Arnold Gesell - The child's personality is a product of slow gradual growth. His nervous sy

The child's personality is a product of slow gradual growth. His nervous system matures by stages and natural sequences. He sits before he stands; he babbles before he talks; he fabricates before he tells the truth; he draws a circle before he draws a square; he is selfish before he is altruistic; he is dependent on others before he achieves dependence on self. All of his abilities, including his morals, are subject to laws of growth. The task of child care is not to force him into a predetermined pattern but to guide his growth.

- Arnold Gesell

source: Arnold Gesell, Frances Lillian Ilg (1951). “Infant and Child in the Culture of Today: The Guidance of Development in Home and Nursery School (From the Former Clinic of Child Development, School of Medicine at Yale University)”

topic: Baby, Children, Selfish, Dependence, Child Care, Children Growing Up, Pediatrician, Predetermined, Teaching Children, Fabricate, Childcare, Slow And Steady