function. Well... guess its too late to ponder if I could be crazy

 

[CuriousFeeling]

I guess I was a mix of Fe and Ni in those days. Both seemed to be strong. I was much more focused on where I wanted to be when I was older. I couldn't wait till I was in my 20s and had a job (and at the time I thought that I would have a family). I did not feel comfortable in my own skin then... I felt like a misplaced adult in the kids world. Never understood why people weren't more respecting towards each other, and why other students were late to class and irresponsible. Although, I was quite a sensitive and irritable child... if someone didn't accept my ideas in a group, I would become frustrated. Didn't work very well in group work at all. Sometimes I would spend way too much time to get a task done because I was so stubborn to get the correct answer. While I was caring towards others, and didn't mind spending time with other people, I didn't mind spending time playing on my own... playing pretend mostly. I was in the middle between extroversion and introversion. When interacting with others, it felt like I was zoning in on the person and connecting with them. But at the same time, I was comfortable on my own. Was a very studious child, loved learning. Very focused on what I wanted out of life, or others in general. I wanted people to show more kindness, consideration, and be an individual. I hated it when people would make fun of others because they were different, or ones that would make fun of me.

I guess indicative of Ni, Fe, and Ti.

 

[wolfy]

I remember being really sad a chick I had died when the cat scared it. Just the feeling in my body, the emotions, and controlling it. I also remember the feeling when I won a ride to school on the back of a pick up on my birthday and invited all my friends. I don't know what functions they are but those two kinds seem to be pretty characteristic.

Sounds like Fi and Se to me.

 

[Thalassa]

Sounds like Fi and Se to me.

Wolfy, you're so meta.

 

[wolfy]

Wolfy, you're so meta.

I had to look that up.

A term, especially in art, used to characterize something that is characteristically self-referential.

"So I just saw this film about these people making a movie, and the movie they were making was about the film industry..."
"Dude, that's so meta. Stop before my brain explodes."

So, I have always been meta. What function is that?

 

[Thalassa]

I had to look that up.

A term, especially in art, used to characterize something that is characteristically self-referential.

"So I just saw this film about these people making a movie, and the movie they were making was about the film industry..."
"Dude, that's so meta. Stop before my brain explodes."

So, I have always been meta. What function is that?

Probably Fi. I'm self-referential too.

 

[skylights]

Prolly nobody believes me but my first words were "light on" and "light off"[...] I was standing in the living room and switched the main light on and off saying, lights on and lights off rofl. Must have been the demon child

I 've been as a child constantly been fascinated by lights of all sorts. Until today I like nice ambient lightining and nearly all of my electroniic and mechanical projects have some sort of background lightning or signal lightning which is actually not needed by the devices main function. Well... guess its too late to ponder if I could be crazy

NTPs

 

[Inconnue]

In nursery school, I was an introvert. I observed others and thought things like : she must be the leader / I want the same cake / the Tooth Fairy isn't supposed to give you a monopoly therefore she doesn't exist. I spend a lot of time alone in the sandbox.

I also ate a leaf in order to see whether I would die or not.

According to my parents, my teachers would have say that I was extremely inattentive, immature and always disturbing the class because I couldn't stay still - strangely enough, I don't remember that part. lol


--

Some of my activities as a child, apart from playing with dolls and cars and having a strong tendency to dress as a witch or an indian chief or a cow boy (yes, I was really into normal gender roles XD and I always loved role playing with some fantasy/scifi themes) were :
-learning braille and wishing I had a blind friend so I could write to them,
-making spiders with paper, giving them names and telling everyone why spiders aren't monsters,
-trying to see what a colour blind perso saw when they did the tests,
-learning about the clouds and weather and boring everyone with it,
-learning random scientific facts (and then, ask why it is that way and tell people when they were wrong),
-making an experiment with some cheese and coke in order to create a new virus,
-pick up a dead bird to see if the feathers would disappear with the body and also because I liked feathers (I was young, it's not so insane),
-asking disturbing questions about the probablity that I could have been somebody else,
-eating disgusting mixtures as an experiment (conclusion : I won't be a chef),
-having an imaginary friend from the dark side of the moon who talked a language with numbers.

