A PROGRAM TO FOSTER ADJUSTMENT IN YOUNG CHILDREN

Abstract

WHEN a child living in Rochester reaches the age of 2½ years a letter is sent to his mother asking her to bring the child in to the office of the Rochester Child Health Institute for a check-up. The letter states that the child will be given a developmental test and instructs the mother to tell her child that he is coming to play with some toys. Both mother and child are thus prepared for a friendly visit and an effort is made to have it be a happy experience for everybody concerned. This test is the first standardized one that is given any of our children, since the age of 2½ years is about the earliest age at which the Revised Stanford-Binet test can be used satisfactorily. The visit at this age is the first routine contact that the parent and child have with the psychologists on the Institute staff, although earlier conferences may be arranged in special cases. We hope by offering a routine psychologic service to all the children in the community that parents will learn that it is just as desirable, helpful and normal for their children to have a psychologic check-up as it is to have a physical check-up. We believe that our results will show that most Rochester parents are developing this attitude. This program was started in July 1946 when the babies born in 1944 began reaching the age of 21/2 years. By July 1948, we will have had two years of experience with this program. From the point of view of cooperation, the results are heartening. The first year, 86% of the children on our list were brought in for a test, and on all but 5% we were able to carry out a fairly satisfactory test. During the first nine months of the second year 92% of the children came and a satisfactory test was completed on all but 4%. This acceptance of the psychologic part of the program is undoubtedly related to the fact that parents have had 2½ years of satisfactory contact with the Institute through the prenatal, neonatal and child health clinics and they think any service offered them is likely to be helpful. Another factor of importance is the routine nature of the test. Everyone in town who has a 2½-year-old—not just parents with dull children, problem children or atypical children of some kind—is invited to come. We find now that, if for some reason we miss a child in this age range, parents call up and ask when their child can come. We are probably justified in our belief that parents who come like the service and tell their friends about it.