EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN AND PUBLIC SCHOOL POLICY INCLUDING A MENTAL SURVEY OF THE NEW HAVEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS BY ARNOLD GESELL, PH.D., M.D. PROFESSOR OF CHILD HYGIENE DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY PSYCHO-CLINIC YALE UNIVERSITY NEW HAVEN YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON • HUMPHREY MILFORD • OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1921 PUBLISHED ON THE ANNA M. R. LAUDER MEMORIAL FOUNDATION EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN AND PUBLIC SCHOOL POLICY INCLUDING A MENTAL SURVEY OF THE NEW HAVEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS BY ARNOLD GESELL, PH.D., M.D. PROFESSOR OF CHILD HYGIENE DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY PSYCHO-CLINIC YALE UNIVERSITY NEW HAVEN YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON • HUMPHREY MILFORD • OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1921 M :• Gr* COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS ©CI.A617297 JUN 13 1921 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Introductory Statement ...... 5 Chapter One. Mental Hygiene and the Public School 7 Chapter Two. A Mental Survey of 24,000 School Children . . . . .15 Chapter Three. Subnormal Mentality . . . .31 Chapter Four. Superior and Atypical Mentality . 37 Chapter Five. School Provisions for Mentally Defi- cient Children .... 49 Chapter Six. Exceptional School Children and State Policy ..... 60 INTRODUCTOEY STATEMENT This brief volume is based on a study of actual conditions. It aims not only to report the facts, but to give them a general interpretation from the standpoint of public policy. Our pur- pose is to furnish, concisely and concretely, a just picture of the magnitude of the problem of exceptional school children, and to indicate the lines for the development of permanent constructive measures with reference to these children. In the fall of 1918 a mental survey of the elementary schools of the city of New Haven was undertaken. The survey was definitely a co-operative enterprise and depended upon the generous assistance of the regular and special teachers who reported the data. We wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to these teachers, as well as to Miss Norma Cutts, Supervisor of Special Classes, and to Mr. Arthur Otis who rendered ac- tive assistance in treating the data and preparing the same for statistical presentation. Some of the allusions in the text will be found to be purely local in character, but it is hoped that the general reader will give them an algebraic interpretation. Equivalent findings and recommendations apply to other communities, both larger and smaller. We have aimed to treat the subject in such a manner that any school board official, teacher, administrator or citizen may get a comprehensive glimpse of the problem without undue distraction by details. Therefore the discussion is uniformly brief. We have stressed the civic significance of the problem. When it is once fully realized that our defective, unbalanced, unstable, precocious and superior children constitute social liabilities or assets, then we shall be nearer to the adoption of an adequate public policy in their behalf. Fortunately, even the inferior types of exceptional school children may, for the most part, be converted into assets for society by the creation of special educational measures and devices of community control. The solution of the problem of mentally or biologically 6 EXCEPTIONAL OHILDEEN inferior humanity, lies not so much in isolation or institutional segregation, as in timely recognition, specialized education, and supervisional social control by local communities. For this reason the public school system is potentially the most powerful of all social agencies in the vast field of human engineering. The nation will have in the year 1930 its due quota of both defective and superior population. A great vista of mental and social conservation opens up when we reflect that most of these exceptional individuals are now children, seated in the desks of our public schools. By well-considered efforts we can begin in early years to select and train superior children for future leadership. Like- wise, we can give to the defectively and incompletely consti- tuted children the training and the external support which will in many instances make them amenable, and even con- tributive, members of society. This work of salvage and pro- phylaxis cannot, however, be accomplished until the public school systems of the country consciously adopt sincere and far-reaching policies. The public school is in a strategic posi- tion to develop these policies humanely and successfully. CHAPTER ONE MENTAL HYGIENE AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL Mental Hygiene and the Public School* Mental power is one of our national resources. It is a rather intangible