The Psychology of Early Childhood [antikvár]

PREFACE In this book an attempt is made to trace, from their very earliest appearances after birth, all aspects of mental development in childhood up to the age of about 4 or 5, It is based largely on the author's almost daily observations of his own five children, over a period of some twenty years, supplemented by numerous tests and experiments. In addition, observations have been made for me by a number of former students and other psychological friends on their own children in reference to special problems. All this evidence is discussed in relation to other published diary records made on the first three or four years of life by reliable observers (usually parents of the children)—from Prayer to Wilhelm Stern, and from Darwin to the Dionne Quins. There are now some dozen or more of such records of great value; but material from them has never been systematically collated into a single review of normal growth. They need coordinating and supplementing by precise reports on the very beginnings of mental functions and impulses. In addition, the whole is constantly considered in relation to many published records of observations and experiments made on groups of children in reference to particular functions. Thus the book seeks to deal with the Ytrj foundations of child psychology. Indeed, this is a phrase that would have well expressed my main aims and I might have chosen it for the title (so avoiding the repetition of the title of Stern's well-known book), but in the present state of our knowledge it seemed too pretentious to claim to have covered the entire foundations. The first purpose of the book is naturally to advance our knowledge of the psychology of childhood. The importance of suoh knowledge is now increasingly recognized. Even if all is not completely determined by the first four or five years of life, as some psycho-analysts would have us believe, there is little vii