Child behavior

Front matter

Class LJ^ llZ ,

PRKSENTCl) BY

A CRITICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF

Contents

CHAPTER PAGB

Introduction 7

I Historical Survey of Child Study . . 13

Introduction

"Child Study" is a term so well-worn and s dely used that its application and meaning in any one instance consequently needs definition. Studies are made of the growth of the child, his games, his vor bulary, his mental activities, and they are all legitimate branches of child study, somewhat overlapping, it is true, and all of them far more fragmentary than complete.

One of the lines along which a great deal of work has been done is that of the mental activities of the child or on what might justly be called child psychology. This division is recognized from the standpoint of psychology itself and is again given varied connotations as it deals with different features of the subject. All of these subdivisions have, however, one thing in common. They treat of the growing organism as contrasted with the predominantly functioning organism of the adult. Bearing this characteristic in mind, child psychology may be justly said to include the study of all the stages of the intellectual development of the organism previous to the stage of complete maturity of mind. Usage has rather clearly discriminated for us, however, three main divisions in this long period of development. These are usually studied separately, although not without relating the findings of any one period to those of the others.

The most widely known and best developed of these three divisions of child psychology is educational psy-

8 INTRODUCTION

chology or psychology as it applies to the child of school age and consequently to his education. Partly overlapping this but separated from it by the rift of enormous physiological changes is the psychology of the adolescent. In its turn the study of the mind of the adolescent can be separated from the study of the mind of the adult only by rather artificial discriminations.

On the other extreme of the age-limits of childhood we have the child of the pre-school age. Here the term "Child Study" is generally used whether or no the problem attacked is a psychological one. In view of the tremendous development of intellect that occurs in this period and considering the large number of studies of such development that have already been made, it seems logical to use the term "Psychology" in distinguishing these studies from investigations dealing with physical development, social reactions, and sense functioning, despite the fact that there are necessary correlations which must be considered.

But psychology must itself be defined. Shall the term be used to designate any type of study which describes the child's mental processes through observation, analogy, interpretation, and experimentation or shall the usage be more limited? In so far as one wishes to be scientifically accurate and in accord with the accepted meaning of to-day the term should be used only to indicate the report of observations made under controlled conditions which are such that the experiments may be repeated and the results verified by any competent person at any future time.

Even so the term "Psychology" has a connotation which is very apt to be misleading when applied to the study of young children. Psychology deals with mental

INTRODUCTION 9

processes, with images, ideas and judgments. These the young child can not report to us, nor can we study them directly in their functioning in him, but only through inference, deduction and analogy. Results obtained thus are not scientific in the sense of the natural sciences. The animal psychologists have met and conquered this same situation and now study the behavior of their subjects without dependence upon the assumption of such and such subjective processes. They are content to ascertain the exact relations existing between stimulus and reaction. It seems fairly logical that those wishing to enroll the study of the young child among the sciences should take the same step, should be content to study his behavior. Of course in its wider meaning this would include all the activities of the child but in a stricter sense we may use it to mean the study of more or less complex reaction to definitely ascertained stimuli.

The term "Child Behavior" will therefore be used in this discussion to indicate the observations of and the experimentations upon the mental processes of children under school age, as expressed in their behavior or reaction to stimuli and ascertained under conditions permitting repetition and verification. But the value of any such study will be greatly increased if several additional factors are taken into consideration. The problem on learning, memory, language, or anything else will be far more valuable if it is studied in connection with full recognition and evaluation of the physical organism, the environmental conditions, and the past experiences of the child. Also, the problem undertaken, whatever it is, should be correlated with and compared with similar studies on older children.

Moreover, if we are attempting to formulate a basis

10 INTRODUCTION

for a science of Child Behavior, there are a few questions we should ask before undertaking any specific investigation. The answers to these questions will undoubtedly indicate the most probable lines of profitable work. The questions are the following. What work has been done and what results have been obtained regarding the mental development of the young child.'' To what extent do these investigations fail and what are the reasons for their errors .f* What improvements in technique, apparatus and method can be made in the new work to be done?

Then, when a piece of research has been completed, the results should be evaluated not only from the standpoint of the absolute findings but also from the standpoint of their interpretation, their significance for science in general and, in this age of applied values, from the standpoint of their use. Also, every problem should give, as a result of its being intimately known through experience, suggestions for modifications of use in future experiments and also suggestions for new but correlated investigations.