resource. It cannot be loaded into box cars, nor gathered into reservoirs, nor reported in the statistical vol- umes of the Department of the Interior. And yet the war has made us realize as never before, that this intangible mental resource is as real as the mountain waters which fertilize a valley, or run to waste in a gorge, or turn a turbine. Almost like water power, mental power can be conserved, diverted, increased if the nation so wills. In the great war the nation so willed. And one of the most remarkable phenomena of that tremendous enterprise was the process of a democratic gov- ernment commandeering, classifying, training and molding the minds of millions of its citizens. The whole process of mobilization on its psychological side was, for one thing, a demonstration of the fact that the prin- ciples of the mental hygiene movement are well founded. I do not wish to give the term mental hygiene too sweeping a connotation, and yet in its broadest and most positive aspect, this term stands for the protection of the mental health of individuals, and the constructive conservation of the native mental power of the nation. Does not the conception of mental hygiene then seem less shadowy and less pretentious than it formerly was 1 The war has given almost ocular evidence that the mentality of individuals and of groups can be shaped and energized. Propaganda has become a word as suggestive as "witchcraft." By propaganda you may poison, or you may socialize, minds by the thousand. Through posters, slogans, * Bead as part of a symposium on mental hygiene and education at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Society for Mental Hygiene, Tremont Temple, Boston, January 16, 1919, and reprinted with permission from Mental Hygiene, Vol. Ill, No. 1. 8 EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN banners, lapel buttons, uniforms, headlines, you may build up prejudices, attitudes. You may even fix vast moods upon a continent of people. Psychologists were given commissions, put in uniform, and assigned to cantonments where they mentally examined re- cruits, literally by the thousands daily. Squads numbering as high as 800 were group-tested at one time. By the date of the armistice nearly 1,800,000 soldiers had been mentally tested and given numerical intelligence ratings. So, after all, men- tality is a tangible asset and may yet figure in the statistical columns of government reports. The fact that applied psychology played such an important part in the mobilization and prosecution of the war, and came to be recognized as an indispensable instrument in the per- sonnel work of the army, means that it will probably play an increasingly important role in times of peace. Already on the strength of the military experience, it has been suggested (by Professor Thorndike) that a national mental census be taken of all children of a given age — for example, all the eleven- year-old boys and girls of our country. It would not be an im- possible undertaking. We smile at this rather ambitious suggestion, but we may prophesy that even if the federal Bureau of Education does not undertake such a large-scale psychological survey, there is going to be none the less an active season of group testing the country over. The group tests, as at present developed, are applicable only to children in and above the fourth grade. There is no doubt that we shall soon have more than one group scale, devised to test children below the fourth grade. It is possible that some psychologist has already dreamt of a method of collective testing of large groups of babies at milk stations and at child welfare conferences ! It is contended that group testing has taken mental examination out of the field of the luxuries. Do we possess in this group testing a new method for pro- moting and realizing mental hygiene in our schools 1 It seems to me gravely doubtful. Group tests at present can furnish little beyond rough intelligence ratings, and will serve only to sift and sort pronounced intellectual deviations. The whole task of mental hygiene is largely individual and demands the development of intimate, personal methods of diagnosis. MENTAL HYGIENE AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 9 These methods must be clinical, medical in spirit ; they must appreciate the complexities and subtleties of the situation, and should, if anything, result in a diagnosis by a group rather than of a group. The most highly developed technique of clini- cal medicine, well represented in Boston, rests upon a co- operative group diagnosis and in the exacting field of mental hygiene we may get this technique. The development of mental hygiene, both general and spe- cific, in the public schools depends upon a consistent program of individual attention to individual children. This program must be more biographical, more inquisitive and more solicit- ous than anything we have at present in our half -formed