The Mind of the Child, Part II: The Development of the Intellect, International Education; Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX.Preyer, William T.
Science
The Mind of the Child, Part II: The Development of the Intellect, International Education; Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX.
Preyer, William T.
Child development; Child psychology
In the seventh month my child did _not_ recognize his nurse, to whom
he had for months been accustomed, after an absence of four weeks.
Another child, however, at four months noticed at evening the absence
of his nurse, who had been gone only a day, and cried lustily upon the
discovery, looking all about the room, and crying again every time
after searching in vain (Wyma, 1881). At ten months the same child
used to be troubled by the absence of his parents, though he bore
himself with indifference toward them when he saw them again. At this
period a single nine-pin out of the whole set could not be taken away
without his noticing it, and at the age of a year and a half this
child knew at once whether one of his ten animals was missing or not.
In the nineteenth and twenty-first months my boy recognized his father
immediately from a distance, after a separation of several days, and
once after two weeks' absence; and in his twenty-third month his joy
at seeing again his playthings after an absence of eleven and a half
weeks (with his parents) was very lively, great as was the child's
forgetfulness in other respects at this period. A favorite toy could
often be taken from him without its being noticed or once asked for.
But when the child--in his eighteenth month--after having been
accustomed to bring to his mother two towels which he would afterward
carry back to their place, on one occasion had only one towel given
back to him, he came with inquiring look and tone to get the second.
This observation, which is confirmed by some similar ones, proves that
at a year and a half the memory for visual and motor ideas that belong
together was already well developed without the knowledge of the
corresponding words. But artificial associations of this sort need
continual renewing, otherwise they are soon forgotten; the remembrance
of them is speedily lost even in the years of childhood.
It is noteworthy, in connection with this, that what has been lately
acquired, e. g., verses learned by heart, can be recited more fluently
during sleep than in the waking condition. At the age of three years
and five months a girl recited a stanza of five lines on the occasion
of a birthday festival, not without some stumbling, but one night soon
after the birthday she repeated the whole of the rhymes aloud in her
sleep without stumbling at all (Frau von Struempell).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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