Children Do Not Read the Text Books!
Photo courtesy of Zahra Amiri (Unsplash)
“Children do not read the text books!” (1959)
Never was a simpler, truer remark made than by renowned child psychiatrist, Leo Kanner, and it is one we would all do well to remember when raising our children.
Leo Kanner, named at birth as Chiskel Leib Kanner, (June 13th, 1894 - April 3rd, 1981) was born in the small village of Klekotiv, Ukraine, to Abraham Kanner and Clara Reisfeld Kanner. Coming from a traditional Jewish family, he had a religious and secular education. When he was twelve years old he was sent to live with his uncle in Berlin. At school he excelled in the sciences and went on to study medicine at the University of Berlin. However, before he was able to graduate, he was drafted by the Austro/Hungarian Army, in the medical service, when World War One broke out. When eventually the war ended and he was able to return to university to complete his studies, Kanner finally qualified as a physician in 1921.
He began work as a cardiologist at Charité Hospital in Berlin but three years later, he and his wife, Clara, emigrated to the United States where Kanner took up the position of Assistant Physician at Yankton State Hospital, Dakota. Having a keen interest in psychiatry, by 1928 he had gained a fellowship position at the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at John Hopkins University, Baltimore. Whilst there he caught the attention of Adolf Meyer, the director of the psychiatric clinic. In 1933, he was made Associate Professor of Psychiatry at John Hopkins Hospital and, after being awarded the funds to do so, Adolf Meyer and Edward A. Park asked Kanner to help develop the first child psychiatry clinic in the United States.
Having published his first textbook simply entitled ‘Child Psychiatry’, in 1938 he began observing and chronicling the behavioural characteristics of eleven of his patients. His findings, which would go on to be instrumental in todays understanding of Autism, were published in 1943, in his renowned paper: ‘Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact’. It was in this paper that he first used the term Early Infantile Autism.
Outside of the work in his chosen psychiatric field, Kanner was also a passionate social activist who fought hard for the mentally ill. With the approach of World War Two in sight, he was also instrumental in rescuing hundreds of Jewish physicians in danger of persecution from the Nazi’s in Germany, relocating them to the United States where they would be safe. He and his wife, Clara, even opened their own home to many of them.
After a greatly successful career and service to psychiatry, Kanner retired as Emeritus and Chief of Child Psychiatry at John Hopkins Hospital in 1959, but despite his supposed retirement he continued to publish papers concerning Autism until 1973. He also served as a Visiting Professor at Stanford, University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota until just a few years before his death in 1981.
In the medical community he was viewed by many as the father of child psychiatry and his work in his most significant paper - ‘Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact’ - became one of the most cited papers on Autism in the twentieth century.
Kanner’s lifetime achievements were great and significant. In his lifetime, he was the first physician in the United States to be officially identified as a child psychiatrist, and published over 250 articles and 8 books related to psychiatry, psychology, paediatrics and the history of medicine. Indeed, such was his significance that in honour of all his work, all John Hopkins Child and Adolescent Fellows are now called Kanner Fellows. The Mind Research also created an award - The Dr. Leo Kanner Award - for those who actively serve the autistic community.
Leo Kanner (1894 - 1981)
(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
As a nanny with over 25 years experience I have found Leo Kanner’s sentiment to be so true. Research, studies, and countless textbooks can give you a deeper insight into the inner workings of a child - how they think, how they view the world, how to help them deal with issues and trauma’s - but as far as issues surrounding day-to-day living (such as discipline and education), each child is unique so the phrase ‘one size fits all’ does not apply here. So whilst one approach may work beautifully with one child, for another it may not work at all. That is not to say that all this research and information is not of great use or value because it most certainly is; it provides us with a vitally important picture that can only enhance our understanding and promote our children’s well-being. Nor is it to say that you cannot take what you learn from all these books and apply it successfully to your own child and how you raise them. It is merely to say that whilst all the information is extremely important and useful, there will always be one child who does not fit neatly into the right peg, so to speak, and for all the research, for all the studies, there is still so much to learn.
So parents or carers whatever you do, how ever you raise your children, always keep one thing in mind: