ABSTRACT
By his wide influence as author and teacher C.W. Valentine had established himself as a leading authority in this country on child psychology applied to early training. Originally published in 1953, this was a book for parents who need help and advice in bringing up their children and who were puzzled by the obscure and often contradictory assertions of child psychologists.
This book deals with the earliest problems – feeding, weaning, sleep, etc.; it then goes on to early discipline, first school difficulties and adolescence. The great individual differences in children, frequently in the same family, are stressed, so that parents would not be so ready to imagine behaviour to be abnormal. It also sought to help parents understand themselves in their attitude towards their children.
As teachers, social and religious workers, children’s welfare officers and nurses, were increasingly brought into touch with parents to discuss with them the upbringing of their children, it was hoped that this book would be of use to those groups as well as to parents themselves.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |16 pages
Introduction
chapter |7 pages
Parents and Children
chapter |9 pages
The Nature of Psychology and the Best Approach
part |34 pages
Some Basic Motives and Influences on Conduct
chapter |7 pages
The Inborn or Basic Motives in Man
chapter |7 pages
Individual Differences in the Strength of Inhorn Tendencies
chapter |5 pages
Sympathy and the Protective Impulse
chapter |4 pages
Social Training and Habits
chapter |5 pages
Imitation and its Limitations
chapter |6 pages
Suggestion and its Influence
part |37 pages
Unconscious Influences and Abnormal Reactions
chapter |9 pages
Unconscious Influences on Conduct and on Mental Health
chapter |9 pages
Repression and the Inferiority Complex
chapter |7 pages
Abnormal Parental Influences and Attitudes
chapter |12 pages
Some Unconscious or Abnormal Child Reactions to Parents
part |22 pages
General Intelligence and Special Abilities
chapter |9 pages
General Intelligence and Intelligence Tests
chapter |7 pages
General Ability
chapter |6 pages
Special Abilities and Activities
part |72 pages
Stages of Development of the Child
chapter |9 pages
Some General Principles of Development
chapter |13 pages
Babyhood: some Problems of Food, Sleep, Fears, and Cleanliness
chapter |12 pages
The First Two Years: Development and Attainments
chapter |18 pages
Early Infancy—Ages Two to Five
chapter |11 pages
Middle Childhood and School
chapter |9 pages
Adolescence
part |27 pages
Further Main Problems of School and Home