The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-07-04
The Growth of a Child.
INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS IN II PsY-
GEOLOGICAL STUD OF INFANTS.


The Medical Record rcproduces the lead.
ing features of the studies of Prof. w.
Pfeyer, of Jena, in q field as yet unbrokcn
that il in the psychological study Of in
fants. This study begins, the Professor
says, with the observation Of the move
ments and sensations of n child, aud then
proceeds to note the development Of the
different senses, the formation of speech,
etc, and the effect of all these things in
awakening the intelligence. The first man
Hesitation of voluntary motion Occurs about
the fourteenth week, when the infant be
gins to hold up its head. After four months
the head is usually balanced well, and ut
ten months the power TO sit up is acquired.
Ability to tand was usually, in the cases
studied by the Professor, gained suddenly
at the end of the first year. The first grasp
| ing motions of the hand in the first guar
ter year are entirely reflex and mechanical,
the first voluntary attempt to take hold
of an object not being noticed before the
| seventeenth week. A child does not show
| selfcOnsciousness, n knowledge of its indie
pendent existence, until the second quarter
of the second year. The scnsibility of the
skin of n newborn child is very low, and
It will give no signs of discomfort if it be
pricked on the nose or lips or hands. The
eyes, too, close slowly when touched, and
do not close at all in the bath. An in
| crease of sensibility, however, appears in q
day or two after birth.
All infants are deaf at birth, because the
outer ear is closed, and there is as yet no
air in the middle ear. A response to n
| strong sound is observed, at the earliest
| in six hours, but often not for n day or two.
| The awakening of the sense may be de-
| tected by the blinking which a loud noise
1 nnnoginuu M nfh.r oruan 10 finnuht fn
| contribute to the intellectual development
of the child so much as the ear. The first
| perceptions are those of light. The infant
| shuts its eyes AZ soon rs light enters them /;
| within a week it turns its glance to the
| window. but it is three weeks before the
eyes will follow a light moved before them.
The stupid expression on the childs face
tlOes not leave it until the second quarter
| year, and the face crows more human and
| spirited with the increase of the power of
seeing intelligently. The power to dis
| tinguish colors follows that of intelligent
attention, and light and bright colors arc
preferred; but the power to distinguish
them by name does not come until the be-
ginning of the third year. The recogni-
tiOn of form, size and distance comes
\ slowly. In the first month the infant pays
no attention to the swiftest approach of
the PERSONS hand to its face, and in the
third year it will still show ignorance of
size and no appreciation of distance. The
Professor set down in writing every sound
uttered by a child during its first two
years, and which could be so represented
At first only vowels are heard, but even in
the first five weeks these sounds are so di-
versificd ms TO express different feelings,
Thus, the Professor says the periodically
broken cry, with knit eyes, denotes hunger.
the continuous whine, cold, and the high
penetrating tone, pain. The consonant m
was heard in the sixth month, and at this
time voices began to be distinguished by
the child. Great progress is made in the
imitation of sounds after the third half
year, and the powers Of articulation he.
come well developed by the fourth hall
year.