The Psychology of Early Childhood: Development in the First Years of Life
Study of Mental :Author: C. W. Valentine. Methuen. 22s. 6d.
A number of adjectives spring to mind when one attempts to describe this book?scientific, scholarly, comprehensive, clear and cautious. Its subject matter covers the period of growth during the first five years, and is a thorough account of our knowledge, or as the author says of our ignorance of the child’s early develop- ment. Growth in every sphere is treated in a careful systematic way with plentiful illustrations of actual child behaviour, reflex and purposive movements, emotion and feeling, sensation and perception, language and thought, memory and learning. Although due deference is paid to the numerously quoted research workers and writers, notably to Dr Arnold Gesell, and Professor Cyril Burt, the author includes a great many records of his own first hand observations on his five young children which are extremely interesting and valuable.
The book does not claim to be original?in fact it follows the pattern of other textbooks to some extent, but it is an up-to-date summary of the facts of child development in so far as they are known, and contains at the same time a good deal of useful theoretical dis- cussion of behaviour and psychoanalytic view points. The student of child psychology, who will no doubt come to regard this book as one of the essential textbooks, will find much of interest?the account of the early expression of feeling, of instances of ideational thought in the first few years, of the development of language, the discussion on fears, and the reflex behaviour of’the baby. It is satisfactory that throughout the book the author never loses sight of the individual child, nor of the inter- connection of the different aspects of mental growth. Although Valentine is not wholly critical of the tenets of the psychoanalytic school, and appears to accept the doctrine of repression, he takes exception to Freud’s theories of infantile sexuality, symbolism, and the Oedipus Complex. He contends that there is no evidence to support these views and puts forward instances of infant behaviour which give no evidence of the feelings which Freud ascribes to the infant. In my opinion he fails to appreciate the full significance of play, although he gives a detailed account of the various functions it may serve the child, because he refuses to, accept the widely held view that spontaneous play will help the little child to obtain relief from internal emo- tional conflict. Perhaps wisely he does not attempt to explore the unconscious mind of the child, but it is unfortunate that in a modern textbook on Child Psychology the possible effects of unconscious factors on the young child’s behaviour are hardly mentioned. Professor Valentine may be criticized because his views on Child Psychology are based on his observations of his own highly intelligent and no doubt normal children. The opinions of teachers, doctors, social workers, and Child Guidance workers in daily contact with parents and children from very different economic milieu and presenting a great variety of usual and unusual educa- tional, medical, social and psychological problems must be considered of equal’importance. First hand experi- ence on a wide basis is fundamentally of greater value than all the theorizing in the world. Professor Valentine makes too clear a distinction in his mind between the normal and the abnormal. In both motives are funda- mentally the same, though their strength and form of expression may vary considerably. There is no hard and fast line between the normal and the neurotic. A study of the latter will throw considerable light on the former and vice versa.
This is a book which will be widely read. One of its great advantages is the careful choice of language, and the care with which concepts too frequently used in a vague indefinite way, are clarified and defined. A.H.B.
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