14 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT 



difficult for the child to pass in thought from an object to 

 its name than from a name to the corresponding object. Be- 

 fore the child is placed a picture on which appear many ob- 

 jects with which he is familiar and which are interesting to 

 him. He is then asked to tell us what he sees. He thus has 

 the opportunity to use what language ability he may possess 

 in expressing his ideas, and also the liberty of choosing those 

 objects which please him most; the response will show us 

 what interests the child and will also give us an idea of his 

 mentality, of his manner of perceiving, interpreting and reason- 

 ing. The test has the remarkable advantage of serving as a 

 diagnostic test of three different intellectual level|^ The re- 

 sponses of the subject indicate whether he is a#^he level of 

 three, seven, or twelve years. There are very few tests which 

 yield such rich results. If we add that the test is one of 

 those which amuse children the most, and is most useful in 

 combatting the persistent silence of the little ones, it seems 

 reasonable to conclude that we have found by chance a test 

 of exceptional value. We place it above all others; and were 

 we limited to one test, we would without hesitation choose 

 this one. 



We use three engravings which are reproduced in the ap- 

 pendix (Fig. 1, 2 and 3). If care is taken other analogous 

 pictures may be substituted, but ours have a certain standard- 

 ized difficulty, and therefore it is better to use them ; all 

 of ours contain people and suggest a story; these are 

 the essential conditions. The engravings are mounted on 

 cards, and are presented one after the other to the child, who 

 is asked: "What is this?" Then, if the child is very young, 

 he may respond naively: "It is a picture," or "It is a postal 

 card." The question is then put in another form: "Tell me 

 what you see there." It is very rare, quite exceptional, for 

 the child to remain silent. Even at the age of three they are 

 curious about the picture, and this leads them to reflect, as 

 it does the older and wiser. The responses obtained by us 

 are of three distinct kinds, each of which is characteristic of 

 a different intellectual level. 



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