Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-11
CHILDREN ADVANCE
IN MENTAL AGE At
RESEARCH CENTER
Behavior of ToddIers, 2 and
8, Is Like That of 8 to
10 Year Odds.
TAKE RESPONSIBILITIES
OF SCHOOL AGE TOTS
Controlled Group Developed by
Psychological Experiments Great
ing Life Problems.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
A controlled group of % children at
the National Child Research Center
here have been advanced in behavior
from five to eight years in psycholog-
ical experiment, now reaching its con-
clusion for the year, which may have
far-reaching effects on the science of
education.
Toddlers. and 3 years old, have
been developed in a few months so
that they act naturally like and 10
year olds, according to DR.. Mandel
Sherman, director of the center. which
is an institution sponsored by the
Rockefeller Foundation.
Take Over Responsibilities"
The tots, barely able to walk and
| talk, assume all the responsibilities
| which ordinarily are associated with
children after they have been in the
public schools two or three years, such
as dressing themselves, taking care of
their own clothes, feeding themselves,
going to bed by themselves and having
all the responsibility for their own
| toys.
The whole has been brought about by
new system of rewards and punish
mentS, intended to hasten the social
learning process by making child re-
sponsible for its own happiness. The
| process is carried on through series
of controlled real life situations. The
| ordinary procedure in home and school,
DR.. Sherman points out, is to train the
child in social behavior by rewarding it
for doing right and Furnishing it for
doing wrong.
The older person may kiss. pat or
praise the child in one case and spank,
scold or cuff it in another At the
Child Research Center the adult stays
far in the background. There is no
kissing, cutting, scolding or praising.
| The reward or punishment arises nat
urally from the situation which has
been created for the child, Stimulating
the problems of real life.
The reward for dressing itself, for
example, is that it can play with other
| children in an attractive sand pile. It
soon becomes obvious to the child him.
self that he cannot play If he isn't
dressed. Nobody is going to dress him.
Thus the reward or punishment arises
in the natural order Of events from the
situation
The child who is kissed for tying its
shoestrings, says DR.. Sherman, is not
! really advanced in behavior. The re-
from pleasing its mother. Inversely, If
| the child is spanked the punishment
comes not from the failure itself, but
| from displeasing the mother. In the
| controlled group there Is no mamma"
to be pleased or diSpleased
This method, says Dr. Sherman, is a
logical conclusion from some of the
more recent findings of psychologists
1t does not mean that the child is adj
NO aad foil Cue 4.I.A
simply that 1t is so much advanced in
its relations with other persons or in
| its ability 10 get along in the world on
its own feet.
Impulse Rules at Start.
The child is born with no conscious
ness of the necessity of getting along
with others. Throughout infancy-and
| infancy in this sense, says DR.. Sher-
| man, may be anywhere from to 20 or
80 years-the individual slowly and
painfully acquires the realization that
his happiness depends on his behavior.
Thus the small child may act wholly
on impulse, with no thought of the con-
sequences of the act.
AS time goes on the youngster finds
| that some acts may have unpleasant
consequences-tha is, they are attended
| naturally by punishment. It finds, for
example, that when a treasured toy Is
broken the punishment flowing natur-
ally from the act itself is deprivation
of the plaything.
In the case of either parental reward
or punishment an artificial situation is
created which has no counterpart in
real life.
= Gradually the child learns that CIV
ing away to impulses brings undesirable
consequences. So, one by one, they are
inhibited. The youngster learns to con-
troll his behavior in a socially approved
fashion. This, says Dr. Sherman, is the
story not only of the individual. but of
civilizations. The behavior of the child
is In many ways comparable to that of
the savage.
1t can be proved clearly, says DR..
Sherman, that this progress of social
behavior Is not chronological. His own
| observations confirm that the average
European child of IL is equal to the
American child of Is or II in this re-
spect. His behavior is closer to the be-
havior of an adult.
BY the Child ReseaMch Center method
the child is taught only desirable in
hibitions. The system also instills in
the child desirable self-assertions, such
as standing up for its own rights
In the home, says DR.. Sherman, the
e.
It obtains special favors because of the
extreme affection of the parents. It
leaves the home, where it is superior,
and finds that in the outside world it
Is an inferior.
An ideal situation, says DR.. Sherman,
might be one in which two-year olds
| associated in colonies with two-year
Odds and so on for each age group
everybody equal and everybody stand
ing on his 0wYa feet
Increases Happiness, He Says.
The objection that this method cuts
short the happy period of childish in
nocence, says DR.. Sherman, Is ILL
founded. Actually the happiness of
| childhood is increased and heightened.
They act like themselves, not in the
way they think adults want them to
act in order to obtain rewards.
BY allowing the inhibition and self
assertions to develop naturally, says
. DR.. Sherman, it is likely that a great
many of the neurotic conditions which
1.-THE further development of this
method" said DR.. Sherman, may in
effect az four or five years to the
life of the individual. The child starts
to live as an individual on its own re-
sources earlier. The child is born en-
tirely dependent, and because of its
frailness this dependence may continue
much longer than necessary. The proc
ess here Is simply to stop mental breast
feeding"
The word don't never is used at
never Is forbidden to do anything 1t
must create its own "don'ts" through
realizing the natural consequences Of
Certain acts