DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 10 March 1934, Page 13

DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN

EXPERIMENT WITH TWINS. NEW YORK MEDICAL CENTRE A group of doctors, child specialists, j: sy eh o l\c ist s, and one professor of philosophy have been watching a | fascinating demonstration! of human development as the result of an unusual experiment in child, training which is being conducted at the Babies’ Hospital of the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centre in New York City. Twin brothers, now 19 months old, the children of a taxi-cab chauffeur, have been subjected to special treatment since they were 20 days old. They spend the nights with their parents but each day are taken to the hospital, where Jimmy is largely allowed to amuse himself, and Johnny is subjected to constant, careful training at the hands of baby .specialists. As a result Johnnv is capable of feats of courage, strength, and intelligence far beyond liis age, which Jimmy watches'—often with wide-eyed wonder. He absolutely refuses to imitate them. Both boys are handsome, curly-hair-ed lads, but apart from personal apI pearance they have little in common. 1 Johnny readily .scramble's up to the | top of a pillar coaxed by a. banana, and jumps off without hesitation. Jimmy sits at the foot of the pillar crying. Johnny, during the demonstration, quickly and correctly selected a number of different obje'ets from the floor including, through a process of elimination, a model of a train that he had never seen before. He picked it out when ordered to “get the train.’’ Jimmy, meanwhile contentedly played with a whistle. To show his courage, Johnny, left at the top of a six-foot block to get down as best he could, 'hooked his fingers over the edge, lowered himself the length of his arms, _ and then dropped on the mat, looking up unhurt and smiling broadly. Jimmy, placed at the top of the same block, screamed rather than release his hold on the nurse’s sleeves. Jimmy is naturally not completely witless, and often when placed in a position from which Johnny extricates himself of his own accord, smiles wmsomely until somebody’s heart melts and he is taken out. Dr. Myrtle McGraw, who is conducting the experiments, explains that “Johnnv has such confidence in himself and the world that after a few trials he will attempt anything he is directed to do.” Taught swimming by a special apparatus when only severt and a-half months old, Johnny now dives creditably, and can cross a full-sized swimming bath nnclor water. He also roller-skates, and performs a number of almost unbelievable feats for his age, but he has not yet mastered riding a tricycle.