Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-06-25
PROBLEMS OF BEHAVIOR
Rv II. Addingtnn Bruce
| NXIOUS parents frequently write n

a NXlOUS parents frequently write me
~ for suggestions regarding the manage
ment Of children who are exceptionally
difficult tu handle. They complain, it may
be, of extreme unwillingness to study of per-
Sistent truancy, Of tendency to theft, OF
chronic Justification, of ungovernable i'll TEN.
per, or of a morbid sulkiness.
The most varied misbehavior and character
defects are reported. And often the parents
pathetically lament that neither punishment
nor moral suasion has any lastingly good ef-
feet.
Too seldom do they appreciate that in most
cases there is some underlying condition of
ill-health which must be corrected If the be-
havior is to be improved. 1t may be physical
ill-healtl or it may be species Of mental ill
health.
1t is now known, for example, that not in
frequently juvenile misbehavior Is symptom
Of nervous stress caused by disturbing coNdi-
lions in the home life.
When parents do not get along we'll to-
gether, when one of them is addicted to some
bad habit, or when there Is continual failure
in emotional controI on the part of one or
both par-nts, the effect on their children is
necessarily harmful. Nervousness of some
sort is apt 10 develop in the children, and
chronic misbehavior may be it's outstanding
symptom.
Or the misbehavior may BIZ sign of de-
veloping mental disease-dementia precox-
i
experts. 1t may even indicate some degree
of organic brain defect though fortunately
this is comparatively seldom the case,
Far more common is it to find misbehavior,
even of an extreme type, associated with read
lily durable bodily defects
Children suffering from unrelieved eye
strain are likely to misbehave. So are chill
dren burdened it'll diseased teeth or tonsils.
And occasionally the provocative cause OF
miSbehaViOr is discovered to be unsupported
disease of the ears.
Manutrition is another factor which has to
be reckoned with. When children are under
fed, or when j ey are fed unWlSely, their
power of self-control may be so weakened
they may be subject to such nervous irritation
or they may become mentally SO enfeebled
that their behavior departs widely from the
normal.
Again and again it is found that behavior
control is largely matter of improving the
nutrition. To report a typical case from DR.
e. A. Strecker's clinic for mental and nerv-
Gus diseases in Pennsylvania hospital:
ga child of thirteen did not get on we'll in
school and was listless and Indifferent. There
was no organic disease, but general appear
ance Of poor nourishment. The family wa:
instructed in the principles Of hygienic living
and food values.
'"Now our little patient proudly brings her
monthly school records to the clinic, and they
together with the reports of the teacher and
social worker, indicate that she is rapidly
forging ahead in her class"
The inference, of course, is that whenever
parents find themselves confronted with Sc
rious problems in behavior, problems which
battle their efforts at solution, their best PR
cedure is to nave the misbehaving children
medically and psychologically examined. And
this undou' teddy is the procedure they ough,
always to adopt.
Copyright, 1921, by Associated Newspapers