PARENT AND CHILD
BY MOSIAH HALL
Volume Three
Child Study and Training
1916
FOR THE DESERET SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, SALT LAKE CITY
A WORD OF INTRODUCTION
Home-making and the rearing of children is the fundamental business of this
world. To make a success of this business we must understand it. The loving
hearts of many parents are suffering for a multitude of mistakes that
loving intelligence might have prevented. We cannot save our children in
ignorance. To perform the duties of parenthood well, we must understand
them more clearly. We need light and uplift. These days demand greater
knowledge than ever before on the part of parents to meet and master the
problems that now confront fathers and mothers.
Particularly do we need to study child nature. A clearer understanding of
the laws governing the development of children would give parents great
help in guiding their children into paths of righteousness, and in
ministering to varying child needs as they develop.
To give definite help and new spirit to our work, this volume has been
prepared. The keynote of the book is _a more enlightened parenthood_. It
offers a series of lessons along a line most vital to parents--_Child Study
and Training_.
These lessons have been written for us by Mosiah Hall, Associate Professor
in Education of the University of Utah, and High School Inspector for the
State of Utah. We feel that he has done for our cause most excellent
service, and we gladly acknowledge our indebtedness to him.
This should be remembered: A book gives wisdom only in proportion to the
thought that is put into it by the reader. The suggestions of this volume
will become rich only as they are enriched by study. They will become
valuable only to the extent that they find application in our daily lives.
The lessons will be vitalized only as the teacher pours life into them.
To supplement and enrich the course, references are given with most of the
lessons, and a list of books is offered at the close of the book. Many of
these volumes have already been purchased and distributed through the
parents' class library. Each class should endeavor to procure at least one
copy of each of these books as it is called for in the various lessons. In
this way a good library can be gradually built up.
Our desire is to make these studies bring lasting returns for good. May God
add his blessings to make our work divinely successful,
Your brethren in the gospel,
Parents' Class Committee of Deseret Sunday
School Union Board,
HENRY H. ROLAPP, HOWARD R. DRIGGS.
NATHAN T. PORTER, EPHRAIM G. GOWANS.
A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
This treatise on child study and training has been prepared primarily for
the Parents' classes in Sunday School under the direction of the General
Board. It is well adapted also for study by Parent-Teachers' Associations
and for reading in the home.
Its purpose is to acquaint parents with the most vital problems of child
life and character and to suggest some methods of solving these problems.
The work is not offered as a complete course in this great subject; it is
intended rather to open up the field of child study for parents.
The welfare of the race depends upon the proper birth and the correct
rearing of children. That this little volume may add its mite towards
the solution of the problem--at once the hope and the despair of
civilization,--is the wish of its author.
To the Parents' Class Committee and the General Superintendency of the
General Board, I desire to express my appreciation for the suggestions and
help they have extended to me in the preparation of this work.
To my wife, who achieves in practice what I imperfectly state in theory,
these studies are affectionately dedicated.
MOSIAH HALL.
THE BIRTHRIGHT OF CHILDHOOD
_It Is the Sacred Right of the Child To Be Well-Born_
If the child has any divine right in this world, it is the right to be
well-born, to be brought into the world sound of body and whole in mind. To
be given anything short of such a good beginning is to be handicapped
throughout life. Education and training cannot make up for the defects
imposed on the child by the sins of the fathers, which, the Good Book tells
us, are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
It is a fact to challenge attention that the child is the product of the
entire past. His essential nature is comparatively fixed at birth and is
beyond the power or caprice of parent or environment to change in any
fundamental particular during the short period of a lifetime. This
assertion must not be wrongly interpreted; the possibilities of training
and education are great, but they can do little to overcome all of the
defects placed upon the child by heredity.
Science tells us that normal children are born with the same number and
kind of instincts. By instinct is meant the tendency to do certain things
in a definite way without previous experience. In all children, for
example, we find the instinct of fear, the instinct for play, for
self-preservation. These instincts begin to manifest themselves more or
less strongly as the child develops.
Children also have certain capacities. Capacity may be defined as the
possibility to develop skill in certain directions. One, for instance, may
have a greater capacity to develop musical ability than another; so with
art or business, or ability for any other work. Capacities, more than
instincts, seem to depend on the characteristics of parents or immediate
ancestors. Thus a child may take after father or mother, or grandparent in
this or that particular ability. Instincts, on the other hand, seem to be
his inheritance from the race. But whatever his gifts from parent or past
the child is born a distinct individual. This is true not only with regard
to his physical organism but in respect to his spiritual nature. The
relative strength of his instincts, added to the number and quality of his
capacities determine what is called individuality. This is what makes each
child differ from all others, and this distinctive nature cannot be
essentially changed, within our brief lives, though it does possess
marvelous powers of development and adaptation. For illustration:
Cultivation may develop a perfect specimen of a crabapple, but no amount
of careful training could change the crabapple into a Johnathan. Likewise,
no system of education can hope to change a numskull into a Newton, or to
produce a Solomon from a Simple Simon.
