Nursery World - Novelty factor

Children's fascination with new and strange things is an essential part of human nature. Philip Waters looks at how this trait can be encouraged during play the little boy stuffed part of a sticky, rubberised alien toy up his nostril and ran around the room shaking his head from side to side, the makeshift blob of mucus swinging above his lip. 'Look Phil, it's a giant bogey,' he said. Similarly, his sister was squishing her alien toy in the palm of her hand to see how far its head would swell without popping.

the little boy stuffed part of a sticky, rubberised alien toy up his nostril and ran around the room shaking his head from side to side, the makeshift blob of mucus swinging above his lip. 'Look Phil, it's a giant bogey,' he said. Similarly, his sister was squishing her alien toy in the palm of her hand to see how far its head would swell without popping.

Grotesque could be the adult's response to this type of play, yet for all its gruesomeness, there is a very natural and powerful internal mechanism driving the children to engage with these artefacts in this way. This mechanism is called neophilia - a curiosity for, and a fascination with, everything that is new, strange and rare.

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