Let us here attack these problems in the order mentioned, trying to explain more fully by example just what is meant. First, in order to avoid duplication and to avail ourselves of the best that the experience of past experimenters has to offer we must survey the results so far obtained by those studying the young child. These results will be found in the various books on "Child Study."

Chapter I Historical Survey Of Child Study

IT would be interesting to trace the evolution of the place the child has played in human thought and plans since the earliest days of recorded events but that would lie a little aside from the main purpose of this discussion.

All we can do here is indicate the more important factors in the development of child study and see how they give rise to child psychology as a separate line of research and theory. * The place of the child was ideal in the days of Hellas ; statesmen, philosophers and citizens in general were devoted to his interests and gave of their best to his training. To them this appeared as but natural since he was the future State and only through giving him the most perfect preparation would the future State be as mighty as possible. Schools were pleasant places and the lessons of the Greek boy would seem play to the present-day child, but one great principle appears to have been disregarded. The boy was trained as a part of the group, the goal to be reached subserved the purpose of the group and the child as an individual was unrecognized.

A With Christianity the child sank into obscurity. The same faith which elevated one child to Divinity made all other children sinful in their very nature and the Dark Ages could from the standpoint of the child have had no other cognomen. The stress was everywhere other-worldly, although this gradually changed as the Renaissance dawned and glimpses of brighter things may be seen.

^ The first ray of light which we can point out objectively as indicating the advent of a better day is the appearance of the Orbis Pictis of Comenius in 1658. This first picture book for children shows us several things. The child is coming once more into the focus of attention and he is regarded as a creature having some interests peculiar to himself which must be met in a way adapted to him. The stern necessity of making him an honorable and righteous man is now seen to be not incompatible with making him more happy as a child. Perhaps we might appear to be deducing too much from the advent of this book were it not that the same spirit is reflected throughout all the rest of the writings of Comenius, while the little book's immediate use and popularity throughout Europe seem to indicate that the people were ready for it. Nevertheless, another hundred years elapses before we find a generalized and definite expression of the rights of the child. This we owe to Rousseau.

With the appearance of the Emile in 1762 we have the beginnings of real child-study, both theoretical, educational and observational. We can do no better than let the author speak for himself. In the preface to the Emile he writes: "It (the Emile) was begun to give pleasure to a good mother who thinks for herself . , . We know nothing of childhood; and with our mistaken notions the further we advance the further we go astray. The wisest writers devote themselves to what a man ought to know, without asking what a child is capable of learning. They are always looking for the man in the child, without considering what he is before he becomes a man. It is to this study that I have chiefly devoted myself. ... I may be greatly mistaken as to what ought to be done, but I think I have clearly perceived the material which is to be worked upon." (145, p. 1.)

' Rousseau's estimation of his own work may be accepted to-day. Education according to his plan, eliminating the natural social relations and demanding a laborious trial and error method of finding knowledge, may appear very far from ideal but the demand that the child be allowed free activity from the time of birth, with careful consideration and individual study; the insistence upon the fact that the child has certain rights of his own; the keen observations of child nature; all show that he indeed had grasped the significant features of the situation and recognized in the study of the child himself the solution of the problems of the child and of the future man. We might trace his influence upon human thought from that day to this but we must here narrow our study to tracing only the written records of the more influential students of the child since the time of Rousseau.

" The earliest records of observations of the development of young children are probably those made by Pestalozzi (134) during the year 1774 upon his little son who was then just three and a half years old. They are not primarily psychological but a homely diary of the father's attempts at educating the child, interspersed with keen observations regarding his development mentally. It is significant that although Pestalozzi thought too little of it to publish it, this fragment of observations contains much that would be considered praiseworthy to-day. It is the humane, personalized document of a man who wrote not as an abstract scientist but as one who knew people and who loved children. But, just as Pestalozzi was interested primarily in the tendencies and abilities of children in general in order to better formulate, upon them as a basis, his principles of education, so here, also, the observations in themselves are only a means to an end. We must not forget that to Pestalozzi the child was merely the immature and future man. To quote Heubaum, "Pestalozzi had not grasped the truth that the age of childhood had significance and value in and for itself, that it carries its end and purpose in itself" (78, p. 366).

And so Dietrich Tiedemann (174) is the real founder of child study. His observations of the development of his son appeared in 1787. They are purely psychological and reflect the empirical attitude of the times. Tiedemann deplores the fact that there are not more studies of these early manifestations of the development of the mental abilities because through such studies that part of the theory of the soul which studies the development of the various mental abilities in man would be considerably advanced and hence it would further pedagogy which is necessarily based upon it. The study, despite its excellence, attracted very little attention, sank into oblivion, and was not rescued until Michelan published a French translation of it in the Journal general de Vmstruction piMique in 1863.

