ABSTRACT
The period between two and five years of age is one in which the child’s capacity to co-operate with other children shows a rapid development, if conditions are favourable to the encouragement of this growth. On arrival in a Nursery School, the impact of so many children of his own age often alarms the newcomer and he may, for several days, remain very near to the adult and avoid the other children or tend to shrink back to the adult for protection if another child makes an advance towards him. Young children have a deep-seated conviction that adults ought to know everything and seldom show resentment even if another child reports their misdemeanours to a loved teacher. The opportunity for co-operation between children of different ages is frequently made available by the increasing practice in Nursery Schools of organising children in so-called ‘family-groups’ of mixed ages.
