Salt Lake Telegram | 1936-08-01 | Page 6 | Your Baby's Health

Your Baby's Heal Healt B By Dy DR MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal Journel of the iha American Medical and end of ef Hygeia tho the Health M Ii A study of the reasons for tor lying 1 given by children indicates that the greatest cause is fear Next comes a lively imagination third fantasy and imitation and fourth weakness of will A parent interested in iii controlling control ling hag lying on the part of the tho child must learn to distinguish conscious conscious conscious con con- and deliberate lying for a definite purpose from the lie He that thatis is told Just as play pIny Parents also should remember that It is better if they themselves alwa always s 's arc are truthful before the child Never exa exaggerate the importance importance tance Lance of lying in the tho childs child's imagination imagination imagination im im- im- im by punishing him too severely or by excessive questioning question question- ing to get the truth Under such circumstances the child will at attach attach attach at- at tach far Car too much significance to what can be accomplished by varying from the truth Children have more imagination tion than do adults and a good imagination is helpful toward success in jn n life Too often orten the imagination of or the child chil may be repressed because the parent himself himself himself him him- self Is not sufficiently I tive Remember that a child is born neither honest nor dishonest It must learn to evaluate its experiences experiences experiences and to reflect them in its Us own wa way An interesting story is told about a mother molher who was disappointed disappointed disappointed pointed because she thought Her child was lying It had been her method to tell the child that a lie was a mortal sin and that a higher high high- er power always was watching to punish the child chUd for tor lying One day the child came home a little bit bruised and the mother accused the tho child of a n. wrong ac ac- ac- ac tion When the child denied the implication the mother insisted that it join her In prayer saying After ACter we wo pray a while maybe you will t tell ll me the truth The child prayed Please Lord make mother believe me This sort of failure of parents to understand the real nature of the tho childs child's mind Is in itself a worse fault than the fantasies or orI I fables in which children occasionally occasionally occasion occasion- ally aIly indulge Remember that inaccuracy is not necessarily lying A child evaluates its experiences in terms of its own mind Thus if the child says that it saw a dog as largo large as a pony or if it reports experiences in terms which seem to the parents greatly exaggerated the parents must remember that the tho childs child's mind differs from that of the adult Any parents should be able promptly to distinguish between deliberate lying by which the child hopes to benefit and that which is the result of imagination tion or fantasy