CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 6, 7 July 1938, Page 26

CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

FIRST YEAR OF LIFE

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

"Sigmund Freud, the Viennese psychologist, has said that 'the little human being is frequently a finished product in his fourth or fifth year, 1 and Adler considers that we can determine 'how a child stands in relation to life' a few months after he is born," said Mr. Max Riske, M.A., Dip.Ed., in introducing his recent lectures on "The First Year of Life" to the Petone! W.E.A. class in child psychology. The lecturer emphasised that fixations in social and emotional attitudes developed in the first year, especially if these were in relation to parents, might irrevocably determine social behaviour in adult life. Parental response to the fundamental needs of the child, he said, depended on a knowledge of these and sympathetic, patient relationship to him. INFANT NEEDS. Rather than seek to determine the instincts of the child it was proving more profitable to evaluate his needs be they inherent or not. Psychologically these might be summarised as bodily activity or play, purposeful effort, security, and rhythmic orderliness. Outlets for the urge to move, express himself in activity for its own sake, play, were a first consideration in developing healthy mental and social attitudes in the child. The infant played in a variety of ways according to his age, and at all stages one was bound to give him ample scope and freedom. His play was really the greatest educational and exploratory activity of his lifei Jt did not require direction or stimulation; rather the reverse. But activity for its own sake was not the only activity the child needed. His early life was not unlike adult life in that obstacles and difficulties had constantly to be overcome. Learning to feed, walk, talk, climb, and so on was complex and difficult, and overcoming the difficulty was part of the infant's joy in living. The need for security was fundamental. Unfortunate indeed was the child whose early home life was lived in an atmosphere of instab-1 ility, parental conflict, immoderate change, and economic worry. The anxieties'* engendered and the confidence in life that was lost will thwart j the child throughout life. His need! for what the lecturerer termed "rhythmic orderliness" was closely allied to the need for security and was best il- j lustrated by the need for basic, routines in feeding, dressing, washing, etc. THUMBSUCKING. The lecturer dealt fully with various common habits of infants, their nature, and the attitude parents should have towards them. He pointed out the "ordinariness" of many of the habits of infants that parents were prone to consider peculiar, detrimental, and, naughty. The commonest of these habits around which so much unwarranted anger and prejudice raged was thumbsucking. This was natural comforting activity of the infant responding to a need connected with his earliest months. Only when it was intense and accompanied by obvious signs of anxiety could one say that malnutrition was indicated. Largely for traditional and unscientific reasons parents were very prejudiced against the act and were determined to stop it at whatever cost to the child's happiness. There was no real evidence to show that customary mild thumbsucking distorted the shape of the mouth. In this determination to stop the habit the parents made the child more anxious and caused him such discomfort that thumbsucking became even more essential to the happiness of the infant. By sufficiently persistent methods, punishments, arm-splints, and so on, the parent would unfortunately succeed—in spreading irritability and anxiety to other aspects of the child's life. The solution of the problem, if it was really such, was to see first that the child was properly fed; next that he had opportunity to relax after meals, and, above all, that there was a change in parental attitude from angry frustration of an innocent activity to a calm, unemotional matter-of-fact acceptance of it and confidence that it would disappear as the need for the thumb comfort naturally decreased. INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. Consideration was given to the development of .the infant's capacities and abilities. - These, said the lecturer, were demonstrated by his solution of problems of, manipulation and perception arising out of his needs and impulses. Well-defined stages and accomplishments had been discovered and noted by Arnold Gesell, of Yale, who based his work on the findings of the last generation of child psychologists as well as on the manifold cases observed in his own clinic. Mr. Riske entered into details of the form of bejhaviour at each stage up to twelve months, and showed how one could predict precocity or backwardness by them. There was a constancy in mental ability at all stages of life. It was largely inherited and could be affected I mainly -through emotional upsets or, alternatively, favourable emotional and social environment. In conclusion, the lecturer stressed 1 the virtue of a healthy attitude of selfreliance in.the infant engendered by wise parental attitudes. The child needed fibre in his personality as well :as happiness, but they were more interdependent than antagonistic concepts. Considerable discussion of-childish difficulties and habits followed the lecture, and some advice was sought in dealing with common situations. The next lecture will deal with the life of I the child till his fifth birthday.