Tiedemann's "Die vier erste Jahre meiner Kinder" (175) does not seem to have been any more influential until it, also, was re-published in the same journal, the same year.

Froebel's "Die Menschenerziehung" (49) appeared in 1826. This, again, is the work of one who studies the young child motivated by the desire to obtain a factual basis for the development of a system of education. His observations are a mixture of empiricism and philosophical inferences. One new step he takes is of special significance from our standpoint. He points out that the child, the boy, the youth are not distinct stages but that they are continuous and that transitions are unbroken. Hence he speaks of "man in the period of earliest childhood."

In the same year Schleiermacher was expressing his views on childhood and education in his lectures at the University of Berlin. To him we owe the first complete formulation of the modern or Rousselian attitude towards the child which, in spite of the influence that his lectures must have had, develops very slowly aside from the secondary consideration that it receives in educational theory. Too much credit can hardly be given to the man who formulated the theory that "just as each period of Hfe is for itself a natural division of life and has its own definite character: so, also, should each of these periods be enjoyed in its own specific character and not be regarded simply as a means to a later period" (147, p. 317).

The immediate followers of Schleiermacher do not seem to profit by, nor to even be cognizant of, the immense advance which his attitude indicates.

In 18S8 Mme. Necker de Saussure published the first volume of her "Education Progressive" (1^1) in which she treats of the first four years of life. The second volume appeared in 1832 and carries the child beyond the age with which we are concerned here. Mme. Necker's observations of the development of mental abilities in young children are extremely fascinating, being filled with the spirit of one who wrote with an understanding of her subject matter, and they deserve wider recognition than they have received in this country. But, although the observations she records are fairly accurate, they are not made from the standpoint of a study of the child for the child's sake. Her self-confessed motive is a book on Christian education, the "constantly progressing education," not completed in this life. Her study of the child is primarily to obtain information as to which of the moral faculties develops first and what the order is of those that follow. The child is only the future man as man himself is but a transient here, preparing for the spiritual life to come.

Throughout this period, and even preceding it we find biographies and autobiographies which are literary rather than truthful, fanciful rather than practical. They are often rated among the books on child study but to place them there is rather dangerous unless one realizes that they are a type in themselves. A good illustration of this tendency which shows by contrast with these other early studies how long-distanced the method is and how much less valuable and effective from the scientific standpoint is Goltz' "Buch der Kindheit (Selbstbiographie)" (64). This has been widely read by German parents and yet it is not scientific or even methodical in its treatment. This book appeared in 1847.

In 1851 Lobisch's work, "Die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Seele des Kindes" (106), appeared. This book seems to have had great influence if we may judge by the number of times we find it quoted. Lobisch was a physician specializing on children's diseases and probably in many ways one of the earliest psychoclinicians.

The next significant publication was Sigismund's "Kind und Welt" (159). It appeared in 1856 and is one of the most delightful and suggestive books ever written on this subject. Studying his own child from birth through the periods of development of laughing, sitting, walking, and talking, Sigismund also compares its development with that of other children among his acquaintances. He gives the first suggestion of a genetic attitude and is not concerned as almost all before him have been, with educational applications. He touches upon the manifold topics of sensory and motor development while his observations regarding language and affective development are very creditable.

Hey f elder's (79) work, which is valuable chiefly because of his observations upon speech, appeared during the next two years. This is the first of the articles which tend more or less completely to select some one form of mental activity as their subject matter.

To Kussmaul (102) writing in 1859 we owe the first application of the extensive method to child study. Limiting himself to the study of the newly-born infant he makes the first generalized statements of mental development in young children that are based upon observations upon a number of cases.

From this time on the development of child study is much more rapid and the number of contributions becomes within a few years so voluminous that a complete bibliography of them, without any annotations, would far exceed this volume in size.

In 1869 the Berlin Padagogische Verein issued a bulletin urging teachers to study the children entering school in order to ascertain their range of ideas and thus glimpse their individuality and range of experience. In spite of lack of enthusiasm and, in many instances, the inability to make competent reports, the results obtained were most illuminating and valuable. They showed the appalling lack of knowledge concerning things children were supposed to have grasped just because they were within range of observation. Individual differences were markedly shown, imitation was found to influence the group answers and yet the complexity and fascination of the findings reported by Bartholomai and Schwabe (9) were undoubtedly effective in stimulating further study of the child as he is before coming under school influences.

