Chapter V Growth and Development
“The child should know no other endeavor but to be at every stage of development wholly what this stage calls for. Then will each successive stage spring like a new shoot from a healthy bud; and at each successive stage he will with the same endeavor again accomplish the requirements of this stage; for only the adequate development of man at each preceding stage can effect and bring about adequate development at each succeeding later stage.”
—F. FROEBEL.
Children do not grow and develop by any haphazard process. Too often parents have had so little, either of first-hand acquaintance with other children, recollection of their own childhood, or knowledge of the literature of child-study, that they have fumbled in the dark, misunderstanding and experimenting on their own children, without either standards for comparison or principles for guidance.
There is a wealth of material, both technical and popular, available in this “century of the child.” The impetus given to the study of the child by Pestalozzi and Froebel a century ago has gained increasing momentum in Europe and America. Some investigators have made laborious studies of large numbers of children to ascertain average rates and factors of growth or development of some part of the body or some phase of spirit. Others have made painstaking, intensive studies of individual children and have reported the characteristics observed at different ages.
The outlines, main features, and basal principles are already defined. A knowledge of these is as essential to the intelligent worker with children as a knowledge of the processes of plant growth and development to the intelligent agriculturist. Many blanks and gaps in our knowledge of child development are yet to be filled. The father, mother, teacher who is sympathetic with child nature, who has the scientific mind for accuracy, definiteness and persistence of observation, has an opportunity to contribute to the common fund of knowledge of child life by making original observations of the child in the home. Hitherto most of the published studies, both of groups and of individuals, have been made by men. Doctor G. Stanley Hall has been the pioneer leader and chief inspirer of the child-study movement in America. Doctor John Dewey’s contributions and inspirations have been both profound and extensive. Madame Montessori is the one woman who has made large contributions.
It should be noted that a science of child-study and development was not possible until the idea of evolution became known and appreciated. Froebel sensed this evolution, as will be noted in reading his “Education of Man”, which was published a quarter of a century before Darwin’s “Origin of Species.”
This phase of psychology—tracing the stages of mental development as an organic process from its simple beginnings in the individual or the race to its maturity in adulthood of the individual or civilization of the race—is the field of genetic psychology.
The intelligent worker with children in the home must be acquainted with what is normal and usual at any stage, in child anatomy, physiology, and psychology. Only with such knowledge is it possible to make intelligent observations of the development of the individual child, and to supply a normal environment and guidance suited to his stage of development. Such knowledge and preparation can be acquired only through study of the literature of child psychology, and through intensive, first-hand acquaintance with children.
It requires about twenty-five years for nature to bring a human individual from birth to physiological maturity. In the nine months before birth the growth and development is very rapid. All the organs are formed, but their development at birth is immature, especially the development of the nervous system. What is accomplished in these years?
From Birth to Maturity
| Total weight | increases from | 16 | to 22 fold. |
| Length of body | ″ | 3 | fold |
| Size of muscles | ″ | 37 | ″ |
| Size of lungs | ″ | 18 | ″ |
| Size of heart | ″ | 13 | ″ |
| Size of brain | ″ | 3 | ″ |
| Weight of arm | ″ | 4 | ″ |
| Weight of leg | ″ | 5 | ″ |
Note the great differences in increase of different parts of the body.
| At Birth | At Maturity (25 years) |
| Stomach undeveloped | Complete digestive development |
| Few digestive juices | All |
| No provision for digesting starch until 8 or 9 months; fats (except cream); protein (except curds of milk); solid food | Digestion of all food elements, including solids |
| No teeth cut | Two sets of teeth cut |
| Sense organs: incomplete development, especially sight and hearing | Senses fully developed |
| Fine sense discrimination | |
| Reproductive system rudimentary | Reproductive system mature |
| Nerve cells undeveloped | Nervous system complex and developed |
| Few association fibers formed | |
| Medullary sheath not formed | |
| Motor ability limited to crying, grasping, reflex movements of arms and legs | Motor coördination of all muscles, including accessory eye and finger muscles |
| Mental ability limited to few vague, unlocated sensations, slight motor memory | Concentration, imagination, judgment, speech, all well developed |
| Language only a cry or instinctive movements of head, arms, legs | Fluent use of language |
| Emotions limited to slight pleasure-pain; no control | Wide range of emotions, potentially controlled and expressed |
| Volition rudimentary | Will power to achieve any purpose |
| Social, moral, religious instincts undeveloped | Sense of law and property rights |
| Social coöperation | |
| Moral standards, judgments, and habits | |
| Religious feeling and action |
After twenty-five years there is sometimes a slight increase in height and weight; plasticity is slight; new habits are not readily formed; new ideas not readily accepted. The nervous system is capable of continued development.
There are a few foundation facts and principles that should be summarized before taking up in detail the stages of growth and development.
The child is not a small edition of an adult. His anatomical proportions, his physiological processes, his ways of thought and of thinking, his motives, interests, likes, emotions, methods of expression, are all different from the adult’s; and they are all different at different stages in his development.
The child lives through (recapitulates) in a general way the main stages and order of physical and psychological development that organic life and the race have passed through in the countless ages since life began. Starting as a one-celled creature, he recapitulates in the nine months of embryonic life the processes of evolution that required millions of years, from the amœba to the higher vertebrates, in the evolution of the species.
At birth the baby is less developed and more plastic than the young of any other creature at its birth. This helplessness and plasticity are due to the incompleteness in development of the nervous system. It is because of this incompleteness that the physical, mental, and spiritual life can be shaped in great measure by environment. It is this incompleteness that provides both the opportunity and the responsibility of parents and guardians.
For normal development there must be both the growth principle and power within the individual, and the growth stimulus and materials supplied by the environment.
The rate and nature of growth and development are influenced by two factors: (1) heredity (race, family); (2) environment (climate, social status, economic resources, city or country, materialistic or idealistic atmosphere, commonplace or cultured, ugly or beautiful, expressive or repressive, guiding or neglectful).
Growth and development are two different processes. Growth is increase in size; development is increase in power of function. This principle holds true for every muscle, every nerve, every special organ, every brain center.
Growth is a vegetative process, dependent upon intake of nutrition and elimination of waste. Development is dependent upon use, which involves the exercise of the organ or system and of the related brain center, and this leads to both (a) the initial use of mind and (b) mental development.
Each organ, each physiological system or process, each mental process, is controlled by its own definite nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. By exercise of the specific organ or system, the corresponding nerve center is developed; and the development of the nerve center makes possible a more adequate and perfect use of the specific organ or system.
During the growth stage of any part, exercise of the part is not normal but injurious. When sufficient growth has been attained for development to begin, there is an instinctive desire or hunger for exercise of the part. This desire is manifested by the natural, spontaneous activity or interest of the child. For example, during some ten or twelve months the muscles of the legs and back, and corresponding nerve centers in the spinal cord and the brain, are growing. When their growth is attained, these muscles and nerve centers begin to function in the process of standing and walking, and the child makes every effort to walk. To put him on his feet and attempt to teach him before this stage, is to strain unprepared organs, bones, muscles, and nerves. To keep him lying in a vehicle so he cannot exercise when he spontaneously attempts to walk, is to retard or prevent this natural development.
The process of growth and development is not uniform during childhood; neither do all the parts grow and develop at the same time. Growth is periodic and by parts; it is variable for each part or system. There are periods of slow or rapid growth and development at different ages.
Development begins first for the oldest (racially) muscles and parts, and for those that are being used reflexly, that is, arms, legs, trunk, hands, which are known as the fundamental muscles. The finer, accessory muscles and their brain centers do not develop completely until several years after birth.
There are no average children. Every child is somewhat different. In rate of growth, children may normally vary one to two years from the average. In individual children, some factors at any stage will normally be more marked than others. Distinction must therefore be made between (1) chronological age, (2) physiological age, and (3) psychological age. The standards for (2) and (3) are at present the subject of special researches. Physiological age refers to such factors as dentition, development of bones, height, weight, sex maturity. Psychological age refers to mental ability and maturity.
In some children the hereditary force of a specific characteristic is stronger than in other children. Or the environment of one child gives greater stimulus to an instinct at its nascent (beginning) period, and greater opportunity for its use.
The individual who lives most completely in each stage the life normal to that stage, is best prepared for the succeeding stages of life.
