THE GROWTH OF A CHILD

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 3 August 1881, Page 2

THE GROWTH OF A CHILD

4 [ The Medical Eecord reproduces the leading features of the studies of Pro- , fessor W. Preyer, of Jena, in a field as I yet almost unbroken— that is, in the > psychological study of infants. This f study begins, the Professor says, with 1 the observations of the movements and ' sensatioa of a ohild and then proceeds 1 to note the development of the differ* ' ent senses, the formation of speech, &., and the effect of all these things , in awakening the intelligence. The \ first manifestation of voluntary motion | occurs flljout the fourteenth week, i when the infant begins to hold up its • head. After four months the head is ' usually fcalanaced well, and at ten months the power to sit up is ac ' quired. Ability to stand was usually, > in the caaes studied by the Professor ' gained suddenly at tlje end of the first year. The first grasping motions of the band in the first quarter year are entirely reflex and mechanical, the ! first voluntary attempt to take hold i of an object not being noticed before • the seventeenth week. A child does not know self-consciousness, a knowledge of its independent existence, | until the second quarter of the second , year. The sensibility of the skin of a f new-born child is very low, and it will 1 giye no 6i'gns of discovery if it be , pricked on the nose or lips or hands. I The eyes, too close slowly when ' touched, and do not close at all in the bath An increipe of sensibility however appears in a day or two after birth. All infants are deaf at birth because the outer ear is close, and there is as yet no air in the middle ear. A response to a strong sound is I observed at the eajrlist, in six hours , but often not for a day or to. The awakening of the sense may be detected by the blinking which a loud noise > occasions. No other organ is thought to contribute to the intellectual devolopment of the child so much as the ear. The $rst perceptions are those as to light. The infant shuts its eyes as soon as the light enters them; within a week it turns its glance to the window, but it is three weeks before the eyes will follow a moved before thets. The stupid expression on the child's face does not leave it until the seconcj quarter year, and the face grows more human and spirited with the increase of the power of seeing intelligently. The power to distinguished colors follows that of intelligent attention and light and bright colors are preferred j but the power to distinguished them by name

does not come until the beginning ot tbe third year. The recognition of fofm, size and distance comes slowly. In the first month ihe infant pay* no attention to the swiftest approach of a person's baud to its face ; and in the third year it will show ignorance of size and no appreciation, of distance.