Page:First steps in mental growth (1906).djvu/53

 toss or throw of the ball. As soon as he was able to creep, he spent the greater part of his play hours in tossing, throwing, rolling the ball about the room and creeping after it. So also when he could walk, throwing and running after the ball was his leading occupation.

The manner of throwing throughout the months of the second year, was what the schoolboy calls "overhand." The hand was raised above the head and the ball was thrown by a forward motion of the hand. (See Fig. I, Plate IV.) In the twenty-third month I made a number of measurements of the distance which the ball was thrown, the average being eight feet and a small fraction. (The ball was a hollow rubber one two and one-half inches in diameter, and weighing two ounces.)

The first attempt to bounce the ball was made in the twenty-seventh month. The first bounce, as one would have expected, was really a short throw. But he soon selected the correct motion, and was able by the end of the twenty-eighth month to bounce a ball, similar to the one described above, so it would rise three feet after striking the floor.

It was said above that the first throwing was overhand. This manner of throwing was the rule until the thirtieth month when, for some reason, I know not what, he fell into the way of throwing side-ways or underhand. (See Fig. I, Plate II.) And it was with difficulty that one could get the child to use the earlier method of throwing