systems of school and child hygiene. Splendid accomplish- f ments have been made through medical inspection and school nursing; but the full implications of this work should be carried out; otherwise our hygiene remains piecemeal and patchy in character. The only thoroughgoing remedy for such patchiness is a biographical interest in infants and children, which will regard the total and the continuing child and be primarily concerned in the healthy norms of his behavior. This, and nothing less than this, spells mental hygiene. Such a biographical interest starts with the birth certificate and continues to the diploma. The mental hygiene of the child does not begin with his entrance upon school life ; it goes back to the basic determiners, physical and mental, of the nursery years. The child who matriculates in the first grade has been attending preparatory school for six years ; the hygienic con- trol of that pre-school period is both a logical and practical necessity. The weighing and measuring campaign of the Children's Bureau was a definite step in this direction. We should make this campaign an established annual event. We should build up a cumulative health and development record for each child, and into this record should be read not only pounds and inches but psychological observations and measurements which have a bearing on the mental hygiene of the child, his readiness for school life, and his major developmental needs when he enters school — his speech, his play, his movements and interests, his sleep, his social traits, and particularly any disorders and peculiarities which have already caused concern to his par- ents. The schedule of measurements and developmental data 10 EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN cannot, in the beginning, be very elaborate, but even a very modest amount of biographic bookkeeping would soon reveal to school authorities an appreciable minority of children who are in need of special educational hygiene. If there is indeed such a thing as human engineering, noth- ing could be more unscientific than the unceremonious, indis- criminating, wholesale method with which we admit children into our greatest social institution, the public school. The Massachusetts Society for Mental Hygiene, with the able assistance of its president, has rendered a definite service in calling attention to the importance of a more thoroughgo- ing health examination on school entrance.* This is the strate- gic period in a child 's life for a physical examination, at least as thoroughgoing and searching as that to which our millions of recruits were subjected in the hurried days of war. We have at any given time only 2,000,000 children six years of age, and we have the whole summer vacation in which to conduct the examinations. Let us not forget too speedily, in times of ar- mistice and peace, what really can be done in the field of human engineering if we set our wills to the task. We should make a searching examination for physical defects and defi- ciencies — that seems axiomatic. We should also develop a technique for recording important traits of behavior, qualities of mind and irregularities of physiological and mental func- tioning, which will point to a reconstructive pedagogy during the career of the school child. It is already possible to make an intelligence rating by mental testing; the recording of other traits, emotional, volitional and social, will depend upon more biographical methods of observation. It is for this rea- son that some systematic connection must be made with the pre-school career of the school beginner. We cannot, however, place full reliance even upon a thor- ough psycho-physical examination at school entrance. Human nature is too complex, and as Secretary of War Baker said in regard to the personnel work in the army, routine examina- tions tend to become mechanical : ' ' Now the danger that we have in this Personnel Division is that with the size of the * Burnkm, W. H. A Health Examination at School Entrance, Boston : Massa- chusetts Society for Mental Hygiene, 19 17. Publication 27. Gesell, Arnold. The Special Province of Child Hygiene in the Primary School. The CUM, London, Vol. Ill, pp. 318-23, January, 1913. MENTAL HYGIENE AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 11 task and the frequency of the repetition of our contact with individuals, it is likely to make us fail to remember that each man with whom we deal is more than a card in the index, and is individually a man, that he is an individual American, and that no strait- jacket set of questions will reach his ultimate possibilities." We must supplement the matriculation examination, with a period of observation which will not relax during the whole school career of the child, but which will be peculiarly inten- sive during the first year or first semester. This first year should be an induction year. The kindergarten and first grade then become a