To attempt to hurry a child through this process or to permit an arrest of development in any stage or at any point, is to seriously handicap the child’s normal and complete development. Infant prodigies and infantile youths are both abnormal.
In each stage there are some instincts to be especially fostered, some that need encouragement or stimulation, some that require careful direction into useful channels, some to be ignored as only transitory, and a few that may need inhibiting.
The following group of stages has been prepared as possibly most helpful for guidance of parents and teachers in the home. The transition from one stage to another is gradual.
In so brief a summary as the following, only a few of the most significant items can be presented, and these typical of the average. This is not a form into which every child must be expected to fit. Rather it is a suggestion of the usual, which the individual normal child will approximate in general. It presents a method for recording the development of the individual child.
Infancy
Birth to 2-3 Years
Marked Characteristics:
Rapid growth, especially of brain
First dentition
Nervous system rapidly developing
Association fibers developing between spinal centers and brain centers
Bones, nervous system plastic
Rapid heat radiation
Rapid pulse, respiration
Tissues flabby
Low vitality
Motor and sensory development rapid
Motor coördinations developing rapidly
Speech develops
Interest in pure motor activity, and sensory experiences
Thinking exceeds power of expression
All mental processes developing
Curiosity about everything seen, handled, heard
Perceptions crude, few
Unconsciously imitative
Activity an end in itself
Imagination crude, vague
Reasons by association of circumstances
Emotions crude, uncontrolled
Fear of noises and strange objects
Humor in surprise
Social dependence
Little self-control
Obedience
Trust
Early Childhood
2-3 to 6-7 Years
Marked Characteristics:
Rapid growth
Nervous system rapidly developing
Rapid growth of brain until 7 yrs.
Fundamental muscles utilized
Accessory muscles immature
Activity its own end
Experiments in motor control
Greatest sensory development and efficiency
Curiosity, analysis, investigation, experimentation strong
Interest in simple construction
Constructs for use
Thought concrete
Suggestibility
Continued plasticity
Attention flitting
Asks “What?” “Why?”
Memory for words
Æsthetic tastes crude
Frankness
Crude experience and association of ideas
Vivid, concrete imagination; images distorted
Imitation at its strongest
Imitative dramatic play
Humor in incongruity
Curiosity regarding sex biology
Sex feeling undeveloped
Emotions strong, slight control
Imaginary fears
Self-control weak
Selfish, thoughtless
Respect for parents
Wonder at universe
Obedience
Personification of nature
Conscience begins
Infancy and Early Childhood
Birth to 6 Years
Foster:
Sensory and motor activity
Trustfulness
Curiosity
Investigation
Acquaintance with world of realities
Initiative
Wide range of interests
Fanciful imagination
Formation of permanent habits
Sense of wonder
Cultivate:
Regularity
Respect for authority
Concentration
Thoughtfulness for others
Courtesy
Emotional control
Permanent moral prejudices
Thrift
Inhibit, or Overcome:
Social dependence
Fear
Selfishness
Reckon with:
Slow mental adjustment
Motor awkwardness
Misunderstanding of instructions
Mischief, which is the result of an abundance of vitality, initiative, sense of humor, investigating spirit; it is not something to condemn, but for which to provide natural environment.
Rudeness, which is due to childish frankness, democracy, thoughtlessness, examples of discourtesy.
Curiosity regarding biology of sex, to be answered honestly but poetically under three years and biologically after three.
Telling of falsehoods, from 3 to 7 years of age, frequently due to the vivid, imaginative life that the child is living, his relative inexperience with the world of realities, and the difficulty, therefore, of keeping the distinction clear between the two.
