ON MENTAL AND PHYSICAL FACTORS INVOLVED IX EDUCATION. 207 



Hearing is tested by the response to the ordinary voice and to the 

 forced whisper at varying distances. The elaborate detail of the 

 psychological laboratory is not possible in the classroom. Some experi- 

 ments in discrimination of pitch have been made in the case of the deaf 

 and defective, as have some with Galton's whistle. They would not aid 

 in the duties prescribed by the Act. 



The discrimination of weight and form, size, &c, is definitely 

 taught in some of the special schools. There can be no doubt that most 

 mentally defective children are behindhand in this respect, but the 

 influence of practice goes a long way. The method might be utilised 

 perhaps with advantage in the later examinations, but save for definite 

 research purposes elaborate method could hardly be adopted. Pain tests 

 are not tried, but a defective child with a broken tooth and exposed pulp 

 has been known to worry very little over it. The difficulty would be to 

 get any results at all. With special care such experiments might be con- 

 ducted by someone with whom the children were very familiar; e.g., a 

 teacher who had received the necessary training. I should have little 

 doubt that in the defectives it was largely a study of states of attention. 



The range of visual attention is only tested in reading, a topic too 

 long to discuss here from the school medical officer's standpoint, 

 though it would be worthy of much attention. 



Those who use word-wholes or dominant letters make the most 

 effective 'intelligent' readers; the others spend so long on letters or 

 sounds in various building processes that there is nothing left to under- 

 stand with. 



The spot pattern test might be experimentally tried, though the 

 difficulty would be to get the children to understand what they were 

 to do. 



Tests of visual apprehension are now used as a game and as part of 

 the training of boy scouts. The test has been employed at admission 

 examinations using some four or five common articles, but not with 

 success; better results might be got at centre visits. The use of 

 pictures has already been discussed. 



Cancellation tests, or the similar underlining test, is recommended 

 by Sherlock for use with mentally deficients. It is useless for admis- 

 sion-examinations unless only such a letter as were chosen, and it 

 takes too long. It seems to offer some promise as a mass test for 

 the highest class or of those proposed to return to the elementary 

 school, but other tests seem to give quicker and equally accurate 

 results. 



Dot counting might be tried, but if a child will at an admission 

 examination count correctly twenty large marbles it is all that can be 

 expected from a good-grade defective. Large numbers cannot count 

 to five. We always record gross counting results, and later this, in the 

 form of a rosary, is the basis. of a popular way of teaching arithmetic to 

 certain defectives. They get into simpler methods after a time. 



Simultaneous disparate activities would, I fear, be beyond use unless 

 sewing and reading were tried with the girls, or knitting. Description- 

 has been more or less utilised, but it must be verbal unless you have a 

 long time to spare. The higher classes who can write spontaneously 



