OF THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUNG CHILDREN 69 



member that the estimate of the amount of retardation or 

 precocity of intelligence depends partially upon the conven- 

 tional proceeding which we have adopted. 



The rules which we apply are two. The first is as fol- 

 lows : A child has the mtelligence of thai age all the tests for 

 which he succeeds in passing. Here is a child nine years of age 

 who passes all the tests for the seventh year, he has then at 

 least the intelligence of a child of seven. The second rule is 

 as follows : After determining the age for which a child passes 

 all the tests, a year is added to the intelligence age, if he has 

 succeeded in passing five additional tests belonging to superior 

 age groups, two years are added if he has passed ten such tests, 

 three years if he has passed fifteen, and so on. 



Thus a child passed the five tests for the eighth year; 

 he has the intelligence of eight years ; in addition he passed 

 three tests for nine years and two tests for ten years ; we add 

 one year for the five tests, the record stands 8+1=9, and the 

 child has an intelligence of nine years. Another example : A 

 child passed the 5 tests for 6 years ; he has the intelligence of 

 6 years ; he also passed 3 tests for 7 years, 3 for 8 years, 2 for 

 9 years, 2 for 10 years, and 1 for 11 years; this gives him 

 eleven extra tests, and adds two years to his intelligence age, 

 making it 8 years. A last example: A child passed all the 

 tests for 4 years; he passed in addition 1 test for 5 years, 3 

 for 6 years, 2 for 7 years, 4 for 8 years, 3 for 9 years, and 2 

 for 10 years; he has passed then 15 additional tests which is 

 equivalent to 3 years and he is accorded the mental age of 7. 



The result of this notation is that it qualifies a child as 

 regidar in intelligence if it has an intelligence age equal to its 

 age; as advanced in intelligence if it has an intelligence 1 or 2 

 years greater than its age, and as retarded in intelligence if it 

 has an intelligence 1 or 2 years inferior to its age. The 

 symbols used to express the results are = or + 1> + 2, -|- 3, 

 etc., or — 1, — 2, — 3, etc. 



We would add that a child should not be considered de- 

 fective in intellisrence no matter how little he knows unless 



