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Life in the making: 335 total pages.

to exercise his growing body further his mental development. One day as he is lying in his crib aimlessly moving his arms, he touches his rattle. The rattle moves. The noise attracts his attention. The baby discovers that he has made the rattle move and he deliberately at-tempts to touch it again. Gradually he becomes able to bit the rattle whenever he desires to do so. This involves getting control of his muscles, but more important still is the fact that the child is also making discoveries about, the rattle, or, as we say, he is gaining experience. Have you ever ob­served a young baby making experiments similar to this? You will bind it interesting to watch him as his experience increases from day to day. Do you sometimes wonder why young children love to pull their playthings to pieces? It is difficult to say just why they do this, but two explana- INFANCY 21 tions may be suggested. Children seem to enjoy feeling that they are doing something, making some-thing happen. So they are continually manipulat­ing things. They are also

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