The first vital concern of parents, therefore, should be to see that the
child is not robbed of his sacred birthright to be well-born.
It is a matter of regret that the white race generally is such a sorry
mixture of humanity. The good and the bad, the intelligent and the
ignorant, the feeble-minded and the strong, the criminal and the righteous,
have been combined so frequently and in so many ways that the marvel
is that more of the human race are not degenerate as the result of
contamination. Since the great characteristic of heredity is to breed true
and thus perpetuate its kind, and since training and education must take
the individual as he is, with only limited power to change his intrinsic
nature or to develop any capacity not present at birth, it becomes a matter
of serious importance that parents do all in their power to guide properly
the mating of their children. The teaching of the Gospel on this point is
most significant.
Heredity determines to a great extent the kind and the nature of the
individual, and thereby sets limits, which the environment may not
overcome. Among these limitations are the following:
1. The relative strength of instincts.
2. The number and kind of capacities.
3. The form, size and quality of bodily organs.
4. Susceptibility to, or power to resist disease.
5. The possibilities of mental attainment.
6. The possibilities of emotional and spiritual response.
7. The possibility to execute undertakings, to control situations, and to
govern self as well as others.
Heredity also endows a person with his peculiar temperament, with his good
or bad looks, and with the chief components of what is called personality.
On the other hand, training and education have almost everything to say
respecting the relative standing of the individual among the members of his
kind--whether or not he shall be a blighted or a perfect specimen. A fine,
sweet, juicy crabapple is more desirable than a scrubby, diseased Jonathan.
It is the province of training and education to take the individual as he
is born, and endeavor to make of him a perfect specimen of his kind. "A
child left to himself bringeth his parents to shame." If left alone or
improperly trained, a child is almost certain to revert to a lower type of
individual. The same high possibilities that, properly directed, produce
the superior being, if neglected, or subjected to a vicious environment,
produce the moral degenerate. The child is born morally neither good nor
bad, and while inherited tendencies may make development in one direction
easier than in another, it is possible for a favorable environment,
assisted by education, to develop any normal child into a sweet, wholesome
product of his kind.
Shearer in his "Management and Training of Children," says: "The child may
inherit instincts, but a kind Providence has ordained that he shall not
inherit habits. He may inherit certain tastes, but he does not inherit
temptation. He may bring into the world tendencies, but he does not bring
with him prejudices."
LESSON I
_Questions for Discussion_
1. What does the expression "being well-born" mean to you?
2. What responsibility is laid upon parents by the fact that the child is
the product of the past? Read the second commandment here and discuss its
significance in application to this point.
3. What are some of the instincts and capacities given to the child by
heredity?
4. Explain the difference between an instinct and a capacity. What seems
to be the source of our instincts?--our capacities?
5. What are the chief limitations placed by heredity upon the child?
6. What may education and environment hope to accomplish?
_References_: "The Right of the Child to be Well Born," will be found a
helpful book to study here. It may be well, if the book is available, to
have someone appointed to report on it or to read a few choice paragraphs
from it. Also read "Being Well Born," by Guyer.
IMPORTANT LAWS OF HEREDITY
_A Wise Application of the Laws of Inheritance Is the Most Certain Means of
Developing a Superior Race_
In the preface of Dr. Guyer's remarkable book, "Being Well Born," we read
the following: "It is no exaggeration to say that during the last fifteen
years, we have made more progress in measuring the extent of inheritance
and in determining its elemental factors than in all previous time." If
this is true, it would seem to be almost criminal for teachers and parents
to neglect to acquaint themselves with the fundamental laws of heredity.
This author says further: "Since what a child becomes is determined so
largely by its inborn capacities, it is of the utmost importance that
teachers and parents realize something of the nature of such aptitudes
before they begin to awaken them. For education consists in large measure
in supplying the stimuli necessary to set going these potentialities and of
affording opportunity for their expression."
_Mendel's_ law is probably the most important known principle of
inheritance. Through its application practically all of the improvements in
plants and animals have been brought about. This law may be explained as
follows: A certain kind of pure bred fowl is found which is either pure
white or black. If either color is mated with its own color the resulting
progeny will be true to the color of the parents, but if a white and a
black are crossed the result will be blue fowls possessing one-half the
characteristics of each parent, but strange to say, if two blue fowls are
mated the progeny will not be all blue, one-fourth will be white like one
grandparent, another one-fourth black like the other grandparent, and
one-half will be blue like the parents. If this experiment is repeated with
plants and animals having opposite characteristics, the same ratios as
above always result. This indicates that truly heritable traits or
characters are separate units and are inherited independently. The breeder
is thus enabled through selecting the traits or characters that are wanted
and crossing them with a well-known stock, to produce almost any trait or
quality that he desires. This law makes it possible to estimate the results
of cross breeding with almost mathematical exactness. Improved varieties of
fruits, grains and vegetables have been produced in this manner, and with
animals marvelous results have been achieved.
