18 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT 



tures to an adult, known to be rather foolish. He made 

 many interpretations, but most peculiar ones. For example, 

 the first print inspired the following response: It is a scene 

 taking place in the month of February. Let us analyze this 

 conjecture. It is evidently an interpretation, but an alto- 

 gether gratuitous one, which it is impossible either to confirm 

 or to refute. The scene could just as well be placed in Octo- 

 ber, November, December, January or March. Why, then, 

 this precision, which is at the same time useless and unjusti- 

 fiable? This response is an interpretation, and in our classi- 

 fication it is superior to the descriptive response of a child of 

 seven years; but in addition it betrays a lack of judgment; 

 this lack of judgment is independent of the hierarchy of re- 

 sponses. 



IV. Gives family name. — We now ask for a piece of in- 

 formation which a child of three certainly should possess ; its 

 family name. All children of this age know their first names, 

 that goes without saying, or the pet name by which they are 

 usually called ; but the family name is not so familiar. How- 

 ever, they are expected to know it at school, and at the "Ma- 

 ternelle" they are habitually called by their family name. 



The child is asked: "What is your name?" If he only 

 gives his first name, the last is insisted on. "Roger? And 

 then? And then what? etc." 



It sometimes happens that the child gives a name differ- 

 ent from the one under which he has been entered. This often 

 happens with illegitimate children, and also when a child's 

 mother has had several husbands and changed the child's 

 name with her own. 



If a child fails to give his family name, he is asked what 

 his mother's name is. But this question is too difficult for 

 three years, and the answer: "Her name is Mamma," cannot 

 be considered a bad response for this age. 



V. Repeats a sentence of six syllables, — After the com- 

 prehension of words, the next step in the development of 