The work of Bartholomai and Schwabe was followed by that of Lange (103) in 1879 and the influence extended to America by the similar study made by G. Stanley Hall on Boston children in 1880 (70). This was the first systematic study of the mind of the child made in America. Similar work has since been done by Netschajeff (122) in Petrograd.

In 1873 Genzmer (54) published his verification of Kussmaul's study and this was followed in 1882 by Kroner's (101) work on the same subject. This physio-psychological study of the sensory development of the young child has become one of the most frequently pursued branches of child study. Several illustrations will suffice to show the height of this development. The recent work of Canestrini (26) is noteworthy. He not only uses an objective method but studies a large group, seventy, of children under both waking and sleeping conditions, with due regard for any change in the conditions of environment or in the child's physical or emotional state.

Perhaps an even more careful study in an allied field, developed out of this, is that of Benedict and Talbot upon the "Physiology of the New-Born Infant" (11). They have studied the metabolism of one hundred new-born babies and have carried out their work in such careful detail that they can suggest certain procedures for the conservation of energy and supplemental feeding during the first week of life.

Taine's (169) brief note upon the acquisition of language in children and in the race is of interest for several reasons. It voices the genetic attitude and at the same time, since it comes to us from France, shows that Germany and Austria are not alone in progress in their new interest in the child. Moreover, this appeared in 1876 and a part of it was translated and published in the English journal Mind the next year. Darwin's "Biographical Sketch of an Infant" (34) appeared in the next number of the same magazine, its publication stimulated as he himself tells us by reading Taine's article. Written thirty-seven years before it was nevertheless, despite the delay, the first published product of English child study. This shows how little known and valued the earlier continental writers must have been among their British neighbors.

But bigger, more suggestive studies were soon to appear. In 1878 Perez published his book entitled "Le trois premieres annees de 1' enfant" (132). The results of careful study are here combined with the logical, brilliant style of the French writer. Perez, while conforming to all rules for "scientific" writing of his time, yet gives such a fascinating study that the rapid demand for new editions of this book does not seem remarkable.

He, first, seems to have felt the need of extending such observations over the whole of the pre-school period and so continues his study under the title "L'Enfant de trois a sept ans" (183). This is not quite as interesting as his first volume and has decidedly more of a pedagogical tendency but is worth noting because of its historical primacy in this field.

Meanwhile another contributor has appeared, one who usually, because of his greater value, has so overshadowed Perez that the priority of the latter and his consequent influence upon the time are overlooked. This is Preyer. In 1880 he published an article on Psychogenesis (140) which reveals him as an ardent evolutionist and consequently we can anticipate the treatment of his "Die Seele des Kindes" (141). He studies his own child from birth on and besides observation introduces a new element, experiments. These controlled experiences allow of variation at will. Especially noteworthy, although begun at a rather late age, are his experiments upon color to which he was probably stimulated by Allen's study of the color sense (1).

From this time on not only books but magazine articles upon child study and especially upon the child mind are so numerous that the detailed study of the development in any one country, or of any one line of investigation, would in itself necessitate extensive treatment. It seems more fitting here to indicate the high points in the chief branches of the many trends we find developing out of this period. Several of these have already been indicated.

Let us first survey the work in individual countries briefly.

In Germany Preyer continued to be the leading authority for some time, interspersing his articles on the psychology of the child with work on the physiology of the embryo with especial consideration of the manifestations of life before birth (142). However we find him still writing in 1897 on the subject which was so well developed in his earlier work, that is on color discrimination (143).

The work of Ploss must not pass unmentioned. He has achieved one of those marvelous compilations which seem to need the German's plodding and indefatigable application. Ploss gives us the first study of the social customs built up around and influencing the child from the day he is born (136, 137).

The work of Vierordt (180, 181) must be mentioned, too. Although it is purely anatomical and physiological in both its subject matter and aims, it is the symbol of the great development of anthropological studies wliich give us the broader aspects of child study though they do not contribute directly to the psychology of the child.

Since then Ufer, Ament, Meumann and Stem have done the most significant work.

Ufer has not only written much himself but has also translated into German a considerable amount on this subject. Ament has been interested especially in child speech and in the history and development of child psychology in general. It would hardly be commensurate with the object of this sketch to attempt here, in a form which would necessarily be brief, any statement of the development which he has handled so well in his "Forts chritte der Kinder seelenkunde 1895- 1903" (4).

