A Case from the Indiana University Clinic
- Author:
Mary Rogers, M.A.,
Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.
lloyce G came into the Orthogenics Clinic of Indiana University the latter part of September, 1911, and has attended the school department and clinic daily for six months. He is the third son and sixth child of prosperous American farmers, who are ambitions for him to leam “as our other children have done.” lloyce was fifteen years old February 28, 1912; had attended a village primary school for six years, with a very good record of attendance, but he had not been regularly enrolled for the past two years. At the age of one month he had severe spasms with whooping cough and measles; was a delicate baby, and was very slow in learning to walk and talk. lie has had no other sickness except tonsilitis occasionally, and the minor ailments of childhood. He has had excellent care and good training; is well mannered, willing and obedient; but is listless, without energy, lacking in those qualities which make a boy “a real live boy.”
He is physically about ten years old, undeveloped, small-featured, a pretty, docile lad, deliberate in movement, with the mind approximately of a seven-year-old child. The anxiety of the parents did not result in any definite measure for improvement until August, 1911, when they took lloyce to the clinic in Indianapolis, and then moved to Bloomington in September to put him in care of the clinic teachers and laboratory assistants of the University Orthogenics Department. When lloyce came into the clinic he could not read or write. He could spell orally a number of three and four letter words, could count orally to forty-nine, but could not recognize figures except one and two. He expressed himself well, using for the most part correct grammar and a fair vocabulary.
It was seen at once that his eyes were defective. Upon examination it was found that both eyes were affected by farsightedness and the left one by astigmatism. There was also a muscular imbalance of the external and internal recti. He was fitted with spectacles for the visual defects, with hopes that the muscular defect would be improved by the more correct vision. His nose was found to be affected and an operation was performed. Each inferior turbinated bone was dissected, so that breathing was made easier. The septum is yet to be straightened.
In December, 1911, Royce was examined according to the Binet-Simon scale for measuring intelligence,1 with the following results:
Answered all questions to age of five years, -f-2 Age 5. 16. The boxes of three different weights, ten trials in lifting and telling the heavier, RECORD 65-G2.5 gr 130-125 gr. 260-250 gr. Same…. Wrong… Right… S W W 11 R W R W R 11 R W R W R R R W R W W R W W W W R
Eight, 14, 40 2-3 per cent. Wrong, 1G, 53 1-3 per cent. 17. Drawing of square, -f18. Two triangular pieces of rectangular visiting card to be put together like one given, -f- (31/-* minutes.) 19. Count four pennies, -JAge 6. 20. Tests of right and left. Point with right hand. ? Touch left ear. -fPoint to left eye. ? Raise left arm. -JRaise right leg. ? Raise right arm. ? Raise left leg. ? 21. Repeat sentences of sixteen syllables, -f22. Aesthetic sense of the pretty and uglv faces as shown in chart. -f23. Definitions of familiar objects, -f”A fork’s to eat with.” “It’s a chair to set on.” “A horse is to ride on.” “A house is to live in.” “Mamma is a woman.” What does mamma do? “Cook.” i TnE Psychological Clinic. Vol. 5. No. 7, Dec. 15, 1911. *+ = pasRed. ? = failed. 146 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. 24. Execution of triple order given simultaneously. 25. Age. -j26. Is it morning or afternoon ? -fAge 7. 27. Missing parts of body, as given in chart pictures. 1. “.Feet and hands.” ? 2. “Mouth and nose.” ? 3. “Nothing.” ? 4. “Nobody; no hair, no eyes.” ? 28. Number of fingers on each and both hands. “Ten on each hand.” ? “Fifteen altogether.” ? After carefully counting: “Ten altogether,” but he did not realize the previous mistake. 29. Write from copy. ? 30. Draw diamond. ? 31. Repeat five digits: -f87654 43892 76821 48753 32. Description of actions and scenes of pictures in sentences instead of disconnected words, -j33. Count aloud thirteen pennies. -f34. Show penny, quarter, dime and nickel. + Age 8.
New York, September 5th. A fire last night burned three houses in Water Street. It took some time to put it out. The loss was fifty thousand dollars, and seventeen families lost their homes. In saving a girl who was asleep in a bed, a fireman was burned on the hands. (This story was read to him.) “They found a girl on the bed and firemen saved her. They lost fifteen dollars.” 36. Value of stamps. ? 37. Naming colors: red, yellow, green, blue. Red Yellow Green Blue (green) + (re(l) + +
Count backward from twenty to naught. ?
Sentence written from dictation. ?