Luther Burbank, in his little book, "The Training of the Human Plant,"
says: "There is not a single desirable attribute which, lacking in a
plant, may not be bred into it. Choose what improvement you wish in a
flower, a fruit, or a tree, and by crossing, selection, cultivation and
persistence, you can fix this desirable trait irrevocably." And further:
"If then we could have twelve families under ideal conditions where these
principles could be carried out unswervingly, we could accomplish more for
the race in ten generations than can now be accomplished in a hundred
thousand years. Ten generations of human life should be ample to fix any
desired attribute. This is absolutely clear, there is neither theory nor
speculation."
_Acquirements of parents_ during their lifetime, according to the best
authorities, are not transmitted to any noticeable extent to their
children. This appears to be due to the fact that the cells concerned in
reproduction are set aside during embryonic life and from then on are
practically unmodified by the succeeding development and experiences of the
parent. In fact, during the lifetime of the individual, the germ cells are
so completely isolated from the growing organism that nothing but
nourishment in the shape of blood can possibly reach them, hence they can
be affected only by a vitiated or poisonous blood supply. It seems to be
true, therefore, that only the old, deeply-impressed traits, capacities,
or racial characters can be inherited. This is, no doubt, the chief secret
of the power of heredity to breed true.
It has been a popular belief that if parents acquired skill in music,
mathematics, or special ability in any other particular that such ability
could be imparted to their children, but in the light of the above facts,
this appears to be impossible. Of course, if such ability is a slumbering,
inborn trait of either parent, or of some immediate ancestor, the ability
might be transmitted.
It is reasonable to suppose, however, that any acquired trait or ability
of the parent, if practised and continued steadily by his children and
their descendants for many generations, will come to be an inborn trait
or character capable of being transmitted. Otherwise, it is extremely
difficult to understand how the human family can progress and become
permanently improved.
_Galton's_ law is believed to be approximately correct. It may be stated
as follows: Children inherit on the average one-half their characteristics
from parents, one-fourth from grandparents, one-eighth from
great-grandparents, and so on in ever diminishing ratio to remote
ancestors. But owing to the fact that some inheritable traits or
characters are likely to be dominant and others recessive, Galton's law
must be modified, so that only under the most favorable conditions can it
be regarded as reliable.
Owing to the fact that the primary elements or traits of character
contributed by each parent may combine in many ways in the embryo,
considerable variation in the children of the same parents is
inevitable--one child may resemble the father, another the mother, and
yet another some near ancestor. Variability is, therefore, the rule among
offspring in the same family, and in some instances it is decidedly
pronounced, but in all cases, the variation must be confined to the
possible combinations of characters transmitted from parents and ancestors.
_The law of regression_ represents the tendency of the extreme elements of
the race constantly to seek the middle or mediocre level. For example, the
children of superior parents are not likely to be so brilliant as their
parents, and the offspring of inferior people are somewhat better than
their parents. This "drag of the race" or "pull of ancestors" is no doubt
due to the fact that selection has never been practiced, hence the
two-thousand nearby ancestors were most likely an average lot of people,
and the "pull" is from the higher towards the lower level. The "pull" is a
help to the children of inferior parents but is a handicap to the superior.
If long-continued selection of parents were practiced, the regression
would disappear and the "pull" would be upward. Selection of parents
possessing superior elements of character and the prevention of the unfit
and the criminal from propagating their kind, seem the surest hope we have
of producing a permanently higher type.
It is well known that the extremes of the race are less fertile than the
means; and since fertility is the chief factor in fixing the type, in the
absence of selection and repression, the race appears doomed to remain at
the dead level of mediocrity. The tremendous significance of this fact is
that the welfare of the race--the gradual substitution of a superior for
the present mediocre type--rests absolutely upon the willingness and
ability of the superior class to do their full share in propagating the
race.
LESSON II
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What is the principle of heredity as discovered by Mendel? Explain by
illustrating how it works out in plants and animals.
2. What practical application is made of this law in producing better seed
and better breeds?
3. Illustrate Galton's law.
4. What significance has these laws in the improvement of the human race?
5. Account for the variability of children in the same family.
6. Why are some children inferior, some superior to their parents?
7. Illustrate the "pull of ancestors."
8. How might this "pull" be made upward instead of downwards, as it now
seems to be?
9. What sacred responsibility rests upon superior people to propagate the
race?
