cessary if we are to
understand correctly the aetiology of some of the most troublesome
disorders of childhood, such as enuresis, anorexia, dyspepsia, or
constipation, disorders in which the nervous element is perhaps to-day
not sufficiently emphasised. Finally, we can evolve a kind of nursery
psycho-therapeutics--a subject which is not only of fascinating
interest in itself, but which repays consideration by the success
which it brings to our efforts to cure and control.

CHAPTER II

OBSERVATIONS IN THE NURSERY

_(a)_ THE IMITATIVENESS OF THE CHILD

It is in the second and third years of the child's life that the
rapidity of the development of the mental processes is most apparent,
and it is with that age that we may begin a closer examination. At
first sight it might seem more reasonable to adopt a strictly
chronological order, and to start with the infant from the day of his
birth. Since, however, we can only interpret the mind of the child by
our knowledge of our own mental processes, the study of the older
child and of the later stages is in reality the simpler task. The
younger the infant, the greater the difficulties become, so that our
task is not so much to trace the development of a process from simple
and early forms to those which are later and more complex, as to
follow a track which is comparatively plain in later childhood, but
grows faint as the beginnings of life are approached.

At the age, then, of two or three the first quality of the child which
may arrest our attention is his extreme imitativeness. Not that the
imitation on his part is in any way conscious; but like a mirror he
reflects in every action and in every word all that he sees and hears
going on around him. We must recognise that in these early days his
words and actions are not an independent growth, with roots in his own
consciousness, but are often only the reflection of the words and
actions of others. How completely speech is imitative is shown by the
readiness with which a child contracts the local accent of his
birthplace. The London parents awake with horror to find their baby an
indubitable Cockney; the speech of the child bred beyond the Tweed
proclaims him a veritable Scot. Again, some people are apt to adopt a
somewhat peremptory tone in addressing little children. Often they do
not trouble to give to their voices that polite or deferential
inflection which they habitually use when speaking to older people.
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