The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-25
Signs Of Nervousness
By H. ADDINGroN BRUCE


 Since in the case of children no less than of adults it is easier to deal with nervous disorders in their early stages than when they are long established, it is of importance for parents to be able to recognize the signs of q beginning nervousness.
 Conspicuous among such signs are certain troubles of sleep.
 When a child, who has hitherto slept well, begins and continues to experience difficulty in falling asleep, witches in his sleep, talks or moans in his sleep, wakes often, and while asleep is tormented by bad dreams, it is al- ways wise to request Q competent physician to look into the state of the child's nerves.
 Especially should medical advice be sought if instead of, or in addition to, the foregoing symptoms the child begins walking in his sleep or is afflicted with night terrors.'
 These last, to be, sure, are so alarming to child's parents-rather than alarming to the child himself, as he generally falls asleep soon after an attack and then wakes forget ful of the attack-that usually no urging of the parents to consult a physician is neceS- sary. Still, there are parents who neglect this precaution, having read or heard that night terrors" cease of their own accord after child has reached a certain age. ,
 Which is true enough. Unfortunately the nervous condition responsible for them does not similarly cease of its own accord. It simply manifests its presence in other ways. Hence the importance of interpreting might terrors" as a danger signal calling for med ical intervention.
 Yet another common sign of nervousness in children is the development of the speech defect variously known as stammering and eli thorities who regard this merely as an in veterate habit of speech due to sundry causes, the belief is growing that stammering always has at bottom some emotional stress and is symptomatic of functional nervous disease.
 Certainly there can be no doubt of the correctness of this in all cases of stammer- ing preceded by a period of extreme and un- accountable shyness and timidity. And, whether or no stammering develops, such shyness is likely to be a nervous symptom. So is a tendency to quietness and seclusive- ness, developing in a child previously active and sociable.
 When, on the opposite, the child suddenly becomes unduly excitable, irritable, restless, inattentive, and disobedient, this likewise should be understood to mean that it is time to enlist good doctors services. Still more urgent is the need for medical advice in the case of child who, formerly well behaved, begins to play truant, to steal, and to lie.
 Finally, among outstanding early signs of nervousness in children mention should be made of the occurrence of special fears.
 When a child-and especially one who has not been at all cowardly-begins to be afraid of the dark, afraid to go outdoors alone, nor bidly afraid of thunder, of water, of fire, etc., sympathetic effort to reassure the child by ascertaining and removing the specific cause of this fear is distinctly in order.
 Otherwise, in one form or another, the fear may persist to harass the child into on increasing nervousness. There are adults who have been nervous all their lives largely be- cause no adequate attempt was made to deal with morbid fears they developed in their early days.