CHAPTER VIII 



THE PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT 



THERE are certain natural stages in the develop- 

 ment of the child, but they vary somewhat in dif- 

 ferent children. Their noticeable expression de- 

 pends much upon the influences that gather about 

 the child at the time. So many items are involved 

 in this development that their grouping is more 

 or less arbitrary, and hence different authors may 

 vary much in their delimitation and classification. 

 We will name the following periods and will seek 

 only such description as suggests the opportunity 

 of moral impression. In this, however, it is easy 

 to make mistake by omission. We are coming to 

 see more and more that every physical fact may 

 have some relation to moral change as it does to 

 intellectual. We note also that certain develop- 

 ments cross the lines of division and characterize 

 two or more periods: 1. First childhood to the 

 seventh month; 2. Second childhood to the end 

 of the second year ; 3. Third childhood to the end 

 of the seventh year ; 4. Later childhood, from the 

 seventh to the twelfth year ; 5. Adolescence. Our 

 subject does not directly carry us farther than 

 later childhood ; what we shall say of later periods 



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