ABSTRACT
My little girl is aged two and a half. Up till about four months ago she was such a friendly baby, adored other children, and would talk to any stranger. Now she is the shyest child I have ever seen! She is accustomed to seeing many people and many children, as we move about a lot, and in India all the children meet every evening, either at the club or elsewhere, and she has never met with anything but the greatest love and affection. It has come to the stage now when she won’t play with the other children at all, she won’t even speak to them; in fact she will spend the whole evening without speaking when she’s out, yet in her own house her tongue is never still. Even with people she sees every day, if they speak to her she will hang her head, and shut her mouth tight, and look as cross as she possibly can. She never laughs, or joins in with the play, keeps entirely by herself, looking frightfully sad and miserable and disagreeable. A dog rushed at her, barking, once and frightened her badly, and ever since then she has been terrified of dogs, and I think perhaps the beginning of her shyness dated from about the same time, but I don’t know whether the two are connected in any way. She is better with dogs now, but not by any means right. In order to get her over her fear, we kept one for several months, the quietest and most gentle animal, but even with him she would suddenly show great fear. She will ride and pet horses, elephants and camels, but she often cries if a cat or a dog goes near her.
