The Relation of Parental Over-Attentiveness to Children’s Work Habits and Social Adjustments in Kindergarten and the First Six Grades of School

The source of the material was the file of cumulative records of chil dren in the Winnetka Public Schools. These cumulative records (a sepa rate one for each child) are prepared by each successive classroom teacher at the end of a year's experience with the child. They are frank, confi dential reports for the benefit of the succeeding teachers who will deal with the child, his interests, activities, problems and home. Winnetka teachers are in unusually close contact with the homes. They have all had considerable mental hygiene training. These records, therefore, are usually reasonably accurate and reliable, especially when one has a series of them by different teachers dealing with the same child. For the present study, the alphabetical file of cumulative records was used, approximately the first 500 records (alphabetically speaking) being taken for analysis. These were examined for evidence which would indi cate that the child under consideration was (a) babied at home (b) un duly pushed by his parents or (c) that he came from a well adjusted home situation. The following examples, taken verbatim from the records, will indi cate the type of information on which these judgments were based :