SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT 509 



a child's mental age within a year, and thus provide an important 

 check upon the opinion of his school teacher. 



Perhaps I can illustrate the reliability and value of these mental 

 examinations of children by telling a joke on myself. In a paper read 

 at the State Conference of Charities and Correction, I cited an example 

 of the examination by a student of mine of twenty boys at the Minne- 

 apolis Juvenile Detention Home. I stated that among these twenty 

 there was only one boy who was normal mentally and in the proper 

 grade at school for his mental development. Later, in going over these 

 examinations again, I noted a fact, which had escaped me before, that 

 among these twenty boys reported was the son of the superintendent of 

 the home. What was my surprise to find that it was he who was 

 normal and in his proper school grade. The examinations had indi- 

 rectly singled out the only boy on the farm who was not a juvenile 

 delinquent, as well as brought out the irregular mental and scholastic 

 development of delinquents. 



The most important part of a diagnosis of development is, of course, 

 not the question what stage has this child reached now; but what ac- 

 counts for his retardation, if he is retarded, and what improvement 

 may we expect in the future if his physical or environmental handicaps 

 are corrected and he is given proper training from this time forth. 

 So far as this prognosis is concerned its value to-day depends largely 

 upon the experience and judgment of the person making the prediction. 

 We are only beginning to gather and record these data for prognosis and 

 it will be years before we can make predictions with the scientific pre- 

 cision that is to be desired. A beginning, however, has been made. 

 We know that if a child stands still in his mental development for a 

 year after receiving the best medical treatment and under expert train- 

 ing then we may be reasonably sure that all except the simplest school 

 training is virtually wasted. We should have a case of arrested devel- 

 opment resembling the case of Abbie described by Dr. Goddard. Abbie 

 came to the ISFew Jersey Training School when she was eleven years old 

 with a mental development that was about that of a seven-year-old 

 child, as nearly as can now be judged. After receiving expert training 

 and treatment for ten years she was examined and found still to have 

 a seven-year-old mind. The ten years thrown away in trying to teach 

 Abbie to read and cipher might have been much better spent in im- 

 proving her work in those employments suitable for a seven-year-old 

 child, and then allowing her to occupy herself with them under proper 

 guidance. If the seriously deficient child is to be permanently isolated 

 from society, as has been suggested by experts in eugenics, the public 

 would undoubtedly be better satisfied to have the final disposition of 

 these cases postponed until after a year or more of special training fol- 

 lowing the diagnosis. This suggestion has been made by Dr. H. D. 



