Page:First steps in mental growth (1906).djvu/42

 development. On this account, and also because of their relative simplicity and isolation, and comparative ease of observation, reaching and grasping have been favorite subjects among the observers of children's ways.

It is in order, first of all, to observe that when one speaks of the appearance of the reaching instinct that one does not mean that the impulse to reach bursts forth suddenly like the sprout from an acorn, or like a chick from its shell. We are not to suppose that on a given day, or possibly at a given moment, one sees the hand of the baby shoot forth toward an attractive object in a manner wholly unlike any previous movements. Reaching and grasping do not come forth full-fledged. They afford an excellent illustration of the slow development and perfection of an instinctive tendency, and perhaps no class of movements illustrates more clearly and strikingly how by imperceptible steps one kind of movement passes into another of a higher rank.

Beginning with R.'s tenth week observations were made of his impulse to reach and grasp a colored tassel which was frequently suspended within reaching distance of the child as he lay in his crib. From the first, the sight of the object pleased him, calling forth arm-flourishing. In some of these arm-flourishes, the hand came in contact with the tassel, and on two different days during the tenth week it seemed that the child tried to grasp the object; but he did not know how to