vestibule school, where the child may be de- tained under a watchful semi-probationary regime which will discover and record his strength and his weakness. In other words, a child should not really enter school until he has been there for about six months ! This method of induction is not inconsistent with his also learning the letters and phonograms ; but it means that the prevailing zeal of the primary school be shifted from instruction to hygiene and that the premium be placed on a new type of teacher, possessing natural and trained powers of observation, and ability to deal discriminat- ingly with individual children. The well-trained special class teacher of mentally deficient pupils is an example of the type of teacher who needs to be incorporated into our kindergarten and first grade, as part of a program of mental hygiene in the public school. There are of course many practical and administrative diffi- culties, which we have not time to discuss ; but these difficulties are not insurmountable. By way of conclusion I will outline certain possibilities which seem to me to be workable, if we really believe that mental hygiene should be introduced into the public schools. These possibilities would be most appli- cable to a large city, but could also be worked out under rural and village conditions. 1. A hygienic supervision of the pre-school period. This to result in a cumulative biographic record of every child from birth registration to school entrance. The data to be secured by the extension of present infant welfare agencies ; by elabo- rated periodic measuring and weighing days ; by organizing grammar grade and high school pupils to assist in the accumu- lation of these records ; by widening the scope of public health, 12 EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN nursing and of medicine, so that the psychological and de- velopmental interests of young children will be more definitely included. 2. A psycho-physical entrance examination of every school beginner. This examination should be comprehensive, thor- oughgoing and in close co-operation with parent or guardian ; it should also summarize and develop the main conclusions from the pre-school career of the child and disclose those children either superior or atypical who most urgently need a specialized school career. 3. A reorganization of the kindergarten and first grade, which will place the first half year of school life under sys- tematic, purposeful observation. The teachers, program, schedule and equipment and administration of this induction period to be definitely adapted to such observation and to a system of record keeping and classification of pupils, which will determine their educational hygiene in the subsequent grades. 4. The development of a new type of school nurse, who, by supervision, corrective teaching, and home visitation, will further the concrete everyday tasks of mental hygiene. This psychiatric school nurse would be a counterpart of the medi- cal school nurse and work in close contact with her; but she would revolve in a different circle of problems. Instead of pupils with discharging ears and deteriorating molars, her clients would be the child with night terrors, the nail biter, the over-tearful child, the over-silent child, the stammering child, the extremely indifferent child, the pervert, the infantile child, the unstable choreic, and a whole host of suffering, frustrated and unhealthily constituted growing minds, that we are barely aware of in a quantitative sense, because we do not have the agencies to bring them to our attention as prob- lems of public hygiene and prophylaxis. 5. The development of reconstruction schools, of special classes and vacation camps for certain groups of children who need specialized treatment, such as the speech-defective, psy- chopathic and nervous groups. Even one hospital type of school in a city as large as Boston could benefit a large num- ber of children in the course of a year. To such schools, classes and camps, children could be assigned for long or short pe- riods, and secure a combination of medical and educational MENTAL HYGIENE AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 13 treatment which alone is adequate to reconstruct them men- tally. These provisions imply neurological and psychiatric specialists, educational psychologists and teacher-nurses, co- operating as public health experts in a work of mental salvage and prophylaxis. Only by such radical and sincere methods can we ever hope to reduce the massive burden of adult in- sanity. Expensive in the beginning, a preventive juvenile sys- tem of mental sanitation may after all prove to be a form of socialized thrift. 