Later Childhood
6-7 to 9-10 Years
Marked Characteristics:
Growth progressing
Differences in growth rate of boys and girls
Second dentition
Sensory and motor activities prominent
Heart and lungs relatively small
Brain growing slowly, attains adult size
Eye development still incomplete: near sight
Finger movements stronger, more precise
Rapid increase in motor control
Forearm and finger control develops
Manual skill easily acquired
Interest in workmanship
Ideals exceed ability
Plasticity to habit
Receptivity
Routine easy
Experimentation, exploration strong
Interest in variety
Actions not well coördinated
Lack of perseverance
Easily discouraged
Adjustment to realities
Images truer to reality
Memory strong for concrete
Period of imaginative activity
Less direct imitation
Imitative and imaginative dramatic play
Emotions becoming controlled
Fears strong
Self-control vacillating
Humor in puns, riddles
Appreciation of rules in game
Beginning of social sense in group play
Slight sense of property rights
Slight conscience
Interest in religious forms (imitative)
Foster:
Exploration
Experimentation
Moral habits
Imaginative play
Variety of interests
Doll interest
Motor coördinations—skating, dancing, swimming
Cultivate:
Power of voluntary attention
Self-control
Initiative
Modesty
Conventional courtesies
Respect for property rights
Inhibit:
Cruelty
Fears
Reckon with:
Fatigue, due to bodily conditions
Discouragement, from greater increase in ideals than in technical ability
Youth
Girls, 9 to 12-14 Years
Boys, 9 to 14-16 Years
Marked Characteristics:
Slower growth
Period of transition
Practical adjustment
Reproductive organs maturing
Period of low morbidity
Heart and lungs relatively small
Great motor activity
Reactions vigorous
Resistance to fatigue
Immunity to exposure, danger,
temptation
Senses acute
New adjustments and coördinations readily made
Routine and rote enjoyed
Motor skill easily acquired
Keen interest in workmanship and motor skill
Constructs for concrete purposes or use
Mental action better controlled, more connected, orderly
Memory quick, sure, lasting
More critical
Sex consciousness develops
Emotions weaker
Fear increases
Teasing other children
Less submissive to elders
Competitive sense increases
Conscience weak
Reverence weaker
Religious indifference
Foster:
Muscular activity
Motor and manual skill
Drill, memorizing
Routine, discipline
Three R’s.
Responsibility
Cultivate:
Fine handwork
Thoroughness
Reserve (in girls)
Chivalry (in boys)
Confidence in parents
Inhibit:
Athletic competition (too great strain on heart)
Fear
Reckon with:
Less confidence in adults
Group interest
Secretiveness
Adolescence
Girls, 12 to 18 Years
Boys, 13 to 21 Years
Marked Characteristics:
Rapid growth and development
Proportions changing
Lungs, heart increase in size and function
Blood pressure increases
Muscular strength increases
Voice changes
Awkwardness
Senses keen
Craving for larger experience
Routine irksome
Power of concentration
Abstract thought
Independent thought
Mental speculation
Larger mental perspective
Memory strong, includes abstract
Abstract reasoning
Debating
Imagination strong, comprehensive
Original thought and action
Organized dramatics
Individuality increases
Works for remote ends
Restive of restraint
Sex feelings increase
Romantic interest strong
Social sympathy increases
Social coöperation
Subject to moods
Shyness and bashfulness
Conscience keener or very callous
Sense of duty develops
Spirit of social service or rowdyism
Religious feeling
Conversion period
Criminal period
Idealism
Hero-worship
Foster:
Idealism Hero-worship
Altruism
Religious feeling
Group interest; team work
Leadership, individuality
Reasoning, debating
Constructive imagination
Athletics; physical activity
Cultivate:
Sense of reality
Emotional poise
Responsibility
Strength of will
Mutual sympathy (parent and youth)
Variety of interests
Vocational choice
Outdoor life
Inhibit:
Depression and pessimism
Finicalness
Recklessness
Reckon with:
Emotional upheaval
Philosophical speculation
Sex interest
Awkwardness, bashfulness
Self-consciousness
Reserve with family
Development of Language
Children vary naturally, and according to their environment, in the rate of development in use of language. Any effort to hasten the process of talking or vocabulary during the first four or five years is an artificial forcing that is more likely to retard development. The following represents all that should be expected of a normal child.
