THB 



VOLUME 



ORGANIZED 

 KNOWLEDGE 



STORY 

 AND' PICTURE 



THREE 



HILD STUDY, the term applied to 

 the systematic study of children. Child study 

 is of two kinds: one may be termed scientific, 

 requiring delicate instruments and conducted 

 only by trained experts ; the other is that which 

 requires no apparatus and may be carried on 

 by every parent and teacher. Laboratories for 

 scientific child study are found in a few 

 teachers' colleges and state normal schools and 

 in most of the large universities. In the article 

 CHILD in these volumes the growth and devel- 

 opment of the young child are fully described, 

 and in the article ADOLESCENCE the characteris- 

 tics of the "teen" age are discussed. This 

 article is devoted to the consideration of that 

 kind of child study which is open to every one 

 interested in children. 



Child Study in the Home. All parents are 

 interested in the welfare and the fullest devel- 

 opment of their children, but many fathers and 

 mothers feel that child study is something 

 for which they are wholly unprepared. All too 

 often they restrict the meaning of the term 

 to the investigations of experts in the labora- 

 tories of normal schools and universities. To 

 these parents we would offer a word of encour- 

 agement. While expert training is of great 

 assistance, it is not essential to the successful 

 prosecution of a wide range of observations. 

 But the anxious mother inquires, "What can 

 I do?" She can do many things, and in 

 response to this inquiry the following sugges- 

 tions are offered: 



1. Try to put yourself in the child's place. 

 Think back so far as possible to your own 



childhood and get the child's point of view. 

 Wrong conclusions are frequently drawn be- 

 cause the adult judges the child's acts from 

 his own viewpoint. "The child is the rightful 

 owner of his own potentiality, which consti- 

 tutes his individuality and his personality. 

 * * * The parent's judgment cannot be in- 

 fallible, and he must therefore be in the habit- 

 ual attitude of a learner." 



2. Look for the good points. Parents are 

 prone to magnify the faults and overlook the 

 virtues of their children. Many acts which 

 are considered faulty, because they are con- 

 trary to the parents' views of what should be, 

 are not faulty at all when looked at from the 

 child's viewpoint. They are the spontaneous 

 expression of the energy with which his system 

 is surcharged. By emphasizing the child's 

 virtues you help him to overcome his faults, 

 while by magnifying his faults you keep them 

 constantly before him. We do not mean by 

 this that the child's faults should be ignored, 

 for if the child is to be helped in his develop- 

 ment you must know his elements both of 

 strength and of weakness. What is suggested 

 is that you help him to make his virtues so 

 strong that they will drive out the faults. 



3. Watch for tastes and aptitudes. What 

 does your child like to do best? Of what articles 

 of food is he most fond? What members of 

 the family does he prefer, and why? These 

 questions cannot be answered offhand. The 

 right answers will be found only through pro- 

 longed study, but the study will lead to a 

 knowledge of the child which can be gained in 



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