6. A comprehensive system of mental conservation demands also that we discover and cultivate the superior intelligence, which is at the basis of leadership and distinction in all the arts and sciences of life. Failure to afford such intelligence the optimum environment in which to grow and to produce results is incalculable waste. Psychology as a science of measurement and interpretation applied directly to problems of school ad- ministration is destined to accomplish much in this field of mental conservation. 7. Finally we have the great mass of children who are not candidates for distinction, nor victims of mental defect or disorder. Their mental welfare will depend, as always, on the traditional influences of home and school. For them, education and mental hygiene are synonymous. That education is most hygienic which provokes and promotes their intelligence, and which disposes them to become good citizens. By reason of that fact, the educators influence the ultimate mental vigor of the nation. Here lie the greatest of all possibilities in the field of mental engineering, because the great mass of children can be shaped and swayed by the methods of mass education obe- dient to the laws of mass psychology. Unconsciously applying those laws, we have woven about our flag and the mere name of our country noble impulses of patriotism which leap to ful- fillment in times of war. We can consciously apply those same powerful laws of group mentation to the less dramatic but more permanent times of peace. We need not scorn the meth- ods of publicity, of advertising, and of association by emo- tional contiguity. Let us in a new way bring posters, slogans, moving pictures, group psychology and multiple suggestion into the technique of public school education. Guided and con- trolled by broad-minded experts in applied psychology and 14 EXCEPTIONAL CHILDEEN education, these large impressionistic methods of mental con- trol may lift onr growing generation of citizens to a higher level of civilian morale. CHAPTER TWO A MENTAL SURVEY OF 24,000 SCHOOL CHILDREN When is a school child exceptional? There are a few stal- warts still to be found who valiantly declare that there are no exceptional school children, — that any child who can go to school "can be taught." On the other hand there are those who somewhat sagely say that all children are more or less exceptional. We can hardly take refuge behind such a shadowy statement. The experienced observer knows that in every school system there are a minority of pupils who present extraordinary educational difficulties, and who are therefore entitled to special educational consideration. Humanity, as well as hygiene, requires that we recognize at least the most radical individual differences among our school children. When shall we regard a child as educationally exceptional ? Borrowing the phraseology of the law, an exceptional school child is one whose mental or physical personality deviates so markedly from the average standard as to cause a special status to arise with respect to his educational treatment and outlook. This is a somewhat cumbersome statement, but it is sufficiently descriptive and elastic to furnish a guide to practice. Types of Exceptional School Children The accompanying tabular classification of children may be helpful to the reader if it is not allowed to convey the impres- sion that individuals fall into rigid psychological compart- ments. The classification is intended to call attention to the wide ranges of mental variation and deviation which may be found in a large group of unselected children. With only a few exceptions, representatives of every type included in the classification will be found in any large school system. The individual differences in general intelligence are par- ticularly constant; probably because they are native or con- '©'© w cS H © bC © CD fl HI'S ■+=■ +3 P cS ■*= . 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X- x Number of older brothers and sisters O ; number of younger brothers and sisters *3 Name, age and school grade of any brothers or sisters who show signs of subnormality Home and family: Note any exceptional or significant facts in regard to the home conditions, the parents or rela- tives. Is the social status of the family average very inferior or superior? Has the child been a problem at home? r*- PERSONAL TRAITS. Underscore words and phrases which describe the child: Sluggish, Excitable, . Trust- worthy, Obedient, Dishonest, Cheerful, Slovenly, Quarrelsome, Unfeeling, Lazy , Affectionate, Stubborn , Seclu- sive, No initiative, Hard to manage, Noisy, Babyish, Neat, Fond of music, Giggling, Sociable, Inattentive, Moody, Lacks common sense, No application. In the space below supply any further details in regard to the child's characteristics, conduct or school work. To y. ryy Q — (Co n i/nu et£) FIGUKE 3' A MENTAL SURVEY OF SCHOOL CHILDREN 23 FORMD School, .(AlTcrA, . ZlLr, ~~ Room...tfr;. of pupil . . . /?2.