First six months: crying, gesture language
Second six months: babbling, imitation of sounds, gesture language
One year: three to ten words
One to two years: vocabulary of 100 to 500 words; two-word sentences
Two to three years: 500 to 1500 new words; begins use of pronouns
Three to four years: 500 new words; complete sentences
Four to five years: articulation nearly perfect; interest in rhyming
Five to six years: articulation perfect; inflection of nouns and verbs nearly perfect; interest in nonsense words; use of drawing
Six to nine years: grammar usually correct; interest in puns and in secret language; use of drawing as language expression; imitative interest in symbols of language (alphabet, reading, writing)
Nine to twelve years: genuine interest in language symbols; easily learns reading and writing; with limited vocabulary, slang develops
Physical and Mental Growth and Development
| Physical Characteristics | Birth | First Six Months | Second Six Months |
| Organs rapidly growing | Muscles, bones, brain, viscera | As first 6 months, and teeth | |
| Organs proportionately large | Head, surface, intestines, liver | Head, intestines, liver, surface | ″ |
| Organs proportionately small | Stomach, lung capacity, legs | Stomach, lungs, heart, legs | ″ |
| Organs proportionately strong in function | Anti-bodies, kidneys | ″ | |
| Organs proportionately weak in function | Digestive and respiratory systems; tissues flabby | Digestive, respiratory, nervous systems; leucocytes, hemoglobin | ″ |
| Dentition | No teeth (rudiments of both sets in jaw) | 2 teeth | 6-8 teeth |
| Nerves | Total number of cells but development incomplete | Easily exhausted; peripheral nerves sensitive; sensory and motor centers developing | As first six months; spinal and brain associations connecting |
| Sense development | No hearing; sight only for light and darkness; touch vague; sensitiveness to temperature | Hearing begins; eyes begin to converge and work together | Color sense, sound, rhythm developing |
| Special organs or systems at developmental stage, needing much immediate exercise | Lungs | Muscles of arms, legs, trunk, hand; lungs | As first 6 months; muscles of creeping, hand, speech organs |
| Defects easily acquired | Eyestrain; blindness | Bones misshaped; eyestrain; nerves; disposition | As first six months |
| Defects easily overcome | Phimosis temperament; | Bones; phimosis; tongue-tie, harelip | ″ |
| Illness most susceptible | Cold, pneumonia, jaundice, inflammation of navel | Digestive, pulmonary; rickets; nervous disorders, erysipelas | ″ |
| Most common immediate causes of death2 | Congenital debility; syphilis; prematurity, accidents | Congenital debility, digestive disturbances, pneumonia, whooping cough, bronchitis, convulsions, measles, meningitis | ″ |
| Nature and rate of mentality | Vague, indefinite, slow, groping | Slow, vague, diffused | More definite, alert, quickened |
| Motor activities | Chiefly reflex | Grasping, waving arms, hands; kicking; few vocal sounds | Sitting, creeping standing, prattle |
| Sense activity | Slight, vague | Touch, sight, hearing becoming active | Sight, touch, hearing, active |
| Attention | None | Begins in staring, handling | Listening, examining |
| Perception | ″ | Dimly begins | Vague |
| Curiosity | ″ | Begins, vague | Objects in reach, opening doors, pulling; exploring cupboards |
| Imitation | ″ | Of moods and vocal sounds of adults | Mechanical, of vocal sounds, moods, facial expression |
| Memory | Slight | Faint, vague; motor | For familiar acts and faces, responses to his crying |
| Imagination | None | Glimmerings | Glimmerings |
| Reasoning | ″ | Dawning, by association | By association, increasing |
| Social instincts | ″ | Egoistic, strong; trustful, responsive to care | Trust, desire for companionship of adults |
| Sense of law | ″ | Vaguely sensed, as association of cause and effect; and in rhythm of regular regimen | Developed through regular regimen and beginnings of obedience, especially to direct commands |
| Emotions | Slight, vague | Fear, sympathy, confidence, satisfaction, anger | Control weak but susceptible to training |
| Sense of humor | None | None; smiling begins | Shown in surprise, plays, laughing |
| Will | ″ | Temperamental expression | Persistent; shown in temper |
| Religion | ″ | Begins in trust, dependence | Human sympathy, confidence, obedience |
| Physical Characteristics | Second Year | Third Year | Fourth Year |
