Relation of Interest to Aptitude and Maturity

Investigation seems to lend support to the common-sense view that the child having ability in a given thing is likely to have more interest in it than he would in something in which he has little ability, and more interest in it than another child having less ability in it, other things in both cases being equal. Of course, if other things are not equal, they may overcome or outweigh the interest-producing effect of his ability. If, for example, a child does have considerable ability to do something but his experiences with it are loaded negatively with strong emotion, he may have little genuine interest in it. If an incompetent or disagreeable teacher introduces the child to some subject in school, he may have a resultant dislike for it, although he really may have considerable ability in it. Aside from the effect of such irrelevant, unfavorable elements, it seems reasonably well established that interest may be taken as some evidence of ability, provided the child actually has had some vital experience of the thing in question. We do not regard as evidence of interest a mere idle wish to do something, or a desire to do it which is the result of social pressure. The sense in which we use the term requires that it be genuine interest, as defined in the first part of this section -- active, objective, and personal.

Changes in interests are partly dependent upon maturation, as may be seen in the case of children's play interests. The ten-year-old's play activities are different from those of the four-year-old, not necessarily because he has had so much experience with them that he is surfeited by them, but rather because they were suited to a degree of development which he has long since passed. The reading interests of children also vary with age because of differences in, maturity, in intelligence, in outlook, and in experience. Undoubtedly, maturation is a factor in moulding children's interests along many other lines.