The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-08
l. orma atlon Ot Habits Among
 Children

in merely telling the baby what to do, but you guide his hands over and over again until his eyes and his hands and arms all work together in certain definite sequence of movements.
 Nor do you waste time in carefully showing him a great many wrong move ments or sequences of movements that will hinder him from doing the job properly. Your hardest task Is to en- courage him to try to succeed-to make the attempts interesting by your pleased attitude and your rewards, and by his won feeling of trumphS. The fumbling movements are gradually eliminated and the habit is perfected.
 Sounds very simple, yet nine people out of ten never seem to learn that all habit formation can be made much more easy if they will just apply the same common sense to the more com plex habits as they do to the simpler ones. Ideals are nothing more nor less than habits of thought; likewise, atti- tudes are habits of thought; and tenn perament, personally and character what are they but just the sum total of the habits of the individual?
 But, you say, thought is different from such simple matters as tying x. Not at all It is exactlythe same process in each case; the difference consists merely in this: that in think ing we employ words instead of ac. tions.
 Now, words are actions; they are the condensed representations of actions, just like the letter ill algebra is the symbolic representation of the unknown y1tS md kI,a traffic signal represents your car stand ing still, with the attendant movements Of brake on, clutch out, and so on.
 Now let us see what we have said so far: That in building habits we don't need to pay much attention to just words, or rules, or to the kind of movements not wanted And yet how many parents imagine they can incul- cate positive habits by merely saying Don't do that!' and expecting the child to know by some divine intuition just what it is he is expected to do, and how to do it.
 The same thing is true of rules: You can make your boy learn rule for placing the pronouns in French, but he won't place them correctly until, by constant saying them over and over in proper sequence, he has learned the habit of saying them as you and l say ''one, two, three, four" After you have said that over three or four hundred times, you are ready then to make q rule that two follows one, and three follows two. Do you see? After the child has done the thing enough times, he will be able to formulate his own rules.
 There is also a scientific justifca- ton for the old saying Actions speak louder than words" You may tell your baby thousand times not to grab his spoon like a shovel, but the simplest way to teach him to actually take his hand and put it in the correct posi- tion, and then encourage him to hold it so.
 The same truth holds in forming at titudes and ideals-words are never so good as your quick appreciation and reward of his doing the right thing, and your equally certain disap- rroval and punishment of intentional error. It is futile, for instance, to say E. .'Now today I shall give my daughter instructions in fair-play, tomorrow 1T honesty, and the day after in wit ant humor."
 What you have to do is to seize tho thousand incidents which each day brings forth, and praise and reward, ol condemn and punish, each according tC it's merits and it's importance in tht plan of life as you wish it to be fol that particular child.
 Now q word about inhibition" Many psychologists talk about this particu lar word as though it represented Som' real action ill the brain. The truth l! that nothing can be inhibited" in th' sense that you can stop doing 1t, ol thinking about it. What you reall! do is to replace it--displace it, if vol ljke-with some other movement. Th' mind cannot possibly think of just moth ing.
 Consequently, if you wish little Mar! to stop smoking too many cigarettes, is not going to do great deal ot goot to lecture her about the terrible evll' of inhalng lot of poisonous nitrates
 Try to say nineteen" and think "Sev ! enteen." Can't be done, can it? Tw' things can't be in the focus of atten tion at the same time. So in trylnj to break little Johnny of screaming when his royal desires are thwarted 7 show him first that this particula method will not get him what he wants and then have him do something else which will lead to the realization O his desires.
 No youngster is going to quit think ing about a thin gjust because you tel him not to, remember that. The othe day lady asked me if she had don the right thing in commanding her bo. never to mention the subject of hi disbelief in God in her presence or ou cf it. As well try to command tn ocean to be still.
 Plenty of interesting amusements every once in while some reall thrilling excitement, athletics with kick to them, plenty of mill and whole some food, praise when earned and pun kind of habits never will have mucl of a chance to get started.
 THE COMPETENT ANGLEk.
 Passer-by-Hey! You've got bite
 Fisherman-I know it. I'm pro