ABSTRACT
WHAT SORTS of facts are relevant to the space, time, language and intellect of the child? They are so simple and obvious that at first sight they appear trivial. The child has a body which has a certain size and shape, and certain capacities for movement. He is held, by gravity, to the earth's surface, or to some artificial support such as floor, bed, chair or perambulator which stands on the earth's surface. At any given moment he is surrounded by material bodies such as bed-clothes, furniture, carpet, walls, doors, windows, or perhaps grass and trees, as well as human beings, dogs, cats, birds, insects, etc., and perhaps by flowers, and other plants, or by books, pictures, toys, kitchen utensils and so forth. These bodies are all extended in space and many of them are capable of movement. In any case the child must move in order to reach them. It is this fact which gives rise to the problem of spatial development in his mentality. Space is not a self-sufficient entity but one kind of abstraction from the series of events which constitute the development of the human being.
