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Show Pre-teens have adjusting to do The pre-teen who is in the 10 and 11 year old age group can sometimes be as much of a mystery to his parents as the Sphinx. Why does he spend hours combing his hair but forgets to take a bath? Why has he turned in to a griper but suddenly sud-denly finds it so painful to receive re-ceive criticism? And why, when only yesterday he was so cuddly and dependent does he suddenly have the assertive powers of a Clyde Beatty? An expert on pre-teens, W. C. Mortensen of the Gorton School in Iillinois states that this age-group should be treated treat-ed with understanding if life is to be less stressful. By offering opportunities for the pre-teen child to make sensible judgements and non-damaging non-damaging mistakes, the parent par-ent gives the young person a chance for growth. Pre-teeners shouldn't be permitted per-mitted to run wild or to discard dis-card standards of right and wrong. And .certainly he must have all his wishes mollycoddled. mollycod-dled. He has to learn the limits lim-its of proper behavior. It is especially important that justified praise and encouragement en-couragement be given to build the child's self-confidence. Such annoyances as breaches breach-es of good personal grooming should be overlooked. ' This be havior is natural and temporary. tempor-ary. It is better to concentrate on essentials where real parental par-ental guidance is needed. If adults find it hard to take constant correction, it should be remembered that it is not easy for a child to do so. Children want and need adult authority to guide them. They need and want adult approval. ap-proval. If they are treated with love and wisdom the chances are excellent that their unpredictable behavior will gradually disappear and true maturity will begin to develop. |