The implications for this are significant in that the socialization process of a child can be scrutinized and redeveloped to improve the socialization of children. Different techniques can be applied to figure out what works and what does not. To think of a child as having the competency to make decisions in the socialization process is just ludicrous and anti-Mead. As the infant becomes aware that he or she has mother and father the child begins to become social. But to repeat a child must first develop a sense of symbol and response before a self can be developed.
Object manipulation is key for a child to understand meaning.
Baldwin uses the example of when a child sees his father using a spade to dig, the spade becomes associated with the digging. When a child sees someone using a ball to bounce and throw, the child associates throwing and bouncing with a ball. This might go towards understanding why a child throws his or her toys, even the ones that were not made for bouncing or throwing. But give it to a child and the child will throw it. The child has not yet made the connection between the manipulation of the horse, the object, and that horses were not made for bouncing, the meaning.