Newspaper Page Text
How the New Tests for
Mental Deficiency in
Children Are Revealing
Also Super-Normal
Brain Power and
a Need of Special
Educational Methods |
If Our Rare “200 /
Per Cent” Little
Ones Are Not to
Be Wasted
Winifred S. Stoner, Who Read Cicero in Latin at the Age of Nine,
Taking a Playmate for a Ride on Her Donkey.
He did not begin to hold
•more than a year. ___ _ .
up his head until he was seven months old,
whereas normal babies do so at four months.
He was one month backward in beginning to
teeth. Normally children begin to walk at
twelve months; this child did not attempt to
walk till his fifteenth month.
But he began to articulate words at six
months, and at eighteen months spoke intelli
gently in sentences, and showed marked ability
in sound memory, recognizing no less than
twenty-five different songs when played, sung
or whistled, and would name them without hesi
tation. At sixteen months he had learned his
alphabet-—taught in three ten-minute lessons
each day. He could recognize letters even when
held upside down. At twenty to twenty-four
months he sang and recited in Latin and French,
and easily remembered historical facts and
chemical formulas. After twenty-four months,
being afraid that mental work would injure his
health, we refrained from teaching him, and
only answered his questions. In spite of this
he has acquired a good vocabulary, and has
become a keen critic when words are misused.
From merely hearing a song or a set of verses
two or three time he sings or recites them with
accuracy—forty lines of “Wolsey’s Farewell
Address" and the whole of General Warren’3
Bunker Hill address were acquired, in this
way, and are recited with plain evidences of
understanding..
This boy is not merely “precocious" in the
ordinary sense. He is a healthy young animal,
as a boy of that age should be, merry-hearted
and fond of play requiring physical activity.
Such cases are not at all rare. But for lack
of recognition in early childhood and through
educational methods suited only to the average
child, they, unfortunately, generally soon out
live their early promise.
Children are great imitators and often very
autosuggestive. Put a healthy child with one
who has chorea (St. Vitus’s dance) and the
probability is that the first will soon begin to
twitch also. A Bimilar case is where a child got
into the habit of rolling up his eyeballs and he
would, maintain thi3 attitude a minute or two.
Psychic epilepsy is a very mysterious condi
tion. The patients have no wrarning of the at
tacks, and apparently, no loss of consciousness,
although these symptoms are characteristic of
ordinary epilepsy. During the attacks they
do all sorts of unusual things which afterward
they are unable to recall or have but a hazy
recollection of.
One might think that It is rather easy to de
tect abnormality. It is just the opposite. By in
spection one may become suspicious, and there
are certain physical defects, known as stigmata
of degeneracy, which are suggestive. Among
these may be mentioned extremely large ears,
prominent or outstanding, or the reverse; the
very small, closely adherent, round ears; thick,
course, unequal lips; slanting, narrow eyes;
differently colored or speckled irides; a flat, de
pressed nose or an unusually large, fleshy one;
fissured and extremely large tongue; a very
small or very large cranium; high, arched, nar
row palates, etc. There are a great many nor
mals who present such a stigma or two and wg
only consider it of importance when there arc,
three or more. Again, many persons of atypit
cal mentality present none at all.
If we are to control the increase of abnormal
mentality, one very valuable means is to watcb
the children. An atypical mind in the youns,
is not necessarily a sign of hopelessness, an?
such minds should be diagnosed as quickly ai
anything peculiar is noted and should be given
the opportunity of whatever medical, surgical,
educational or institutional treatment may be
applicable.
Columbia University has just completed a
most noteworthy experiment in its Speyer
school. A small group of atypical children was
carefully examined and studied from every pos
sible point of view. Instruction and medical at
tention were specially followed for each par
ticular case, and in each such case, even after
so short a period as four months, marked im-
Brovement resulted. The lesson learned was
that the keynote of the training and treatment
of the atypical mind is individualism. These
classes will henceforth be continued at Colum
bia, and besides the regular Winter term, a
Summer session, beginning July 6, will be con
ducted.
>»*■ * (**<« Ing, are necessary if the test is
h4 to be taken as a criterion of
mental age. Although this stan-
uaid nas ueeu worked out and found true on
many hundreds of children, it must be taken
with a grain of salt. Furthermore, the man
ner and kind of response is as important as
what he actually says.
A great many other similar tests have been
devised, such as the De Sanctis, Bridges-
Yerkes and Ziehen’s. In addition, there are a
large number of so-called Form Board tests,
of which the Goddard, Healy and the Knox are
perhaps the most widely used. In these the
patient places geometrically cut pieces of wood
into their proper sockets on a board, or it is
necessary that he dovetail irregular pieces
which will only fit together in one way.
If a child falls short he is not necessarily
feeble-minded. He may he suffering from re
tardation due to remediable physical defects,
and among such are adenoid vegetations, hyper
trophied tonsils, carious teeth, errors of refrac
tion, defects of hearing, pulmonary and other
tuberculoses, heart disease and so on. With
handicaps like these no mind can work to ca
pacity. Correction of .the defects will eventually
bring it up to the normal. It is estimated that
out of the twenty-five million school children
in the United
States, fifteen,
million are suffer
ing from just such
defects.
One frequently
examines patients
whose mental age
is higher thaiv
tne actual ago by
a year or more.
