RATE OF CHILDREN’S GROWTH

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27675, 3 June 1955, Page 2

RATE OF CHILDREN’S GROWTH

EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCES The question, “Do happy children grow more quickly than unhappy ones?” is discussed in an article published in the “Manchester Guardian" last month. It says that at least thf growth of children who are emotion ally disturbed' is more irregular than that of more normal children. Thi? is one of the conclusions reached b\ Mr S. H. Taylor, the headmaster of an approved school in the Midlands, after a study of more than 1030 pupils who have attended there.

The growth of three different boys over a period of three years is described in terms of their increase in height. One of the boys, who is said to have been “adventurous, uninhibited and bright,” grew steadily during the three years and put on more than nine inches. Another, who was highly intelligent, and had a long record of delinquency, put on only an inch in his first year. When it was decided not to send him to the local grammar school, but to try to assimilate him more completely into the life of the residential school, both his conduct and the rate at which he was growing improved. The third boy, who was terrified by the environment of the school and of the Ijoys around him, did not grow for the first nine months at school. When it was decided to transfer him from the school to a “substitute home,” he started, however, to grow at a normal rate.