Meumann, too, has contributed considerable to the upper end of this fore-school period but his aims are more pedagogical.

Stern is undoubtedly the most important, most significant, as well as most voluminous German writer in this field — Gutberlet (69) calls him the greatest of all child psychologists of the present day.

The more recent writings, especially magazine contributions, indicate new workers who will probably supersede those just mentioned but whose work is not yet very well tested by time. Among these we may mention Dix (38), Schmidt (148), Buchner (21), Scupin (150), DyrofF (41) and especially Groos (66), while the careful, critical discussion of the psychology of development in Ruttmann's (146) survey of modern psychology is the most scientific and comprehensive summary so far available, altho it deals somewhat too exclusively with German contributions.

In Belgium the work has been confined to children of school age and the problems studied have been pedagogical in their formulation.

In France Perez continued writing up until his death but his discussions gradually became more philosophical and less based upon observation. Compayre's "L'Evolution intellectuelle et morale de I'enfant" (32) has supplanted Perez's work and is the most recent French publication which is general and comprehensive * in its treatment.

Mere reference to the many valuable volumes of UAnnee Fsychologique will show the varied interests developed in this subject by Perez's countrymen. Binet and his collaborators, especially Henri and Simon, have accomplished much although nowhere do we find the same type of work as among the Germans. The French write brilliantly and convincingly but their technique is apt to be at fault. They seem to hit intuitively upon right premises and conclusions, although their data may be unconvincing or scanty. The German work is more stolid, more convincing in its facts but less inspiring in application.

Among the lesser French writers of to-day we should perhaps mention Vaschide, Bouquet (18), Boutan (19) and Cramaussel (33).

The work on Child Study in Italy began with Luigi Ferri. Interested in the work of Darwin and Taine, he began studying a young child in regard to the development of sense perception, attention, speech, imitation, etc. His first results were published in 1879 (45) and were followed by others on the same child (46, 47). His work raises in its discussion some interesting philosophical questions.

Ottolenghi (125) studied skin sensitivity but largely on older children. Garbini seems to have done the most original and systematic of the Italian work. He studied the voice of the child (50), changes in its pitch, vibration frequency and duration of cries and he records the ages at which changes occur. He also did intensive work on development of the color sense (51), working on 557 children ranging from the new-born up to those 60 months of age. His work (52) on development of the olfactory sense on 10 new-bom infants and 415 children between the ages of three and six is equally valuable. Garbini is undoubtedly an exception among those who have studied children. His work is thoroughly scientific and objective in method.

One other Italian writer needs special recognition and that is Paola Lombroso. Besides some original work on the instinct of conservation in children (109) she has written a historical and critical account of the work done by her fellow countrymen along the lines of child study (108). The Italians have not so far produced any one study covering the whole period of childhood, Lombroso's book (107), which attempts this, being rather incomplete along some lines and quite limited in scope.

Russian literati re is in general so little accessible that it is almost impossible to tell what has been accomplished in that country. Several names must be mentioned, though. NetschajefF has written quite a little in German magazines and has since 1904 had an institute for Paidology in Petrograd. Sikorskij is perhaps better known. The most recent of his writings is his "Die Seele des Kindes" (160) published in 1902. This has passed through three Russian editions but owing to lack of translation of the third edition it is impossible to state whether there are or are not new contributions in it. The many changes in and additions to the second edition lead one to feel that the author is still working towards, rather than resting on, an ideal study.

He does not, however, seem to be familiar with, at least he does not mention, the significance of the theories developed by his own fellow-countrymen, Pavlov and his followers.

In England there was rapid development in child study immediately following the publication of Darwin's sketch. Pollock's (139) work on language development of an infant appeared in the following year and was followed by the work of Champney (80) and SuUy (166) on the same subject. With Sully this was the beginning of a long period of steady contribution to the subject and none of us needs to be reminded of his "Studies of Childhood" (167).

Warner has done quite a lot to advance the methods of child study beginning with his ptiblication of "The Children: How to Study Them" (183) in 1887. However, he aims chiefly at furthering educational methods, and studies especially the physical and physio-psychological aspects of the subject. One significant attempt of his should be mentioned. It is a brief report (182) of an apparatus which he designed and used to measure the spontaneous movements of the hands of children and adults. He found that in infants probably spontaneous movements "can be arrested by light and also by sound" (p. 162). He outlines a method for studying the character of the modification and reports that these modifications tend to occur regularly to the same stimuli, illustrating the statement with curves from his experiments.