Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/126

116 In order to compare children's activities more readily with those of the race this investigation was made along the lines of their spontaneous constructions and play with blocks, stones, sand and earth, and snow; their use of strings, points and edges, and their striking and throwing propensities were also considered. Their attitude towards clothing and their desire to modify their bodily form also received attention. The material was largely gathered from the returns of a questionnaire which was answered by the students of several normal schools. Thus the returns have the merit of coming from teachers or persons expecting to become teachers and actively engaged in preparation for their work. Those who had the questionnaire in charge in these schools were trained in collecting data by this means. This greatly increases the value of the material thus gathered.

The reports, covering observations of 186 boys and 269 girls, show that the tendency on the part of children to use blocks for purposes of construction is very marked. It begins even before the third year and continues up through the seventh year. There is great satisfaction in this and hours are often spent in constructing a great variety of things. The material used indicates that if they have not one thing with which to build they will use any other which lends itself to their purposes. This is shown by the fact that when blocks were not available they used bricks, dominoes, spools, corn cobs, pine cones, sticks of wood, boards and blocks from the builder's discarded pile. The usual construction is a house, this being mentioned in the majority of cases. What does it take to satisfy the child's idea of a house? Very young children are satisfied with a solid mass of blocks with no definite form. Somewhat later blocks are placed in two rows with a space between and another row of blocks on top for a roof; or a board maybe used for a roof. Many varieties of this are built due to the difference in age and ingenuity of the children. Some omit blocks in the building for doors and windows, and put steps before the door, lay walks leading from the house and may even put a block before the opening supposed to be the door in such a way as to show the door ajar. Others make simply rectangular hollow forms with no provision for either doors or windows. Again others build two or even three stories, with pasteboard or something of the kind for floors, and partitions of blocks between the rooms. These various rooms are often appropriately furnished blocks representing the various articles of furniture. Many children centre upon some one part of a house or other building as for example a fireplace, chimney, stair steps, post-office boxes, pew and altar or church steeple, etc., and omit all