There are known
as p r e co c ious
children. On ac
count of their un
usual brightness
they frequently
are very puzzling
to parents and
difficult of man
agement, and
sometimes they
are thought to be
defective. One
such case is that
of a boy of eight
who would not
study and did not
get on in school.
He was examined and
found to be precarious.
The boy told me pri
vately that he was very
fond of study, but that
his younger brothers
and sisters annoyed
him so in the over-
crow r ded apartment in
which the family lives
that he preferred to
play on the streets. An
adjustment of his home
envoronment quickly
overcame the diffi
culties.
The super-normal child
has special need of in
dividual attention. The
educational methods
applied to the child of
merely average intelli
gence serves only to
hold him back and
limit his exceptional
powders. In his case the
educational aim should
be to develop uniformly
all his mental faculties,
leaving the question of
a later age.
f Jttle Seymour ninom pho-
to^raphen at the <tod-
darci Form-lloard, one of
the accepted teat* estah-
Ilahtng the subject's
grade of Intelligence. At
three-and-a-half years
old this child placed the
blocks
vsrlously-s hoped
properly in less time than
establishes normal in
telligence In a child of
eight. He succeeded at
the other recognised
eight-years normal tests
yrith equal facility, lie-
fore he win two years
old he knew the alphabet
even distinguishing the
different letters held
upside down. Slice then
—through fear of over
working his Immature
brain—his Instruction has
been limited to answer
ing his questions.
Seymour Bloom, the
fe dared by Dr. Louis E
of Columbia University,
per cent normal”; that
his mental powers and acquirements are equal
to those of a normal boy of eight years. Yet,
Associate In Educational Psychology,
Columbia University.
U NTIL rather recent years comparatively
little concerted Interest and attention
has been given to the atypical mind,
Dibich embraces -not only the sub-normal but
also the super normal. And it Is a curious fact
that this be so. because nothing can be more
Important and far-reaching In its results, not
qnly from the Individual, hut also from the
community standpoint, than that the mentality
Bhould be functioning normally and efficiently.
Happily, Individuals are learning more and more
the value of physical well-being, and there is a
growing tendency to consult the physician when
Illness is suspected—not waiting until a disease
has tieon so definitely established that serious
and dangerous harm has already been wrought,
however, the mental faculties are still Badly
neglected.
One reason for this Is because the average in
dividual considers the mind a mysterious mech
antsm, defying analysis, while many think that
anything mentally atypical constitutes, or leads
to, insanity; still others actually suffer from a
vague, haunting dread that ihey themselves may
be abnormal, and therefore fear a consultation
In regard to It. Deficient knowledge robs us
of our logic and makes us afraid.
It is true that the brain and general nervous
systeml are complicated and subtle In their
functionings, hut nowadays, with science ad
vancing by leaps and bounds, the riddle of yes
terday becomes the byword of to-day. The
new psychology of psychoanalysis demonstrates
how understandable thought processes really
can be made, and when we stop to consider
that about 45 per cent of the insanities recover
and about 35 per cent improvo, while yet again
cases from among the lowest grades of feeble
mindedness can In some measure be benefited,
the outlook Is far from hopeless.
Unfortunately, many persons cling to the
l„ea that any one suffering from abnormal
mentality of whatever kind is stigmatized,
and such a view operates perniciously both in
developing a disparaging and unsympathetlo
attitude towards atypicals, and in setting up a
defense against the fear that they also may
some day fall a victim of some uncanny mental
affliction, or become the parent of a feeble
minded offspring. No reflection Is cast upon
an individual when he has had a mental break
down or such a condition occurs in hts family
history, or a child is atypical, no more than
wien kidney or liver disease is present. Won-
wfui progress has been made In' the past
%nty-five years In diagnosing, differentiating,
nklng and re-educating atypical mental
but it Unnecessary that whatever fear-
j°\atiitude still exists should be broken
-Geographical”
Form-Board,
Which Owing
to the Irregular
Outlines
of the
Blocks,
Is the
Most
Difficult
of This Sort
of Tests.
Super-Normal
Children
Pass This
Test Easily.
special ability until
Another point
that should be emphasized is to see that he
lives a normal child life as long as possible.
In my private practise at the present time
Is a rather remarkable Instance—a boy four
years old whose mental development and ca
pacity are those of the average normal boy
twice his age. It is no exaggeration to say
that this boy Is 200 per cent normal men
tally. Yet he was backward, as babies go, for
Where Birds Spend the Night
about until after sunset and then suddenly
darts Into some chimney. These birds have
very sharp-pointed claws and cling on the
sides of the sooty flues.
There are some birds that roost in exposed
places, but most of them select sheltered spots
and secrete themselves in the foliage of trees
and vines.
Certain birds roost on the ground, according
to a writer in Gqs Logic. All sorts of places
are chosen. Quails sit in a circle with their
heads out, always ready to fly If disturbed.
They have been seen sitting in such a position
in daylight. Some small birds roost in large
weeds and others select a tuft of grass in
which to spend the hours of darkness.
A few birds remain wide awake all night,
flying about. Some sing at night, but most of
them rynain quiet.
•hat is meant by the term, “typical?"
Uonarv says that normal or typical
■eeing with the regular or established
\|iher words, take several .thousands
itemize heir physical and mental
Scs, strike an average—and there
e ^knd what do you have? A very
lr •thing more than mediocrity. By
-•oB cj established Q'itt most oj
Ci. <£