Speculum - University of Melbourne

ehaviour patterns in childhood
dr. john court
Gesell has stated that the behaviour pattern of a child is a definite response of the neuromotor
system to a specific situation. A study of this behaviour pattern is a means of establishing
a child's mental and neurological status and as growth implies change, so behaviour
patterns change with increasing age, and each age of childhood has its appropriate pattern
behaviour.
Interest in development patterns in children has been stimulated by a number of recent
advances in paediatrics. Principle amongst these has been the growing awareness of the
influence of emotional factors in inhibiting full development of the child, even in early
infancy. The accelerating biochemical knowledge of inborn and acquired metabolic disorders
has led to the recognition of a growing number of preventable or treatable metabolic causes
of mental retardation, and this renders early detection mandatory. Continuing vigilance in
obstetric care, and attention to the infant in the perinatal period have as one of their yardsticks
of success the satisfactory development of the infant. Finally, in Western medicine, at
least, the ability to control infection by prevention or chemotherapy, and the ability to control
and correct body fluid and electrolyte homeostasis, have led to greater leisure to investigate
and treat less dramatic, but equally challenging, aspects of paediatrics, such as the development
of human behaviour.
In 1960, Professor Illingworth, of Sheffield University, pointed out, in emphasizing the
neglect the study of child development was receiving, that a recent textbook on paediatrics
devoted approximately 3,500 words to the subject of congenital syphilis and only 90 words
to the subject of normal development and none to its variations. Congenital syphilis is a
condition of extreme rarity in our society, but mental retardation and emotional disturbance
is of increasing importance and concern to us all, and knowledge of the normal is necessary
for understanding the abnormal.
The developmet of children is largely an expression of four major factors: first, the
integrity and maturity of the nervous system, secondly the child's emergent personality,
thirdly the influence of environment factors on its expression, and finally the education and
stimulation to which the child is exposed.
Clearly the integrity of the nervous system is fundamental to the child's normal development.
The brain damaged child is likely to be retarded intellectually, and thus will achieve
developmental milestones late, if at all: the degree of retardation of development is likely
to reflect the degree of brain damage present. Specific defects of the nervous system may
show specific defects of development. The deaf child may achieve motor patterns such as
crawling, walking and manipulation early, but speech may not develop at the appropriate time.
Similarly, the child with a visual defect may seem normal until school age, when he fails
to develop reading skills. Of course, a deaf child may be intellectually bright, but his delayed
speech and understanding of speech and vacant impression may make him appear dull.
Although anatomical integrity of the nervous system, which may be affected by inherited and
congenital factors, accidental injury and disease, sets the stage for a child's development,
his environment has an overriding influence on his behaviour.
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