In the nursery the word "naughty" is far too frequently heard. It is
naughty to do this, it is naughty to do that. There is no gradation in
the condemnation, and the child loses all sense of the meaning of the
word. He himself proclaims himself naughty almost with satisfaction:
his doll is naughty, the dog is naughty, his nurse and mother are
naughty, and so forth. In reality the little child is peculiarly
sensitive to blame, if he is not reproof-hardened. It is hardly
necessary to use words of blame at all. If he is asked kindly and
quietly to desist, much as we would address a grown-up person, and
does not, he can be made to feel that his conduct is unpopular by
keeping aloof from him a little, by disregarding him for the time
being, and by indicating to him that he is a troublesome little person
with whom we cannot be bothered.

Any one who has had much to do with children will realise that, if
wrongly handled, they are apt to take a positive delight in doing what
they conceive to be wrong. There is clearly a delightful element of
excitement in the process of being naughty, of daring and of braving
the wrath to come, with which they are so familiar and for which they
care nothing at all. But the perverseness of which we are now speaking
has a different origin. It arises only when children are reproved,
appealed to, and expostulated with too often and too constantly.
Negativism is a symptom which is common enough in certain mental
disorders. The unhappy patient always does the opposite of what is
desired or expected of him. If he be asked to stand up he will
endeavour to remain seated, or if asked to sit he will attempt to rise
to his feet. Like many other symptoms of nervous disturbance which we
shall study later, this negativistic spirit is often displayed to
perfection by little children when the environment is at fault and