Milford chronicle., 1952-08-01
What Is A Problem Child
BY DAVID TAYLOR MARKE
AP NeMsfeatnrRs Writer


It's easy enough, in puzzlement
or evaporation, to label a young
ster problem child" It's more diff
ficult, but far more rewarding to
look behind his outward behavior
for clues of inner disturbance.
Peter Bios, distinguished pys-
cholOgist, member of the Advisory
board of the Child Study Associa-
tiOn, and member of the Depart
ment of Student Personnel at
Brooklyn College in New York
City, writing in the National Par
ent-Teacher Magazine, helps us to
read those clues.
! Before deciding Junior is a prob
lens child, he cautions, we would
do well to determine first whether
he is not a child who has a prob
lem.
We should find out whether the
demands being made on Junior are
within his capacity at this stage of
his mental, physical and emotional
growth, says Bios.
Another child may be troubled
not because of goals that are out
of reach but because the means
taken to attain certain reasonable
and practical goals are quite un-
suitable.
For example, parents have
right to look after Juniors health
by seeing that he gets enough
sleep every night. Yet he can be-
come a problem when his parents
completely disregard neighborhOod
standards and insist on his going
to bed unusually early. A young
boy wants to be and act like his
friends. He has a strong and i'm
pelling urge to be like everybody
else his age. He resists being
babied. This combination of forces,
if thwarted, can stir up all sorts OF
difficulties at home, in school and
in the community.
Emotional growth in children
has it's ups and downs. We are Of
ten disappointed to see how a child
progresses for a time, then seems
to stand still for a time, and actu-
ally slips back now and then as
well. Problems connected with this
hill and valley growth pattern,
says Bios, we call develOpmental
problems. They are to be expected
to a degree in all children.
In addition to these develop
mental problems, he says, we
should make allowances for the
effects of accidental events on the
growing child's personality. Birth,
death, sickness, cnange in environ
ment, crises in the parents lives,
and innumerable other events
somehow have to be assimilated by
the child, made a part of his
growth-and this effort may tenn
pOrarily Obstruct or retard his
normal progress. AS he cOpes with
these experiences, he gains in ma
tuTity.
The patterns in the lives of real
problem children stand out:
First-A serious and persistent
lack in the scheme of his expert
ence--lack of friends; inability to
play; disturbance in sleep, appetite
or elimination; persistent fears;
inability to concentrate or learn in
accordance with his mental capa-
: city.
Second - A real problem child
reacts consistently in inapproHTi-
ate ways to normal situations. he
may show anger or sorrow when
) odinarily such emotions would be
, appropriate and understandable.
) He may look forward to some hap
, py event and then show deep dis
appointment over it.
It is perhaps unfortunate, he
) concludes, that parents are more
, concerned with the child's mental
progress than with his social and
emotional growth. In either case, a
{ child is suffering from some kind
3 of deficiency, and this will ulti-
, mately disrupt the unity Of his
nersOnalitV