Looking back on one’s own childhood, it’s easy to see how memory seems to be closely related to objects. The first impressions and the first words will almost always relate to the parent figures, and this seems to happen across the world in every culture. The first memories, however, usually relate to objects in terms of their color and their sensual qualities.

Falling down in the snow, touching a dog’s fur for the first time, or the particulars of baby bedding have profound, lasting impressions on the brain, and certainly inform a developing identity in the world. All of the senses are involved, of course, and the senses serve to tell the brain information about what’s happening in the world. This can help to explain why some of the first memories are there in the first place.

Before the development of language, babies do process the information in much the same way. They respond to stimuli, and learn the basic rules about how objects behave. It doesn’t seem to enter into awareness, however, until there is a consciousness of self and other. Objects do play a very important role for this reason. Buying bedding for the baby can be a wonderful experience on its own, but if one keeps in mind the way children develop, it’s also a way of making room for memories that will begin to make up the mind of a human being in the world.

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