MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 



The results shown in Table 4 1 (page 1 58) indicate that there 

 is a distinct relation between progress and physical defects. 

 They do not, however, show what the relation is in terms of any 

 given units. They do not show how many more grades are 

 completed by the non-defective than by the defective child. 

 In order to arrive at such a measure new computations were made 

 showing the average number of grades completed by the ten-year- 

 old pupils, by the eleven-year-old pupils, and so on for each of the 

 other ages. The central tendency of all of these sets of results was 

 then computed. The findings are shown in Table 42 and the dia- 

 gram which follows. 



The notable feature of the table is the fact that in every case, 

 except that of defective vision, the children suffering from each 

 sort of physical defect made less progress in their school work 

 than did those not so handicapped. The seriousness of these 

 handicaps in terms of percentages is shown in Table 43. 



TABLE 43. EXTENT TO WHICH CHILDREN SUFFERING FROM EACH 



SORT OF PHYSICAL DEFECT SHOW SLOWER PROGRESS THAN DO 



CHILDREN WITH NO DEFECTS. NEW YORK, 1908 



Defect Per cent of loss 



J in progress 



Defective vision . 

 Defective teeth 

 Defective breathing 

 Hypertrophied tonsils 

 Adenoids 

 Enlarged glands 



6 



7 



9 



14 



'5 



Average 



In this table the average loss of 9 per cent which appears 

 in the last line is not the numerical average of the percentages 

 of loss corresponding to the different sorts of defects, but the 

 general loss of progress discovered among all the children having 

 physical defects. In other words, the children suffering from 

 physical defects made on the whole 9 per cent less progress than 

 did those having no physical defects. 



160 



