act rudely and to speak quite unlike his former self. These changes
are related to the fact that with the development of the nervous
system there arise impulses for hundreds of new kinds of movements
which the child can learn to suppress or to control only with the
passing of time. This is the age at which the child is exposed to
the acquirement of many undesirable muscular habits, such as various
kinds of fidgetings, biting of the finger-nails, twirling of
buttons, wrinkling of the forehead, shruggings, swaying the body,
rolling the tongue, tapping with the fingers or the feet, and so on.
Nearly a thousand of these uncontrolled or "automatic" movements
have been described in children of this age. Of course, any of these
movements that produce sounds or that catch our eye are very
annoying to us, and if we have never nagged before, we are likely to
begin now by saying _Don't this_ and _Don't that_, for we
have never been tempted like this before. But nagging is not what is
called for.

Are we then to let them keep on annoying others, or are we to leave
them to themselves to make permanent these awkward and disturbing
and often hideous movements? We should do neither. We should
remember that now of all times the boy or girl needs our friendship
and our sympathy; we should let the young person feel that our
objections are not based upon our momentary annoyance, but upon our
concern for the kinds of habits he will acquire; and we should do
what we can to help him break his habit, not insist that he break it
for us. Moreover, it is not certain that all of these fidgetings and
tappings should be suppressed upon their first appearance. Most of
these automatic movements disappear of themselves as the child
matures and learns to direct his nervous energy into channels that
lead to useful actions, as he acquires skill and self-control