10. What are the gospel teachings regarding mixed marriages and the rearing
of families?
11. What practical steps can and should be taken to prevent feeble-minded
and vicious people from propagating their kind?
_Reference_: The Jukes-Edwards family by Dr. A.E. Winship. If this book be
available, have some member of the class make a report on it. "Training the
Human Plant," and "Being Well Born," will also be found helpful here.
THE MOTHER AND THE EMBRYO
_The Care of the Mother During the Embryonic Period Determines Largely the
Future Welfare of the Child_
In common with every organism the infant develops from a single germ cell
of almost microscopic size. Wrapped in this tiny cell are all the
possibilities of structure and character that combine to form the
complicated bodily organism and the particular mental endowment of the
coming child.
It was once believed that almost any kind of physical or mental change
could be brought about in the cell through appropriate control of the
environment, but the results of careful observation and experiment are
opposed to this view; all evidence points to the fact that no new character
or element can enter the embryo from without. The cell itself holds the
secret of what the future individual shall be.
The sole connection between the embryo and the mother is the narrow,
umbilical cord which contains no nerves and whose only function is to carry
blood to the growing organism; it may be seen, therefore, how impossible it
is for mental impressions and disturbances on the part of the mother to in
any way reach and affect the embryo. Once started on the road to
development, the embryo is so thoroughly subject to inner laws that nothing
from without can modify or change the direction of its growth except some
physical cause which interferes with the blood supply. An adequate supply
of pure blood is the principal requirement of the growing organism.
Whatever interferes with the blood supply or in any way affects its purity,
has an injurious affect upon the embryo. There is not the least doubt that
lack of nutrition and serious ill-health on the part of the mother have an
extremely bad effect upon the unborn offspring. Severe shock or grief,
worry, nervous exhaustion, disease, and poisons in the blood of the mother
are the most serious sources of injury; they render nutrition defective and
if poison enters directly the blood of the mother or is generated by toxins
through disease, the embryo will be poisoned and may be destroyed. Among
these poisons are alcohol, lead, and the toxins from tuberculosis and the
venereal diseases, gonorrhea and syphilis. To gonorrhea is attributed 80
per cent. of the blindness of children born blind; it is declared to be the
cause of 75 per cent. of all the surgical operations for female disorders
and of 45 per cent. of involuntary sterility in childless women. Syphilis
is the chief cause of feeble-mindedness, paresis, or softening of the
brain, and of most other mental defects in children.
From the foregoing, it is evident that the proper care of the mother so as
to insure a pure blood supply for the offspring ought to be one of the
chief concerns of society. This should not be left to the haphazard efforts
of individuals but ought to be provided for by the state. According to the
statements of life insurance companies, "expectant mothers are the most
neglected members of our population." Dr. Van Ingen, of New York City,
estimates that 90 per cent, of women in this country are wholly without
prenatal care.
Luther Burbank shows that in order even for a plant to grow properly it
must have abundance of sunshine, good air, and nourishing food; but not
many mothers at this time may have even these poor luxuries. Instead, too
many mothers are slaves to an insanitary kitchen where sunshine is scarcely
known and where overwork and worry destroy all appetite for food.
The welfare of the race demands that the mother shall be properly nurtured
and protected during this critical period. Abundance of sunshine, pure air,
light exercise and a variety of wholesome food are absolutely essential,
and the utmost pains should be taken to prevent worry, excitement, sickness
and above all contact with or exposure to poisons or disease.
It was once thought that whatever causes a mental disturbance in the mother
leaves its impress on the child. It is fortunate that this old notion is
false, as we have shown nothing but a physical change affecting the blood
supply can possibly influence the developing organism. Now and then a red
"flame" spot or so-called birthmark is found on the new-born child, but
this is due always to some physical cause which may be easily explained,
never is it a result of fear of some red object on the part of the mother.
LESSON III
DISCUSSION
1. How does embryonic life begin?
2. What is characteristic of the cell?
3. What secret does it hold?
4. What is the principal need of the embryo?
5. State fully how the blood supply may be vitiated and what terrible
consequences may follow.
6. How should the mother be cared for during this critical period?
7. How may mother drudgery in the home be reduced to a minimum?
8. What directions does Mrs. West give for the care of the mother? (See
bulletin, "Parental Care," by Mrs. West, which may be had free for the
asking. Address Children's Bureau, Department of Labor, Washington, D.C.)
9. _References_: The following books will be found helpful: "The Training
of the Human Plant," by Burbank; "The Right of the Child to be well born,"
by Dawson; "Being Well Born," by Guyer.
If these are available, they may be circulated through the parents'
library.
