Professor Preyer, in his careful little work, 'Die Seeles Kindes,' says "instinctive acts are in man few in number, and, apart from those connected with the sexual passion, difficult to recognize after early youth is past."
And he adds, "so much the more attention should we pay to the instinctive movements of new-born babies, sucklings, and small children." That instinctive acts should be easiest recognized in childhood would be a very natural effect of our principles of transitoriness, and of the restrictive influence of habits once acquired; but we shall see how far they are from being 'few in number' in man.Professor Preyer divides the movements of infants into impulsive, reflex , and instinctive.By impulsive movements he means random movements of limbs, body, and voice, with no aim, and before perception is aroused.Among the first reflex movements are crying on contact with the air, sneezing, snuffling, snoring, coughing, sighing, sobbing, gagging, vomiting, hiccuping, starting, moving the limbs when tickled, touched, or blown upon , etc., etc.
Of the movements called by him instinctive in the child, Professor Preyer gives a full account.Herr Schneider does the same; and as their descriptions agree with each other and with what other writers about infancy say, I
will base my own very brief statement on theirs.
Sucking : almost perfect at birth; not coupled with any congenital tendency to seek the breast, this being a later acquisition.As we have seen, sucking is a transitory instinct.
Biting an object placed in the mouth, chewing and grinding the teeth ; licking sugar; making characteristic grimaces over bitter and sweet tastes; spitting out.
Clasping an object which touches the fingers or toes.Later, attempts to grasp at an object seen at a distance.
Pointing at such objects, and making a peculiar sound expressive of desire , which, in my own three children, was the first manifestation of speech, occurring many weeks before other significant sounds.
Carrying to the mouth of the object, when grasped.This instinct, guided and inhibited by the sense of taste, and combined with the instincts of biting, chewing, sucking, spitting-out, etc., and with the reflex act of swallowing, leads in the individual to a set of habits which constitute his function of alimentation , and which may or may not be gradually modified as life goes on.
Crying at bodily discomfort, hunger, or pain, and at solitude.Smiling at being noticed, fondled, or smiled at by others.It seems very doubtful whether young infants have any instinctive fear of a terrible or scowling face.I have been unable to make my own children, under a year old, change their expression when I changed mine; at most they manifested attention or curiosity.Preyer instances a protrusion of the lips , which, he says, may be so great as to remind one of that in the chimpanzee, as an instinctive expression of concentrated attention in the human infant.
Turning the head aside as a gesture of rejection, a gesture usually accompanied with a frown and a bending back of the body, and with holding the breath.
Holding head erect.
Sitting up.
Standing.
Locomotion.The early movements of children's limbs are more or less symmetrical.Later a baby will move his legs in alternation if suspended in the air.But until the impulse to walk awakens by the natural ripening of the nerve-centres, it seems to make no difference how often the child's feet may be placed in contact with the ground; the legs remain limp, and do not respond to the sensation of contact in the soles by muscular contractions pressing downwards.No sooner, however, is the standing impulse born, than the child stiffens his legs and presses downward as soon as he feels the floor.In some babies this is the first locomotory reaction.In others it is preceded by the instinct to creep , which arises, as I can testify, often in a very sudden way.Yesterday the baby sat quite contentedly wherever he was put; to-day it has become impossible to keep him sitting at all, so irresistible is the impulse, aroused by the sight of the floor, to throw himself forward upon his hands.Usually the arms are too weak, and the ambitious little experimenter falls on his nose.But his perseverance is dauntless, and he ends in a few days by learning to travel rapidly around the room in the quadrupedal way.The position of the legs in 'creeping' varies much from one child to another.My own child, when creeping, was often observed to pick up objects from the floor with his mouth, a phenomenon which, as Dr.O.W.Holmes has remarked, like the early tendency to grasp with the toes, easily lends itself to interpretation as a reminiscence of prehuman ancestral habits.
