TRAINING OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT CHILDREN. 531 



THE TRAINING OF MENTALLY DEFICIENT CHILDREN. 



By martin W. BARE, M. D., 



CHIEF PHYSICIAN, PENNSYLVANIA TRAINING SCHOOL FOB FEEBLE-MINDED CHILDKEN, 



ELWYN, PA. 



A CORRECT classification is of paramount importance in the 

 work of training the feeble-minded. 



We must have some clear, positive standard by which we are to 

 discern and separate the unimprovable from the trainable, lest we 

 deceive the public by false hopes and accept those for whom we can 

 do nothing. Again, the necessity for much individual work — the 

 varied capacity of those to be trained, and the impossibility of bring- 

 ing all up to one common plane — necessitate the arrangement of 

 grades in which very different means of development may be em- 

 ployed to attain very different ends. 



Guided by these needs, therefore, we have adopted a nomen- 

 clature dictated by experience as essential to the practical work of 

 training, and which is also in accord with the anatomico-physio- 

 logical demonstrations of scientific investigation. 



This gives, broadly, two classes — the imbecile, trainable, and the 

 idiot, unimprovable — which, modified, stand thus: 



1. The imbecile — trainable in three grades: low, middle, and 

 high. 



2. The moral imbecile — found in all these grades; trainable only 

 under rigid custodial care. 



3. The idio-imbecile — improvable as regards cleanly living, and 

 trainable in a very limited degree. 



4. The idiot — except in rare cases and by expensive methods, 

 absolutely unimprovable. 



The imbecile, the only trainable class, divides into low, middle, 

 and high grade. The first of these may be brought to give, always 

 under direction, fairly good service for farm or house, if training 

 be begun early, before apathy or indolence becomes a settled habit. 

 He rarely if ever learns to read, and very soon reaches his mental 

 limit. The imbecile of middle grade is capable of making great prog- 

 ress in primary-school work. I might say in about four years, espe- 

 cially if he has had previous training in the kindergarten, he will 

 attain some proficiency in reading, wi'iting, and number work, to- 

 gether with such a knowledge of form, color, and practice in free- 

 hand drawing as shall materially aid him in learning a trade ; indeed, 

 mental development for him is best attained through simple handi- 

 crafts having their initiative in the kindergarten. 



The high grade shows children but slightly mentally deficient, 

 who progress slowly as far as the ordinary grammar-school grade, 