THE PLASTIC AGE OF CHILDHOOD
_Prolonged Infancy and the Long Period of Plasticity in the Infant Make
Training and Education Possible_
The child is born the weakest and most helpless of creatures. Unlike the
young of most animals, which within a few hours after birth move about and
perform most of the movements necessary to their existence, the infant is
so helpless that all its needs must be supplied by parents, otherwise it
would perish. Immediately after birth a colt or calf can walk or run almost
as fast as its mother; the chick just out of its shell can run about and
peck at its food. The child at one year of age can barely totter around and
all of its needs must be looked after by others. Moreover, the infant at
birth is practically blind and deaf and the senses of taste and smell and
touch just sufficiently developed to enable it to take nourishment.
This slowness of development, or prolonged infancy as it is called, is of
vast significance to the child. It marks at once the chief distinction
between the human infant and the young of all other animals. It makes
possible a long period of adjustment and training which otherwise would be
impossible. Most animals are born with a nervous system highly developed
and with most of the adjustment to the environment ready made, so that
after a short time all the activities of life are perfected and thereafter
automatic action and instinct rule their lives. Because of this lack of
infancy and absence of plasticity of the nervous system, animals are little
more than machines that perform their task with unvarying regularity in
response to outside stimulations. Animals, therefore, are unable to adjust
themselves to a change in environment, and as a result their lives are in
constant danger. In fact, countless millions of the lower forms of life are
perishing every hour because of the lack of possibility of adjustment.
The child, on the other hand, has an extremely long period of infancy, and
as a result, the nervous system is so plastic that it may be moulded,
fashioned and developed in almost any manner or direction, according to the
will of parents and the nature of the environment. The child, consequently,
may be educated. By education we mean the training and developing of
desirable instincts and capacities and the inhibiting of undesirable ones
so that the child may be able constantly to adjust himself to an
ever-changing environment.
Fiske, in "The Meaning of Infancy," Chapter 1, says: "The bird known as the
fly-catcher no sooner breaks the egg than it will snap at and catch a fly.
This action is not very simple, but because it is something the bird is
always doing, being indeed one of the very few things that this bird ever
does, the nervous connections needful for doing it are all established
before birth, and nothing but the presence of the fly is required to set
the operation going. With such creatures as the codfish, the turtle, or the
fly-catcher, there is nothing that can properly be called infancy. With
them, the sphere of education is extremely limited. They get their
education before they are born. In other words, heredity does everything
for them, education nothing.
"All mammals and most birds have a period of babyhood that is not very
long, but it is on the whole longer with the most intelligent creatures.
The period of helpfulness is a period of plasticity. The creature's career
is no longer exclusively determined by heredity. There is a period after
birth when its character can be slightly modified by what happens to it
after birth, that is, by its experience as an individual. It is no longer
necessary for each generation to be exactly like that which has preceded.
The door is opened through which the capacity for progress can enter.
Horses and dogs, bears and elephants, parrots and monkeys, are all
teachable to some extent, and we have even heard of a learned pig, and of
learned asses there has been no lack in the world.
"But this educability of the higher mammals and birds is, after all, quite
limited. Conservatism still continues in fashion. One generation is much
like another. It would be easy for foxes to learn to climb trees, and many
a fox might have saved his life by so doing; yet quick-witted as he is,
this obvious device has never occurred to him."
The vital problem with parents is how to fill this period of plasticity,
how to provide an educative environment of the right kind.
Luther Burbank, in "The Training of the Human Plant," expresses complete
confidence in the power of the environment through appropriate training to
fashion the normal child, just as he could a plant, into a most delightful
and beautiful specimen of its kind. He says: "Pick out any trait you want
in your child, granted that he is a normal child, be it honesty, fairness,
purity, lovableness, industry, thrift, what not. By surrounding this child
with sunshine from the sky and your own heart, by giving the closest
communion with nature, by feeding this child well-balanced, nutritious
food, by giving it all that is implied in healthful environmental
influences, and by doing all in love, you can thus cultivate in the child
and fix there for all its life all of these traits, and on the other side,
give him foul air to breathe, keep him in a dusty factory or an unwholesome
school-room or a crowded tenement up under the hot roof; keep him away from
the sunshine, take away from him music and laughter and happy faces; cram
his little brains with so-called knowledge; let him have vicious associates
in his hours out of school, and at the age of ten you have fixed in him the
opposite traits. You have, perhaps, seen a prairie fire sweep through the
tall grass across a plain. Nothing can stand before it, it must burn itself
out. That is what happens when you let weeds grow up in your child's life,
and then set fire to them by wrong environment."
Mr. Burbank is probably over-enthusiastic in his belief that natural
education can do everything for the child; but it is certain that
environment does exercise a powerful influence, during the plastic age, in
determining his character.
LESSON IV
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Compare the helplessness of the infant at birth with the ability of the
young of other animals.