&rf3j^. ; Every pupU report*! on Form A is to write and draw on one o* these sheets, Caution: The teaehe ■nwrt the pupil's rams, etc, until after the work has been handed to. The look at and should receiver*) assistance from the teacher. i pupil should have w copy or model t On the lira below have the pupil write his name (or attempt to do so}; and the name of the school which 1 rm^riAAj g~ In the space below have the pupil draw a mem, a treir, and a house; and anything else he want* I If the pupil can write phrases or sentences have him write a letter on the reverse side of this sheet Have h,m wrrte to an Aunt or Uncle on "Wl,*t I m lasl Saturday". Allow 15 minutes for the letter -and give no assist- FIGURE 4 24 EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN FORM E Name .YDA/U£..U. School.... (&&j&)X/. Teacher TZ^.. ..A J^W*— --' i sheet is a su SUBTRACTION SCALE (Woody). Say to the child: "Every problem on this sheet is sf subtraction problem (A take away problem). Subtract (or take away) the smaller number from the larger. Work as many of these problems as you can and be sure that you get them right. Do all of the work on this sheet of paper and do not ask any questions. Begin." After ten minutes give the signal "Stop." Give no assistance and make no corrections. 8 2 11 13 5 1 7 8 78 16 50 37 9 25 567482 o3 , 8e L 106493 2i--l- 5 3_ 5 yds. 1ft. 4 in. 7.-3.00081 = 2 yds. 2 ft. 8 in. 3 7 1_5 T" a In the space below give two or three illustrations of the most difficult examples which the child can do with fair ease and accuracy. For example: 7-(-5= ; 723-^6 = FIGUEE 5 ■2 § ^ s 2 pi -5 S o « •** ft « •— • «H .. .2 S3 ■* a> a> o ® "S i? ■§ Pi ,93 , 1 Qj 5 s Si O II 8 -^ ^ s 3 -4 £ ■-' S2?J .9 o r - a " a .ft 09 >a S © Ph 1 ■s te O .5 * 3 3 -t 3 o oo fe TS t* QJ M * o rli ® a * -1-1 T) < O 2 « 8 fe •Si ■E it I ° & 4 V> . r — : b- -tJ. Oj r D A MENTAL SURVEY OF SCHOOL CHILDREN 27 Jn OA^ 3L— FORM 3 .7>^2uCc/>r»... .M,R. SPELLING. 1. Have the child write his name. A space is provided for this purpose on Form 2. Dic- tate the following sentence: See the little boy, and have him write it under his name. 3. Then give him the following spelling lesson, dictating each of these fourteen words: 1 cat 2 dog 3 horse 4 animal 5 forty 6 rate 7 children 8 prison 9 title 10 getting 11 need 12 throw 13 feel 14 speak. READING. Have the child read down the list of words in the three columns below. Cross out every word he is not able to read. If he is ten years of age or older have him read the selection beginning New York, September 5th. Note carefully how many seconds it takes him to read the selection but do not urge him to read fast. Pronounce all the words which the child is unable to make out, not allowing for hesitation more than five seconds in such a case. After he is through reading say: Very well done. Now I want you to'tell me what you read. Begin at the first and tell me everything that you can remember. After he has repeated all that he can recall you may say, "And what else?" But give no further assistance. Underline every word and phrase which he correctly reproduced. Cross out every word which he omitted or misread, and record the time required for read- ing:..... ff.O. seconds. Underline the adjectives which best describe his reading Syllabic (makes a pause after «ach syllable) Hesitating (hitches along making many unnecessary pauses) Fluent (no pauses but mono- tonous) Expressive (modulation and intelligence). ARTICULATION. Have the child repeat after you the following sentence: Go and show this man the little red sled coasting down the hill . ' Do not attempt to correct his errors of pronounciation but write them out phonetically below the words mis- pronounced. Kifr - cow It^n J OOWft- chew— ten that name lrifr Hill* -out- -head- ■snag- fox cold lace come here -HGJH" who hn<; monkey one bird eradk she .pilf naughty- ■"On -- *haU- visit New York, Septem ber 5 th. — A fire last night burned -three houses near the een — ter e f the city. I t t ook some time to -put- it out. The toss was fifty thousand dollars, and s eventee n families lost their- homes. In saving a girl wha was aslee p m bed a fire- man was -turned en the - hand s . - FIGUEE 8 28 EXCEPTIONAL CHILDEEN . qj : W 'Z w CU A, ~ ^ I 1 ~ 1 ■« S .S O. C 3 K co M < 2: O0 0qOo ° o0 o o +■ 4 + 4- 4- o -= : 5 i j s. J + + + + ' i t +- 1 x ■S £ : 1 1 ? , 1 ■3 c c c3 cj cj + 4-4- § , e.2!_£.2c=.2-2 - a| Sit: ooO(go c 3>Sco6 > - X K u£§i'a3o!S§cj: 1 = I a £ 1 ill V I s l eS > E 5 ■£ jp piup 9*inj sraeiiE autaiorpir »i ^*^<^ TiP a 11*1 II 113.1 a CHAPTER THREE SUBNORMAL MENTALITY Mental Status op Deficient School Children That the 270 cases of mental deficiency revealed by the survey constitute a serious educational problem is clearly indicated by the returns. An examination of the school record and mental performance of these children, as embodied in the survey schedules, gives convincing evidence of the subnormal intelligence with which the school is obliged to deal. We repro- duce a few of these survey schedules (pp. 29-30), because they supply suggestive psychological portraits of their subjects. These 270 deficient children are by no means