Rey asked:

Why is it that we as humans cannot remember the past as toddlers but can remember the past as
children? Is there a turning point that is unknown? Can someone really remember their first birthday?

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I trained in Montessori teaching, and Maria Montessori believed that the reason we can't remember
much from when we were very small is because of the kind of learning that is taking place then. In her
book The Absorbent Mindpublished in 1949, she wrote:

"The child has a different relation to his environment from ours. Adults admire their environment; they
can remember it and think about it; but the child absorbs it. The things he sees are not just
remembered; they form part of his soul. He incarnates in himself all in the world about him that his
eyes see and his ears hear. In us the same things produce no change, but the child is transformed by
them."

So, rather than being remembered, what a child learns and experiences between birth and about 3
years old becomes incorporated into their character and personality. It becomes part of the way they
think and behave. Montessori thought that between 3 and 6 years old (approx), a child gradually
becomes more self-conscious (i.e. conscious of themself as an individual, separate from other people
and their surroundings), their ability to absorb information and experiences decreases, and they begin
to be able to remember and recall things like adults do.

I don't know whether or not modern child psychology supports Montessori's view on this. Perhaps
another contributor can answer that?

Katharine Hunt