2. At one year of age, what is the comparison?
3. What is the significance of prolonged infancy respecting (a) possibility
of adjustment to environment, (b) possibility of training and education,
(c) possibility of profiting from experience, (d) the relation to heredity?
4. What advantage is it that man is born with the germs of many capacities
instead of with a few activities that are perfectly developed?
5. What is the chief function of education?
6. What does Burbank say respecting the possibilities of training?
7. What common-sense training should every child be given during this
period?
Good books, for further study on these points, are: "The Care and Training
of the Child," by Kerr, and "Fundamentals of Child Study," by Kirkpatrick.
If these volumes are in the library or otherwise available, it may be well
to have some member read and give a brief report on one or the other of
them.
THE NEEDS OF THE INFANT
_The Infant's First Needs Are Physical, and May Be Summed up in the Word
Nutrition_
The new-born child differs in nearly all particulars from the adult. It is
very unfortunate that the child in the past has been regarded as a
miniature adult and treated like "a little man."
The structure of muscle and bone and the proportion of various parts of the
body differ materially; the bones of the child for some time are soft and
largely composed of cartilages which may be easily bent out of shape and
permanently injured. The ratio of some of the parts is about as follows:
* * * * *
Height of head of adult to that of infant--2 to 1
Length of body of adult to that of infant--3 to 1
Length of arm of adult to that of infant--4 to 1
Length of leg of adult to that of infant--5 to 1
Besides these easily observed differences, there are others of far more
consequence not easily seen, such as differences in the size, structure and
activity of vital organs, and in the almost total lack of nervous
development in the child as compared with the adult. All of these things
make of the child an individual so different from the adult that he must be
treated in accordance with his own nature and needs and with little regard
to the way in which an adult is considered.
Practically everything that the infant needs may be summed up in the one
word _nutrition_. A sufficient supply of pure milk from the mother is the
one supreme requirement. If this is assured, everything else is almost
certain to follow. Of course, the little one must be kept at the right
temperature, which is comparatively high during the first few months. An
abundance of pure, fresh air also must be supplied to both mother and
child. It is wise for both to spend much time in the open air and to sleep
on a screened porch.
The child should be kept quiet and permitted to sleep as long as nature
dictates. It is a positive sin to snatch the child from its bed, toss it up
and down and screech at it for the edification of curious visitors. Kissing
the child in the mouth should also be positively prohibited. The use of
patent medicines likewise, or even many of the "old mother remedies" should
never be indulged except on the advice of a competent physician. The needs
of the child for some time are strictly physical. Inner forces are at work
which cannot be assisted except indirectly through care of the physical
organism. So far as nervous or mental development is concerned the rule
should be, "Hands off, let Nature take her course."
Immediately after birth certain reflexive and instinctive movements, such
as sucking, crying, sneezing and clinging are manifested; and the sense of
taste and usually smell are also sufficiently active to enable the infant
to take nourishment. No other senses are active and no other movements
possible except the automatic action of vital organs and a few vague
spasmodic twitchings and movements of parts of the body known as impulsive.
Nothing, however, can be done from without to hasten the mental awakening;
Nature in her own due time will do this, and do it much better if not
hurried or interfered with.
LESSON V
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Show that the infant is not an adult in miniature.
2. What are some important differences between the child and the adult?
3. What is the supreme need of the infant? Why?
4. What should be observed in caring for the child?
5. What should be avoided in caring for the child?
6. What should be the rule in early mental development?
7. What is active in the child immediately after birth?
"The Care of the Child in Health," by Oppenheim, will be helpful here. If
the book is in the parents' library, let someone prepare and make a brief
report on it for next lesson.
The following other helps may be had for the asking by writing to the U.S.
Bureau of Education: "Parental Care," by Mrs. West, Series No. 1,
publication No. 4, U.S. Department of Labor, Children's Bureau. The
following chapter is taken from one of these bulletins prepared for parents
by our Government.
CARE OF THE BABY IN SUMMER
_Summer Is a Critical Time for the Infant, During This Time It Should
Receive the Most Careful Attention_
A baby must be kept as cool as possible in summer, because over-heating is
a direct cause of summer diarrhea. Even breast-fed babies find it hard to
resist the weakening effects of excessive heat. Records show that thousands
of babies, most of whom are bottle-fed, die every year in July and August,
because of the direct or indirect effects of the heat. Next in importance
to right food in summer are measures for keeping the baby cool and
comfortable; frequent baths, light clothing and the selection of the
coolest available places for him to play and sleep.
A baby should have a full tub bath every morning. If he is restless and the
weather is very hot, he may have in addition one or two sponge baths a day.
A cool bath at bedtime sometimes makes the baby sleep more comfortably. For
a young baby, the water should be tepid; that is, it should feel neither
hot nor cold to the mother's elbow. For an older baby it may be slightly
cooler, but should not be cold enough to chill or frighten him.
