12 A METHOD OF MEASURING THE DEVELOPMENT 



class. Others, fewer in number, never speak in school either 

 to teachers or comrades; but their parents testify that they 

 talk at home. Teachers experience great difficulties in the 

 effort to encourage sociability in such children. We recall 

 a charming director who told us that for a period of two 

 years all her efforts to make a certain little boy of four years 

 speak were in vain ; she finally succeeded, thanks to the help 

 of a cat. One day she left the child alone playing with the 

 cat, and gradually he began to talk to it. He said : "Good 

 morning, Minet." The miracle was wrought, the child's tongue 

 was loosed. 



Imagine the difficulties of an experimenter who, wishing 

 to make an examination of intelligence, is met by such a 

 silence. What should be done? The help of the teacher is 

 often useful. If she is intelligent, she knows what to say to 

 her children to reassure them and arouse their courage. A 

 caress to one, a reprimand to another, and all goes well. We 

 have seen children who persistently refused to perform a 

 test, declaring themselves unable; for example, they stood 

 before some ribbon, refusing to make a bow or even to touch 

 it; after a sharp reprimand they decided to work and pro- 

 duced a beautiful rosette. 



II. Repeats two digits. — The repetition of numbers re- 

 quires very nearly the same sort of effort as the repetition 

 of sentences; however, as numbers have so much less mean- 

 ing than sentences, they make little appeal to the intellect 

 or interest, and therefore require a greater effort of attention. 

 As a result, a child of three years who can repeat a sentence 

 of six syllables can repeat only two digits. The association 

 of ideas triples the memory span. 



The experiment is performed as follows: The experi- 

 menter tells the child to listen, and begins by pronouncing a 

 single digit. The child repeats it. Two digits, not consecu- 

 tive, are then given; for example, 3-7, or 6-4. They should 

 be pronounced slowly, an interval of half a second being 