hopeless school problems, and yet they fall so decisively below the average standard that they need specialized educational treatment. They are so many mental brothers and sisters of the 100 pupils who have already been assigned to special classes. There is nothing very exceptional about the ages of this group of children. They range from 5 to 16 (and one child of 19), as shown in the distribution curve (Figure 12). But a comparison of this distribution curve, with that for their mental ages, discloses a striking disparity. The latter curve is markedly skewed to the left. If the wave of mental develop- ment, so to speak, had not been obstructed, the two Figures A and B would have been nearly identical. As it is, they only partially overlap. "K The relationship between mental age and chronological age is in any individual case of considerable significance. This relationship is expressed by the intelligence quotient or I. Q., — an index which is derived by dividing an ascertained mental age by the given chronological age and expressing the quo- tient on the basis of 100. Our survey measurements were only approximations. It is significant, however, that over 220 cases out of the total group of 270 have an I. Q. of less than 75. 32 EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN Fifty cases were classified as probably deficient in spite of a relatively high I. Q. The pedagogical quotient of this group was calculated from the data, and appears to have considerable import, as shown by the distribution curve (Figure 13). The calculation was 3 «? S 6 7 S & /0 // /£ /3 /-? /S~ /6 '7 /& /& ■TO f /4 J6 ■??> ^3 J-?<$ 2o ao so o sy/Z>£-£> iS'S - £rsysf*>'!-0 rJcx>/p?y7rsru///Vc Z>/*4t7a/V£3 Recently we made a slight follow-up investigation of 22 definitely deficient children who had been found in 1915 in one of the New Haven schools (Ferry Street). This was an un- usually large group for such a small school. Even so, 7 of the deficient children had been lost track of entirely at the 36 EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN time of the investigation ; 5 had gone into industry ; 5 had been transferred to other schools and 5 were still attending Ferry Street School. Meanwhile 7 new cases of mental defi- ciency had enrolled. Of the children working, one or two were doing fairly well; and the others were certainly in need of some degree of supervision. Among the latter was an im- migrant girl who had come to this country in 1915 and married before she was sixteen, with a mental age less than half of her matrimonial age. These figures suggest the necessity of after care, and they also show how the problem of mental deficiency, while ever changing in any school, is also constantly renewing itself. To comprehend, then, the scope of the problem of juvenile mental deficiency in New Haven, we must visualize not only the 370 feeble-minded pupils now sitting in the desks of the public schools ; but a hundred more who were but recently there and are now attempting the hazardous task of competing in the struggle for existence, on equal terms with their mental superiors. Does not the fringe of public school responsibility extend to these youths whose mental development was per- manently arrested at the level of the primary and interme- diate grades % Before discussing the provisions necessary for the mentally deficient, we will summarize the findings of the survey in re- gard to other types of educationally exceptional children. CHAPTER FOUR SUPERIOR AND ATYPICAL MENTALITY Other Types of Educationally Exceptional Children Following printed instructions, the teachers reported (on Form B), in all, nine classes of exceptional children. These returns are summarized and analyzed for sex and school in the accompanying table. Although the standards used in mak- ing the returns were not strictly uniform, it will be noted that the census called for only the more extreme and serious devia- tions. An effort was made to exclude the milder and less con- sequential variations from the normal. The figures, therefore, can hardly be taken as exaggerations, even though they seem to indicate that about one child in every fifteen deviates suffi- ciently from the normal to demand special educational con- sideration. The totals for the nine groups of exceptional children are as follows : Peixentage of Boys I. 77 or 1 in 308 : Semi-Deaf 62 II. 183 or 1 in 129 : Semi-Blind 53 III. 302 or 1 in 78 : Speech Defective 70 IV. 18 or 1 in 1328 : Epileptic 55 V. 98 or 1 in 243 : Delinquent 79 VI. 198 or 1 in 119: Nervous 69 VII. 275 or 1 in 86 : Physically Inferior 56 VIII. 45 or 1 in 527 : Superior 59 IX. 725 or 1 in 33 : Seriously Backward (370 or 1 in 64 : Mentally Deficient) Incidentally it is interesting to note that there is a marked preponderance of boys reported in Groups III, V and VI, as shown by the percentages in the last column. 38 EXCEPTIONAL CHILDEEN Of) BL/AfD (JTO) (7£SJ js. £T/L£pr/c (/e) z>