If the water is very hard a tablespoonful of borax dissolved in a little
water may be added to three quarts of water to soften it. Very little soap
should be used and that a very bland, simple soap, like castile. Never rub
the soap directly on the baby's skin, and be sure that it is thoroughly
rinsed off, as a very troublesome skin disease may result if a harsh soap
is allowed to dry on the skin.
Use a soft wash cloth made from a piece of old table linen, towel, knitted
underwear, or any other very soft material, and have two pieces, one for
the face and head and one for the body. The towel should be soft and clean
also. Even in summer the baby should be protected from a direct draft when
being bathed lest he be too suddenly chilled.
A young baby should be carefully held while in the tub. The mother puts her
left hand under the baby's arm and supports the neck and head with her
forearm. But an older baby can sit alone and in summer may be allowed to
splash about in the cool water for a few minutes.
When the bath is finished the baby should be patted dry, and the mother
should take great care to see that the folds and creases of the skin are
dry. Use a little pure talcum powder or dry sifted corn starch under the
arms and in the groin to prevent chafing. If any redness, chafing, or
eruption like prickly heat, develops on the skin, no soap at all should be
used in the bath. Sometimes a starch, or bran, or soda bath will relieve
such conditions.
_Bran Bath_. Make a little bag of cheesecloth and put a cupful of ordinary
bran in it and sew or tie the top. Let this bag soak in the bath, squeezing
it until the water is milky.
_Starch Bath_. Use a cupful of ordinary cooked starch to a gallon of water.
(If the laundry starch has had anything added to it, such as salt, lard,
oil, bluing, it must not be used for this purpose.)
_Soda Bath_. Dissolve a tablespoonful of ordinary baking soda in a little
water and add it to four quarts of water.
_Clothing_. Do not be afraid to take off the baby's clothes in summer. All
he needs in hot weather are the diaper and one other garment. For a young
baby this may be a sleeveless band which leaves the arms and chest bare,
and for an older baby only a loose, thin cotton slip or apron, or wrapper,
made in one piece with short kimono sleeves. Toward nightfall when the day
cools, or if the temperature drops when a storm arises, the baby should, of
course, be dressed in such a way as to protect him from chill.
Cotton garments are best for the baby in summer. All-wool bands, shirts and
stockings should not be worn at any time of the year, and in hot summer
weather only the thinnest, all-cotton clothing should touch the baby's
skin, unless he is sick, when a very light part-wool band may be needed. In
general, neither wool nor starch should be allowed in the baby's clothing
in summer. Wool is too hot and irritating and starched garments scratch the
baby's flesh.
The baby should be kept day and night in the coolest place that can be
found. The kitchen is usually the hottest room in the house, especially if
coal or wood is burned for fuel. While the mother is busy with her work the
baby should be kept in another room, or better, out of doors, if he can be
protected from flies and mosquitoes.
A play pen, such as is described in "Infant Care," a booklet published by
the Children's Bureau and sent free on request, makes it possible to leave
the baby safely by himself on the porch or in the yard, after he is old
enough to creep.
A screened porch on the shady side of the house is a boon to every mother,
affording a cool, secure place for the baby to play and also to sleep. Let
him have his daytime naps on the porch and sleep there at night during the
heat.
Do not be afraid of fresh air for the baby. He cannot have too much of it.
Night air is sometimes even better than day air, because it has been cooled
and cleansed of dust by the dew.
The essentials in the summer care of babies are:
1. Proper food, given only at regular intervals.
2. A clean body.
3. Fresh air, day and night.
4. Very little clothing.
5. Cool places to play and sleep in.
Do not give the baby medicine of any sort unless it is ordered by the
doctor. Never give him patent remedies which are said to relieve the pain
of teething, or to make him sleep, or to cure diarrhea, for such medicines
are likely to do the baby much more harm than good, especially in summer
when the digestion is so easily disturbed. It is so much easier to keep the
baby well than it is to cure him when he is sick, that wise mothers try to
take such care of the baby that he will not be sick.
Do not fail to give the baby a drink of cool water several times a day in
hot weather. Boil the water first, then cool it, and offer it to the baby
in a cup, glass, or nursing bottle. Babies and young children sometimes
suffer cruelly for lack of drinking water.
LESSON VI
QUESTIONS ON TEXT
1. What are the chief causes of sickness and death among children during
the summer time?
2. What are the best preventatives for baby ills during the hot months?
3. Discuss the importance of bathing and tell how to bathe the child.
4. What is the best way to dress the child during the heated time of the
year?
5. What provisions should be made for his sleeping?
6. Discuss the use of patent medicines.
7. What should be done regarding the drink of the child? Why?
8. What can best be done by the well-to-do and by the community as a whole
to protect and preserve the babies?