| Organs rapidly growing | Brain, teeth, muscles, bones, viscera | Trunk, brain, teeth | Upper arm, thigh; brain still increasing; bones |
| Organs proportionately large | Intestines, liver, kidneys, arteries, head, surface | As second year | As second year |
| Organs proportionately small | Legs, lungs, heart | ″ | Lungs, legs, heart |
| Organs proportionately strong in function | Heart, fundamental muscles | As third year | |
| Organs proportionately weak in function | As first year | Eyes, hands, fingers, legs, nerves, digestive, respiratory | As third year |
| Dentition | 6 teeth cut | Completion of first set | |
| Nerves | Motor coördinations developing, association centers developing | Sensory-motor coördinations forming | Sensory keen, motor coördinations rapidly developing (fundamental) |
| Sense development | Hearing discriminate; touch becoming keen, sight definite, focused | Touch, muscular, sight, sound; increasing discrimination | Increasing keenness, discrimination |
| Special organs or systems at developmental stage, needing much immediate exercise | Muscles of walking, forearm, hand; speech, sight, touch, hearing; teeth | Trunk, back, arms, legs, hands, speech, senses, teeth, respiratory | Arms, legs, trunk; sensory-motor coördinations; sensory nerves; teeth; lungs |
| Defects easily acquired | Bones; teeth, speech, nerves, disposition | Bones, teeth, speech, nerves | Eyes, bones, speech, nerves, teeth |
| Defects easily overcome | Bones; cleft palate, temperament | Bones, teeth, speech, eyes | Eyes, bones, speech, teeth |
| Illness most susceptible to | Digestive, respiratory; ears, throat, nerves; scurvy, rickets | Digestive, respiratory; ears, throat, infectious fevers | Digestive, respiratory; measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, colds |
| Most common immediate causes of death | Digestive disturbances, croup, pneumonia, diptheria, bronchitis, tuberculosis, measles, meningitis | Period of low death rate; pneumonia, tuberculosis, croup, diptheria, meningitis, scarlet fever | Low death rate; Pneumonia, diptheria, croup, tuberculosis, meningitis |
| Nature and rate of mentality | Gaining in definiteness, slow | Impulsive, flitting, slow | Active, slow |
| Motor activities | Alertness, but inefficient Runs, throws | Increasing coördination of legs, arms, eye, and hand | Quiet games preferred to active; dawdling; spontaneous |
| Sense activity | Keen, especially touch. Acquiring discrimination | Handling, listening; sight, touch, sound discrimination | At best, most active |
| Attention | Increasing | Flitting, concentration increased in doing | Voluntary—weak Involuntary—strong |
| Perception | Gaining clearness, definiteness | Still vague, but becoming definite | Still vague, improving |
| Curiosity | Insatiable; objects in environment | Varied; names; animals; mechanical processes | Insatiable |
| Imitation | Constant, of adult actions, voice | Adult actions, speech, moods | Chiefly adult occupations, less impulsive; literal |
| Memory | For names of things; emotions, simple movements | Verbal and motor good; emotions | Verbal, motor and emotional strong |
| Imagination | Slightly increasing | Concrete, vivid | Auditory and motor images more distinct than visual; concrete |
| Construction | Building | Persistent, for motor activity | For activity, immediate use |
| Reasoning | By association of experiences | By association of experiences | By association; ludicrous inferences; guessing period |
| Social instincts | Increasing sense of ownership | Social dependence on an adult; slight play with other children | Self-assertive; selfish; quarrels over property |
| Sense of law | Discerned in regularity of régime: in commands, rewards, punishments | Dim: susceptible to training; sense of ownership developing | Disorderliness; imaginative tales taken for lying |
| Emotions | Trust, fear, anger | Love, fear, anger easily stirred; little control | Easily aroused, keen; pity begins; imaginary fears |
| Sense of humor | In surprises, in tumbles | In grotesque situations, being caught, hiding | Persistent; crude; in grotesque |
| Will | Vacillating, temperamental | Little control | Unreasonable; persistent |
| Religion | Respect for parents, trust. Obedience to parents | Obedience, trust, respect for authority | Animistic; invests inanimate things with life |
| Physical Characteristics | Fifth Year | Sixth Year | Later Childhood 6-9 years |
