Evening star., 1935-07-21

thousand things in the life of child.
This is Illustrated by some of the
work Gesell has done with identical
twins-that is, twins born from a single
cell. There are remarkable things
about identical twins; volumes have
been written about them, and the cor
respondence in the mental and ply
Slcal traits of the two twins, and some
times even in the things that happen
to them in life. is often startling and
uncanny. Gesell developed the method
OF co-twin control - that is, training
one twin to do certain things, such as
climbing stairs, ahead of the time when
it twould naturally do those things, and
leaving the other unframed, to develop
naturally.
The unframed twin caught up easily
when the proper time came. There was
no advantage, in other words, in ar
tifcial forcing.
On the other hand, it may be great
disadvantage to force youngster
under certain conditions He may de-
velop a deadly feeling of inferiority.
because he can't build bridges when
he is only ready to build towers.
There is much more to the film
records than this, of course And the
films are only part of the work done
at the clinic. Research itself is only
part of this work. There are all the
strictly clinical activities - diagnos-
ing troubles of all sorts, correcting
them when possible, preventing further
troubles, and more or less remaking
lives.
1t is astonishing, according to DIR.
Gesell, how many childhood difficult
ties are really difficulties on the part
of the parents. Partly to remedy such
cases, a unique method has been
worked out at the clinic Many of the
rooms have one-way-v vision screens set
into the wall. A mother or father, or
both. can watch their problem child
without being seen - perhaps while
it is playing with other children in the
guidance nursery, or eating, or doing
anything whatever. They can see how
the child is handled, quietly and un-
obtrusively, by the experts in the nur-
sery and the clinic.
One look and one lesson is some
times enough. The parent sees that the
problem is with himself or herself, not
with the child. And little continuous
observation Of right methods of ham
ding teaches more than many words.
The children come from all walks of
life, and they are referred to the clinic
by many agencies. Some of them
attend the part-time guidance nursery
for a while. There is always small
nucleus of youngsters in the nursery
who are sort of stabilizers for the
transients. The guidance nursery in it.
self does an immense amount of good
in Strengthening out both youngsters
and parents.
All this is aside from the real cases
of mental abnormality. They demand
a different and special treatment.
Gesell has written many books about
child psychology. The core of the idea
back of most of his work is an under
standing of growth - the most COM
plete and fascinating of all the phe-
nomena of nature, whether in babies
or elsewhere. That, and the essential
unity and fusing of the multitude of
factors that make up the life of each
of us.
Gesell has done a great deal in this
field, but he still has his work cut out
for the rest of his life trying to get
still deeper and truer understanding of
these things.
But back of all that there are other
things. DR. Gesell would be the last to
say his work is final in any sense. 1t is
only beginning. But it is the begin
ming of an earlier discovery of the
handicaps that affiict millions of chill
dren - and therefore of earlier treat
ment and correction. 1t is the begin
ming of an earlier discovery of innate
aptitudes, tendencies and capacities -