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Show Too Much Praise Makes a Child Seif-Conscious By JANE IIE.13K.KT COWARD WHILE his friends were ofl swimming in deeper water. Allan splashed about in the shallow shal-low section of the pool reserved for tots. A timid boy. you could not mase i:in take his feet off the bottom last vear. He nad no confidence confi-dence in those who offered to teach him to swim. But this time he had gone into the water alone. There was no danger of being be-ing ducked or ' " ""1, teased, and he U,VAKU felt courageous. coura-geous. Before ; long he made the startling d-.s-covery that his body would float. After that, he trier, over and ovei again to remain on top of the water, wa-ter, kicking and splashing furiously until he was forced to come out and rest. As he stretched out on th edg;. his mother cr.me Up. "Allan. .' saw you swim. she exclaimed, breathless from hurrying hurry-ing to him. "I think it marvelous that you learned ail by yourself. You must go in later and show me what you know. Yov can't imagine imag-ine how thrilled I aiA. Your father fa-ther will be so pleased." Her enthusiasm en-thusiasm was exaggerated. But this shy child, she felt, needed lots 'of encouragement as he had a bad habit of underestimating himself and his capabilities. As she continued raving. Allan's expression changed from pleasure to pain. Without realizing it. these tactics on the mother's part always al-ways rubbed the boy wrong. He was nobody's fool. A pretty good judge of his ov;n successes, he was never flattered by undeserved praise. A fundament;' r'i:i'erence in temperament no doubt prevented his mother from understanding his nature. Still sue should have known that overpraise never works. Either it causes a child to put on false airs or. if he is sensitive like Allan, it may increase his shyness and make him even more retiring. |