PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS 



one foot apart. The child should sit in a revolving chair on 

 the first space. 



The examination should be made with the whispered or 

 spoken voice; the child should repeat what he hears, and the 

 distance at which words can be heard distinctly should be 

 noted. 



The examiner should attempt to form standards by test- 

 ing persons of normal hearing at normal distances. In a still 

 room the standard whisper can be heard easily at 25 feet, the 

 whisper of a low voice can be heard from 35 to 45 feet, and of 

 a loud voice from 45 to 60 feet. 



The two ears should be tested separately. 



The test words should consist of numbers, i to 100, and 

 short sentences. It is best that but one pupil at a time be 

 allowed in the room, to avoid imitation. 



For the purpose of acquiring more definite information 

 concerning the acuteness of hearing, one may have recourse to 

 the 512 v. s. (vibrations per second) tuning fork and the 

 Politzer acoumeter. 



For very young children a fair idea of the hearing may 

 be obtained by picking out the backward or inattentive pupils, 

 and those that seem to watch the teachers' lips, placing them 

 with their backs to the examiner, and asking them to perform 

 some unusual movement of the hand, or other act. 



The sight test card used is the familiar Snellen chart. A re- 

 production of the form used by the Massachusetts authorities is 

 shown on page 49. In 1910 "in view of the known variations 

 in practice both in recording and in reporting, and in the hope 

 that the tests may be made and reported uniformly" the state 

 board of education issued the following supplementary directions, 

 prepared by the board of health: 



1. The test will be made as early in the school year as possible, pref- 

 erably in September. 



2. The tests will be made under the most favorable conditions, and 

 as nearly as possible under the same conditions, preferably in well-lighted 

 rooms, in the early part of the day. 



3. The testing will be done by the teacher of the class, and will 

 be supervised by the principal to see that the conditions of the test are 

 as uniform as possible for the different classes. 



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