| Organs rapidly growing | See 4th year | Legs, arms, chest girth | Motor cells in brain. Period of slower physical growth; cessation of rapid brain growth |
| Organs proportionately large | Surface, intestines, kidneys, arteries | As 5th year | Digestive system, liver, kidneys, surface, legs |
| Organs proportionally small | As 4th year | As 4th year | Trunk, heart, lungs |
| Organs proportionately strong in function | Digestive and respiratory ability increasing | Digestive and respiratory ability increasing | Leg muscles |
| Organs proportionally weak in function | Accessory muscles and nerves; eyes, fingers, throat | As 5th year | Heart; low blood pressure; teeth |
| Dentition | Sheds some first teeth | 2nd dentition | |
| Nerves | Association fibres rapidly developing; see 4th year | As 5th year | Rapid growth of association fibres in brain; easily fatigued in 8th year |
| Sense Development | Keen development | Senses correlated; finer discrimination | Eyes developed for finer work |
| Special organs or systems at developmental stage, needing much immediate exercise | As 4th year | As 4th year | Muscles of arms, legs, trunk Muscles of forearm, 8 years. Muscles of fingers, 9-10 years |
| Defects easily acquired | ″ | ″ | Spinal curvature, defective teeth speech disorders, eyestrain |
| Defects easily overcome | ″ | ″ | Speech disorders |
| Illness most susceptible | Digestive, respiratory, ears, diphtheria, rheumatism, measles, scarlet fever | As fifth year | Infectious diseases, rheumatism, nervousness, anemia, digestive disturbances; illness increases 8th year |
| Most common immediate causes of death | Period of low death rate As 4th year | Period of low death rate As 4th year | Low mortality; pneumonia, tuberculosis, diphtheria, croup, measles, kidney and heart disease |
| Nature and rate of mentality | Steadier, quicker, more alert | More definite, alert, quicker | Hesitating, impulsive, restless |
| Motor activities | Increasing coördinations, rhythmic movements, skipping | Increasing correlation. Steadier action, marching, dancing | Finger movements stronger, more precise; actions not well coördinated |
| Sense activity | Finer discriminations; notices sound, color | Improvising on piano; eagerness to color; tasting | Senses become practically perfected; sensory interest weaker |
| Attention | Voluntary—weak; involuntary-strong | Purposive inattention; keener concentration in play | Flitting; lack of endurance, application |
| Perception | Clearer, many groups | Clearer | Truer to realities, more distinct; differentiates between real and imagined |
| Curiosity | Intense (see 4th year) | Physical properties; processes; causes; birth | Asks “What is it for?” Wider range of interests |
| Imitation | Dramatic, of adult activities, animals; literal | Dramatic; adults’ activities, animals; less literal | Decreasing, imitates idea rather than action |
| Memory | Verbal, strong; learns nonsense, poetry | Verbal, strong; poetry, stories; motor, emotional, strong | Literal, increasing in ability |
| Imagination | Strong visual, lives in imagination; invents stories | As 5th year; fanciful tales of personal experience | Less fanciful; related more to facts and needs of life |
| Construction | Follows idea; for activity, use, æsthetic interest | Things for use; æsthetic interest | Begins to be creative; interest begins in finish, workmanship |
| Reasoning | See 4th year, reasons by analogy; attempts arguing | As 5th year | Little use for explanations or logic |
| Social instincts | Prefers child to adult; love of emulation; selfish; ownership | Self-sufficiency; homesickness; begins group play | Group play, circle games; slight respect for property rights |
| Sense of law | No sense of property rights; disobedience increases | As 5th year. Increasing; rigid, literal | Expects to be held to law and consequences; respects power that requires obedience |
| Emotions | See 4th year; jealousy; fears animals; imaginary fears | Degree of control | Increasing control, reserve |
| Sense of humor | See 4th year. Drawings, practical jokes | As 5th year. Silliness | Incongruities of action; play on words; disasters |
| Will | Increasing force | As 5th year | Vacillating |
| Religion | Wonder in nature; reverence; prayer; obedience | As 5th year; imitative interest in formal worship | Period of ceremony, forms, rites Animistic tendency weakening |
| Physical Characteristics | Youth Girls, 9-12 years Boys, 9-13 years | Early Adolescence Girls 12-16 years Boys 13-18 years |
