EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 



We know now that in the vast majority of cases dull 

 children become dull adults, average children average 

 adults, superior children superior adults. As for the feeble- 

 minded, they always remain feeble-minded. All the avail- 

 able scientific evidence points to the conclusion that the 

 child of two years whose mental development is 40 or 

 50 per cent retarded will, in most cases, continue to be 

 in the neighborhood of 40 or 50 per cent retarded. The 

 child who has superior special abilities does not ordinarily 

 lose them. Even the child's trends of interests are now 

 regarded as having prognostic value. Educational and 

 vocational guidance are thus gradually being placed upon 

 a solid foundation. There is probably nothing in the child's 

 mental life or his behavior that would be found altogether 

 lacking in significance for later development if we knew 

 all the facts. There is reason to believe that both delinquent 

 and psychotic tendencies of adults have their prodromes 

 of symptoms in childhood and that it may sometime be 

 possible to identify in early life a majority of those who 

 are headed for these dangers. 



The relation between mental and physical growth has 

 been extensively investigated. Correlations have been 

 made between mental development on the one hand and 

 growth in height, weight, lung capacity, motor ability, and 

 physiological or anatomical maturation on the other. 

 The correlations have usually been found positive but 

 extremely low. There is only the slightest tendency for 

 physical development to parallel mental development. 

 Height, strength, dentition, skeletal ossification, and even 

 pubertal changes bear little relation to mental growth. 

 One may assume a close correlation between mental 

 development and growth changes in the finer neural 

 structures, but neurologists have not yet been able to tell 

 us much about these correlations except in their grosser 

 aspects. Glandular and other chemical influences upon 



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