Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-08-15
HABIT CLINICS
Bv H. Addington Bruce

10y biuCC
r would be splendid thing If, in cities
and towns generally, there were estab
\ lished for the benefit Of little children
Boston under the auspices Of the Baby Hy-
giene association Such clinics would mean
much in the way of preventing conduct dis
orders and the occurrence Of mental and
nervous maladies in adult life.
For, as have frequently taken occasion
to point out it is well established that nerv-
BUSINESS Of a lasting sort often has it's be-
ginnings in uncorrected habits and tendencies
Of childhood. Also it is established that the
beginnings Of vicious and criminal behavior
are frequently to be found in childish pecu-
liarities, allowed to become fixed and in
tensified through being misunderstood and
consequently not dealt with properly.
There even is warrant for adding that the
occurrence Of actual insanity may be appre-
ciably lessened by skilful habit training in
childhood. Certainly children who are per-
mitted to grow up emotionally uncontrolled
are liable 20 become victims of one or an
other form Of insanity.
It was appreciation Of these facts that led
the Baby Hygiene association in Boston to
request psychopathic hospital physician, DR..
D. A. Thorn, to conduct a habit clinic at one
of the associations settlement houses. Al
though the clinic has not been long in opera
ton, gratifying results are already reported.
Children, from two to five years Of age,
whose conduct is puzzling and perhaps alarm
ing parents, are received at the clinic for OBJ
servation. The effort is made to ascertain
why they are exhibiting sullenness, Jealousy.
cruelty abnormal self-consciousness, or
whatever undesirable trend is conspicuously
in evidence.
Necessarily this means study, not only OF
the child himself, but of his parents and home
conditions. For again and again. believe
am justified in saying, usually-it happens
that the cause of the habit or trait which
alarms is not in the child SO much as in his
environment
The effecting Of wholesome changes in the
environment-notably in the way OF giving
parents helpful hints looking to improved
management of the child-may be all that is
necessary to work a character transforms
ton. and save for social usefulness human
being in peril Of becoming a social burden,
perhaps social menace.
Small wonder that in speaking or LIT.
Thom's habit clinic, DR.. George K. Pratt,
medical director of the Massachusetts Society
for Mental Hygiene, has stated:
From a mental health point OF view II
would be difficult to over-estimate the value
of the habit clinic. BY bringing to light and
correcting in children Of the pre-school age
excessive emotional traits, the habit clinic
seems to us the very quintessence OF prac-
tical mental hygiene"
So strongly, in fact, have Dr.. Thom's
work and the idea underlying it impressed
the executive officers Of the Massachusetts
Society for Mental Hygiene that they are
planning to organize similar clinics in other
parts of Massachusetts.
Such organization should be extended Tar
beyond Massachusetts, All communities need
habit clinics for their young.
"As the tWig is bent, so the tree incl1neS,
is saying of literal truth as regards child
training and adult behavior. And often, ex-
ceedingly often, the bending presents prob
lens which can be solved only with the AID
of those who have made thorough study Oh
the workings Of the human MIND.