TRAINING CHILDREN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22319, 5 February 1938, Page 18

TRAINING CHILDREN

Child at Play. Observations by Marjorie Thorburn. Allen and Unwin. 187 pp. (Cs net.) How Are the Children? By Mary R. Hargreaves. Illustrated by Muriel Hargreaves. Williams and Norgatc. 20(i pp. (Cs net.)

The first of these two books is a collection of observations of the habits and methods of a child playing in her own home during the first four years of her life. Mrs Thorburn makes it clear that her observations were unknown to her child, and that the play was at no time unduly directed or influenced for the purposes of the record. The result is a book that will be of special interest to child psychologists, teachers, and all who have to do with very young children. The notes on the uses of play materials are particularly valuable and helpful. Mrs Hargreaves, a regular writer of child problem articles in the “Manchester Guardian,” has written a sane and sound treatise dealing with the relations beUveen child and parents, the place of an individual child in the family and the development of the child's self. There are numerous helpful examples given of the problems that most usually face parents; and Mrs Hargreaves sums up her thoughts about the relationship between parents and children when she writes: “Understanding of children comes primarily from a parent’s willingness to change his mind or admit that he has been in the wrong.” The drawings of Muriel Hargreaves are most delicate and attractive additions to a clearly sensible and helpful book.

A few days before his illness and death last year Ralph Connor (Dr. Charles W. Gordon) finished his book of reminiscences, which will be published under the title “The Real Man From Glengarry: The Autobiography of Ralph Connor.”