We must understand these unique aspects of each individual child’s growth if we are to treat children intelligently. A tall, slender child does not put on weight at the same rate, nor does he weigh as much for his height, as does a stocky child. Some parents create unnecessary feeding problems in their attempt to achieve “standard” weight gains. Certain intellectually fast growing children have the physical stamina and social maturity to enter school at five and one-half years of age. Other children of the same chronological and mental ages will be quite unable physically or socially to stand the competition of other first graders. Some children seem “slow to catch on” in school for several years, yet prove later to be excellent students. Forcing the pace of growth at any stage will not produce good results in the long run, and may incur serious damage along the way. Forcing children into any pattern of growth which is not in harmony with their natural potentialities is likely to result in tragedy both for the child and for the misguided adult. Fathers, for example, should not try to make men out of sensitive, artistic boys; nor should Susie be compelled to try to make Phi Beta Kappa because her older sister did.
Around the world there are children who have been so poorly fed during their growing years that they have been unable to achieve healthy growth. Psychological deprivations are also producing dam aged personalities. Physical and psychological scars in curred by conditions during World War II, such as lack of food, separation of families, loss of parents, destruction of home and communities, have in many cases become permanent when the deprivations were very severe and of long duration.
The resilience of the growing mind and body has its limitations if environmental conditions prove to be too unfavorable for growth. In addition to such conditions as those resulting from war or other crises there are also dramatic evidences of modification in the changes in growth produced by such things as lack of iodine in community drinking water, which results in an increase of cretinism (dwarfism due to inadequate thyroid secretion) in the population concerned.
The disease called rickets, which results from deficiency in diet or sunshine or both, may leave permanent evidences on the body in the form of flat chests or deformed pelvis, and crooked backs, all of which interfere with the efficient functioning of the body. Similarly, deficiencies in affection and security in childhood may leave permanent scars on the personality in the form of explosive tempers, “grudges,” fears, and other severe handicaps to the adequate functioning of personality. Poor methods of teaching reading or other primary school subjects may leave a child with a resistance to all academic work.
Thus one boy may be entering adolescence at age ten years while he is in the high fifth grade, while for an age peer classmate childhood may continue until he is fifteen and a half years old and in the low eleventh grade. There seem to be very few differences between boys and girls in general intellectual capacity, but there are certain definite differences in interests and behavior. . . . Whether these differences in interests and behavior are innate or a product of the way we rear children is not clear, but much depends upon which interest or which trait is under discussion. Mr. Banks and Mr. Maurer after a comparison of a number of types of tests of preschool children and test performances at later years found that in nearly all instances girls’ scores showed a more consistent correlation between early and later tests than boys’ scores. Thus girls showed a reliable tendency toward greater stabilization of performance on tests than boys in the early years.
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