The psychology of childhood : normal and abnormal / by Mary Scharlieb.

  • Scharlieb, Mary (Mary Ann Dacomb Bird), Dame, 1845-1930.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychology of childhood : normal and abnormal / by Mary Scharlieb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/216 (page 1)
    THE NORMAL CHILD BODILY LINKS WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD WHAT a mystery and what a delight is the infant ! The mother, the schoolmaster, the doctor, and the priest look at the little being and each forecasts its future, each from his, or her, own standpoint. Any one of them may be right, and all of them may be wrong, in their prevision of that child’s life. They will, how¬ ever, probably be of one mind and will agree, that folded up, and hidden from their vision, in each healthy baby, there are powers and endowments, which, granted the influence of favouring environment, will suffice to secure a happy and useful adult life. The child, at birth, possesses, in an undeveloped and miniature condition, the faculties characteristic of the human being. It is, however, quite easy for the observers of the infant to make mistakes with regard to bodily and mental condition. Probably most people err in crediting the infant with too close an approximation to adult conditions. The proud father is apt to believe that the week-old baby recognizes his voice or his tread, while the fond mother attributes the movement of the