Five to Ten

Arnold Gesell's best friends are children. For 20 years at Yale's Clinic of Child Development he and his associates have looked (through one-way-vision screens) and listened while unsuspecting youngsters slept, ate, talked, learned and played. They know the children better than their own parents do.

Last week white-haired Dr. Gesell, father of two, published his 22nd book, this time on children of school age.*The Child from Five to Ten (with Dr. Frances L. Hg; Harper, $4) is a composite picture of 50 children of "high average or superior" intelligence from comfortably fixed families. Most of the youngsters went from the Clinic's guidance nursery to elementary public school. Dr. Gesell intends their behavior-biographies as rough guides for parents and teachers of the Five to Ten group. But he warns: "Every child has an individual pattern of growth, unique to him ... he travels by his own tailor-made time schedule." His findings:

Five. Home is Five's world, with mother as its center. Life is uncomplicated, in balance. Anxious to help and to please, he shuns pioneering, keeps his mother posted on his doings. Five likes to sleep eleven hours, eat plain food, ride tricycles, copy numbers and designs, wash himself (but he often gets stuck, scrubbing the same knee over & over unless mother helps him).

Six. Mother's little angel seems to turn to demon overnight. For Six, life is duplex. He seesaws between yes & no, love & hate, laughter & tears, chocolate & vanilla. A tough first-grade teacher who insists on his learning the three Rs may give Six a stomachache; he would rather play games. This little extravert loves praise, can't stand criticism, frequently confuses "thine" with "mine."

Seven. This is the subjective or Melancholy Dane age. Seven develops a charming pensiveness, becomes a good listener and also a bit of a thinker. Too-constant use of the eraser symbolizes his selfcriticism. Seven needs a perceptive second-grade teacher who can help him through this soul-wrestling. He likes to be near her, to touch and talk to her.

Eight. Eight is glad to be alive, zealous in exploring the unfamiliar, extravagant in speech and action. He does everything too fast, from bolting his food to racing through his piano lessons. He is also a man of property, with a lively sense of money and ownership. Eight knows he is growing up, often listens closely when adults talk to each other so he can figure out what makes them tick.

Nine. A preoccupied, businesslike air marks Nine. At home and in school he perfects his skills by repetition--whether it is throwing darts or dividing by one digit. Usually a good pupil, especially at math, Nine likes to classify his knowledge (flags, airplanes, military ranks). Beginning to develop a conscience, Nine takes blame if he thinks he deserves it, but has the inner resources to get along without praise. Nine does not want to be babied, favors his gang over his family.

Ten. Ten is more relaxed and casual than Nine. His talents, creative and mechanical, assert themselves. His expanding community sense makes Ten receptive to ideas of social justice, group welfare, loyalty. Like Five, Ten is in good equilibrium. But unlike Five, Ten is no longer neuter. There is not much companionship between boys and girls of this age. Anticipating adolescence, they are acutely conscious of sex differences, keep apart by intermittent feuds and separatist truces.

*For many U.S. parents' Dr. Gesell's Infant and Child in the Culture of Today (1943) is now a child-care handbook. Thousands more saw the MARCH OF TIME Life with Baby, filmed at the Yale Clinic.

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