ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to establishing some sort of composite mental image of such a child as he comes under scrutiny during this brief period of the eight weeks around his fourth birthday. Pinpointing behaviour with reference to an age-scale is, of course, exactly what is done when a child is tested against developmental or intellectual norms. The average four-year-old in England today is healthy and well-nourished; in consequence, he has an abundance of physical energy, a fact which becomes painfully obvious to parents whenever it is directed into socially unacceptable channels. The chapter shows that the distinctive characteristic of the child at this age is a strongly marked personality with a new interest in social relationships and a new ability to manipulate them. No-one with a four-year-old in the house can avoid being conscious of him as a very individual person with very definite needs and opinions.
