Volume 1

The mind of the child : observations concerning the mental development of the human being in the first years of life / by W. Preyer ; translated, from the original German, by H.W. Brown.

Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The mind of the child : observations concerning the mental development of the human being in the first years of life / by W. Preyer ; translated, from the original German, by H.W. Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    phlet, the feeding of deer—holding out a single spear of grass to them—scraping the feet upon entering the house (as if the shoes were to be cleaned). But how little real imitation and understanding of the act itself there was, even in this period of perfect external imitations, appears from the circumstance that a map is held, as a newspaper, “ to be read aloud,” before the face, and upside down. Now, too, the child likes to take a ]>encil, puts the point in his mouth, and then makes all sorts of marks on a sheet of paper, as if he could draw. Just as remarkable is the lively interest in every- thing that goes on in the neighborhood of the child. In packing and unpacking, setting the table, lighting the fire, lifting and moving furniture, he tries to help, llis imitative impulse seems here almost like ambition (twenty-third month). Toward the end of the second year various ceremoni- ous movements, especially those of salutation, are also imitated. The child sees how an older boy takes off his hat in salutation ; immediately he takes off his owrn head- covering and puts it on again, like the other boy. All these movements last enumerated are distin- guished from the earlier ones by this, that they were executed or attempted by the boy unsolicited, without the least inducement or urging, entirely of his own mo- tion. They show, on the one hand, how powerful the imitative impulse has become (in the-second year); on the other hand, how important this impulse must be for the further mental development. For, if the child at this age passes the greater part of his time in com-