_Reference_: Selections from "Child Nature and Child Nurture," by St. John.
CHILD ACTIVITY
_This Activity Is Expressed in Simple Reflexes, Complex Instincts, or
Internally Caused Impulses_
As already mentioned, the physical needs of the infant are supreme. Proper
nourishment, the right temperature, bathing, and an abundance of fresh,
pure air constitute all of his requirements. The child is endowed, however,
with an enormous capacity for movement which is the outward expression of
his awakening mental life.
The first great mental fact to note is that the infant is born with the
capacity to respond to stimuli both from without and within. Touch the lips
of the new-born child with the nipple or even the finger, and immediately
the sucking instinct takes place; let a bright light shine into the open
eye, and the iris at once contracts; plunge the little one into cold water
or let it be subject to any bodily discomfort and at once the crying reflex
takes place. The simple, direct responses to stimuli such as sneezing,
coughing, wrinkling, crying, response to tickling, etc., are termed
reflexes. The more complex responses which are purposeful and are designed
to aid or protect the organism, such as sucking, clinging, fear, anger,
etc., are called instincts. Besides the movements which are the direct
result of stimulation, other movements more or less spasmodic and
uncoordinated take place which seem to be the result of internal causes not
easily understood.
The whole body is usually involved in these movements, and they are at
first extremely random in expression. These are termed impulses and are
undoubtedly due to the fact that the infant is a living, breathing
embodiment of energy, seeking the means of self-expression. In other words,
the infant is active from the beginning, and the slightest kind of internal
disturbance is sufficient at times to turn loose an immense number of
impulsive movements. This activity at birth is entirely uncontrolled. It
seems that in contrast to reflexes and instincts which have prearranged
bodily means of expression, the impulses must be subjected to a long period
of training and education before they are capable of being controlled and
transformed into that voluntary movement which is sometimes called will
power.
The immense number and strength of these random, impulsive movements in the
infant is in great contrast to the few, instinctive, unchangeable modes of
action in lower animals. As already stated, most animals come to the world
with the few movements necessary to their existence already provided for
and so fixed that future adjustment to new conditions is practically
impossible. The child, on the other hand, has marvelous capacity for
adjustment to new conditions and presents, therefore, possibilities for
training and education that have probably never yet been fully realized in
any child.
The reflexes and instincts, however, are much more fixed and certain in
their action than are the impulses. No matter what the training and
education of an individual may be, he will sneeze, even in church, if the
right stimulus is present; or he will cry and shed tears in public if the
melodrama excites the proper nerve centers. When the sex instinct is fully
aroused or the sentiment of love completely awakened, no one can foretell
what the action of the otherwise sane person will be.
All that training and education can do is to inhibit under ordinary
conditions certain undesirable tendencies and instincts and to strengthen
through exercise those that are desirable; and even then when a crisis
comes, the old, hereditary instinct is apt to break through its thin veneer
and actually frighten the individual at the unexpected strength it reveals.
Slap any man in the face and see what chance his life-long education has
against the old barbarous instinct for fighting. But notwithstanding the
strength and tenacity of instincts, training and education may inhibit
some of them and so transform others into useful habits that for most
purposes in life their subjugation seems complete.
A tremendous, almost divine power rests, therefore, in the hands of
parents--the power to mold and fashion and transform the impulses and
instincts of their children into whatsoever ideals of life and conduct they
themselves possess. Where is the parent who fully realizes his privilege
and completely performs his sacred duty?
LESSON VII
QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT
1. What are the supreme needs of the infant?
2. What is the first mental fact to note?
3. Illustrate reflex movement, instinctive movement, impulsive movement.
4. Contrast the impulses of children with the instincts of lower animals.
5. What opportunity is given parents through the impulsive movements of the
infant?
6. What only may training and education hope to accomplish with the
instincts of children?
7. What almost divine power is possessed by parents in the training of
children?
8. Quote from the Doctrine & Covenants also a passage that deals with the
responsibility of parents in teaching the gospel to their children.
_Reference_: For a further study of _instincts_, selections from
"Fundamentals of Child Study," by Kirkpatrick, will be found helpful. Also
chapters from "Elementary Psychology," by Phillips.
HABIT
_Habit Is the Tendency to Make Certain Actions Automatic. It Is a Great
Time Saver, and Forms the Basis for Training and the Acquirement of Skill_
Once activity starts in any direction, the tendency is to persist until
satisfaction is reached. If the movement results in pain or even
discomfort, or if the end reached is not satisfactory, the movement will be
inhibited or discontinued and probably will not be attempted the second
time. Whenever the end reached does give satisfaction, the activity is sure
to be repeated, and in these later attempts, efforts will be made to reach
the end more quickly and with less effort. This is done through eliminating
the unnecessary movements and combining the right ones until the complete
process is performed with ease and skill.