| Height | Slow growth; girls more rapid than boys | Rapid increase (Girls, 11-14) (Boys, 13-17) |
| Weight | Slow growth | Rapid increase ″ ″ |
| Organs rapidly growing | Legs, arms | Trunk, legs, arms, lungs, reproductive organs, heart, liver, kidneys; proportions changing |
| Organs proportionately large | Arteries | Hands, feet, arms, legs |
| Organs proportionately small | Heart, trunk arteries | Trunk, internal organs, |
| Organs proportionately strong in function | Muscles, legs, eyes | Heart, lungs; blood pressure high; muscles, fundamental and accessory |
| Organs proportionately weak in function | Heart, lungs; blood pressure; elimination | Nerves; internal organs, elimination; motor coördinations because of change in bodily proportions |
| Dentition | Complete (except wisdom teeth) | |
| Nerves | Reactions vigorous | Under strain; easily unbalanced |
| Sense development | Complete, including eyes | Senses keen |
| Special organs or systems at developmental stage, needing much immediate exercise | Muscles of trunk, forearm, fingers; motor adjustments; lungs | Muscles of trunk, arms, legs, fingers; lungs |
| Defects easily acquired | Spinal curvature, eyestrain; precocious sex development | Of reproductive system; shallow breathing |
| Defects easily overcome | Bones, teeth | Bones, lung capacity |
| Illness most susceptible | Anemia, rheumatism, heart weakness, nervousness; period of low morbidity | Anemia, nervousness, malnutrition; tuberculosis (girls); increased morbidity |
| Most common immediate causes of death | Period of low mortality. Pneumonia, tuberculosis, diphtheria and croup, heart and kidney diseases, accidental drownings | Pneumonia, tuberculosis, kidney and heart disease, accidental drownings |
| Nature and rate of mentality | Direct, alert; more orderly, controlled | Well coördinated, more abstract, logical, comprehensive; routine irksome |
| Motor activities | Well coördinated; need much exercise; new adjustments readily made | Muscular awkwardness during growth |
| Sense activity | Sure, acute, subordinate to thought | Acute; all senses |
| Attention | Voluntary increasing | Potential voluntary attention strong |
| Perception | Clearer | Clear |
| Curiosity | Less keen | Wide range; persistent; craving for larger experience |
| Imitation | Less marked; of idea rather than action | Of ideals, strong; originality marked; individuality |
| Memory | Quick, sure, lasting; period of rote learning | At best; logical |
| Imagination | Clear, creative | Vivid, comprehensive, creative; works for remote ends |
| Construction | Constructs for purpose; interest in workmanship, skill | Interest in technique, use, æsthetic qualities |
| Reasoning | Immature; by analogy or suggestion; logic premature | Logical, abstract; mental speculation |
| Social instincts | Less sympathy with adults, more with companions; competition increases | Strong sympathies; group loyalty; altruism; sex instincts developing |
| Sense of law | Increasing through games; contempt for artificial laws, customs; less submissive to authority | Conscience keen; marked lawlessness or law abiding; restive of restraint |
| Emotions | Weaker; fears increase; sex consciousness developing | Keen, subjective, whimsical; shyness and bashfulness; romantic love develops |
| Sense of humor | Keen, expressed in teasing, practical jokes, puns | Strong; riddles, puns |
| Will | Self-will increasing; tendency to vacillation, inertia | Self-will strong; potential will power |
| Religion | Conscience weak; reverence weak; religious indifference; formal interest in religious ceremonies, forms | Deep religious feeling or irreverence Idealism; mysticism; altruism. Conversion period |
The tables of physical characteristics are based upon the work of Vierordt, Uffelmann, Schmid-Monnard, Pfaundler and Schlossmann. Holt, Kerley; the tables of mental characteristics upon the studies of G. Stanley Hall, John Dewey, Earl Barnes, and their disciples, and the summaries of Kirkpatrick, Tanner, Taylor, Tracy. The author’s personal experience with children, as a medium for developing these data into a composite grouping, has been supplemented by the criticisms and suggestions of individual physicians, biologists, and psychologists. The subject deserves much additional research in the comparative study of children.
Footnotes
2 Based on U. S. Census Report for 1913; causes arranged in decreasing rank.