I was also very bossy toward my brother and screamed everytime he tried to annoy me as well.

And sometimes I took idioms very literaly and was disappointed that some things that seemed cool in my mind didn't happen.

I was soooo nice !

 

[Sunny Ghost]

I remember going into an Ni-Ti loop for hours so I could entertain myself.

I often feel as though my childhood was a big Fi-Ni loop. I was terrified of most people it seems.

My younger brother claims to remember things when he was just an infant also. We actually have home movies from back then, but not from when I or my older brother were babies. This brings a question to mind whether or not these are false memories that you claim to have remembered, but instead you just heard about or saw them. They might be legitimate and they might now.

*edit* <I started writing a long paragraph here, but then I realized that I was just going off on a random, nonsensical tangent. Deleted. >

I'm not trying to discount your memory... I'm just writing what I'm thinking. It's probably all ramble-y and boring.



I'd like to know as well.

I actually have memory recall from when I was 1 and 2 years old. They're vague, but they're there. It's more like details though. Like the house I lived in, the staircase in it. The pet cat we had at the time, and the hill we lived on, and the garage and driveway. However I do have one, memory of me in a diaper, my mom pregnant with my sister who's only a year younger than me, and us going to the public pool. I wasn't wearing a shirt... and somehow I seem to recall feeling too naked or exposed.

(edit: Actually, the clothes issue was always there too, even at a very young age. I didn't like to look too girly and showy, nor did I like it when I was dressed too much like a boy. I wore a lot of blacks, grey's, and other dark colors once I was able to pick out my own wardrobe. I detested standing out.)

However, when I move into age 4 to 5 or maybe 6, my memory recall is more on my feelings. How some situation scared me, or embarrassed me, or scared the living shit out of me. I was incredibly timid and shy as a child. Always freaked out by the world of people around me. I wanted nothing to do with it. But it's also as though, I didn't realize I should interact with it at times, either. People had asked my mother if I were mute, apparently. I was always sort of just observing or taking things in via how they affected me emotionally. I was definitely very Fi as a child.

I don't know if Se was already in development when in preschool and first grade... but I recall someone getting me a Miss Piggy painters apron for Christmas when I was in preschool. Perhaps this person just wanted to encourage creativity? IDK. In first grade, however, the first thing outside my self and outside my feelings, and outside my own observations and interactions and childhood curiosity, was my art class. I was super excited about learning to draw houses that were 2-d. I wanted to learn how to improve my drawing and always aspired to be an artist.

My learning style was very hands on like an Se child, I suppose. I recall discovering the laws of gravity on my own by playing with a bucket of water. Why I had the bucket or was spinning it, I'm uncertain... but I just know I was intrigued by the weight and how with force the water did not fall out when spun even upside down. Things of that nature.

Once I got into about 3rd grade is when I really started to love to dance and sing with my sister and neighbor, who became my best friend. We liked to play Cyndi Lauper and Madonna, and jump up and down and around the room singing songs. I still do this... a lot. I think this is why I like AyoitsStepho so much. Ha.

Probably Fi. I'm self-referential too.

 

[Sunny Ghost]

the Tooth Fairy isn't supposed to give you a monopoly therefore she doesn't exist.
!

 

[Inconnue]

I was apparently a very hyper, destructive child. I was the only kid in the family to actually electrocute myself by sticking a paper-clip in an electrical outlet.

Reminds me of my brother who is an ISTP. He was rather quiet and calm but secretly destroyed things to see how they worked and once eletrocuted himself. I, on the other hand, drew random things on the wall to pretend I was a prehistoric woman ("Don't talk to me, Mum, I'm in the past !").

We should have a minute of silence for our parents... and remember our childhood when we want to have kids. XD