40. Differences between: paper and cloth; butterfly and fly; wood and glass; knife and fork; sugar and salt. 1. “They spin cloth from flax and don’t spin paper from flax.” 2. “A butterfly sucks honey out of flowers and fly just flies around the house.” 3. “Glass will break and you chop wood.” 4. “A knife’s sharp and fork, you stick a fork in pickles and get them. With a knife you don’t. You cut pickles with a knife.” 5. “Sugar’s sweet and salt, you put salt on potatoes.” Age 9. All tests minus. Age 10. 47. Names of months. ? 48. Denomination of money. 1. -f- 2. ? 49. Sentence using three given words: boy, ball, river; girl, dollar, lake. “The boy caught the ball and throwed it into the river.” “The girl found a dollar in a lake.” 50. Questions of reasoning. What should you do? (1) When you miss a train ? (2) When a friend hits you without meaning to ? (3) When you break something that belongs to somebody else ? (4) When you are on your way to school and find it is later than usual ? (5) Before you take part in something important? (G) What should you answer when asked to say what you think about some one you don’t know very well ? (7) Why should we forgive a wrong done by some one when he is angrv more quickly than when he is not angry? (8) Why should you make up your mind about a person by his actions instead of by his words ? 148 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. (1) “Wait for another.” (2) No answer. (3) “Tell liini you didn’t aim to.” (4) “Run.” (5) No answer. (6) “I think he is all right.” (7) “Tell him to quit.” (8) ” ‘Cause you see him.” 50a. Six digits repeated. ? Age 11. 51-53. ? 54. Meaning of justice, charity, kindness. J us tice?’’ Good.’’ Charity?”Town.” Kindness?”Be good: be kind to anybody.” 55. Sentence with the words out of place. ? Age 12. 5G. Seven digits repeated. ? 57. Meaning of rhyme. ? 58. Repeat twenty-six syllable sentence. -|59. (1) A girl who was walking in the woods in a park, saw something hanging from a branch of a tree that made her so much afraid that she ran to the nearest policeman, and told him what she had seen. What do you think she saw ? (2) My neighbor has been having strange visitors. First came a doctor, then a lawyer and then a preacher. Why did these three go to this house the one after the other ? What happened there ? (1) “Bear.” (2) “Somebody sick, preacher and lawyer going to see them.” Age IS. All questions minus.
The form board record was made during the fall term, records being kept of one hundred and twenty trials for fourteen days, extending over a period of thirty-one days. Table I shows each record, the mean and the mean variation of each day and of corresponding trials from time to time. The dotted lines indicate additional trials interrupting the practice curve by the turning of the board in various ways: i.e. end for end, side for side, etc. Six of the additional records (forty-three trials) were kept (table II). It is interesting to note that the best speed was recorded in one of these trials (fifth trial, Dec. 7). TABLE i. M. M.V. Nov. 21. Nov. 22. Nov. 23. 36 i 38 32 32 30 44 28 25 38 45 25 ! 26 i 30 i 24 28 32 ! 27 31 26 30 40.2 3.4 23 S 21 26.2 2.4 30 28 29.3 1.8 Nov. 24. Nov. 27. 15 18 26 ! 23 20 26 14 20 18 ! 14 15 19 18 17.1 2 17 17 17 19 ! 13 15 17 19 3.6 Dec. 4. Dec. 5. 25 21 30 20 ; 18 22.8 3.8 Dec. 6. 20 25 16 16 21 23 21 17 18 1 25 19 18 19.9 2.3 15 17 18.8 3.4 Dec. 7. Dec. 13 25 16 15 21 15 13 16 ! 15 17 20 15 14 20 ! 18 15 16 12 12 ! 16 I 2.8 1 16.4 1.7 Dec. 18 Dec. 19 Dec. 20. Dec. 21. M. M. V. 16 20 14 12 18 13 19 13 17 14 16 14 15 | J7 | 16 | 18 12 18 _20 19 15 13 18 11 12 15 15 22.7 21 I 21.6 19.9 5.9 4.9 6.5 4.9 20.3 6.1 18.3 17 19 3.4 15 17 16 14 19 14 14 17.6 3.8 11 15 12 16.7 4.1 16.1! 2.3 15.7 1. 15.8 2 14.2 1.9
In the school department Royce has had daily instruction in the rudimentary branches, manual training and physical training. The results of six months are: He cannot yet read even the simplest sentences in the primer, lie knows all the letters and many single words, in fact, most of the primer words, but when the book is placed before him, he fails entirely. The storytelling method was used for some time, trying to find in just what kind of stories he might take an interest. He would listen to the reading or telling of the story, occasionally making an intelligent comment, but for the most part remaining silent. He never remembered the next day what we had talked about, nor, if the story were left unfinished, did he ask for the remainder of it. He had two stories which he TABLE II.
Board Turned. Nov. 23. Nov. 27. Dec. 4. Dec. 6. Dec. 7. Dec. 13. 30 40 40 27 19 18 14 20 15 15 16 18 34 29 17 14 1G 20 40 39 20 15 11 17 30 32 21 15 10 11 30 35 35 11 25 37 30 18 20 33 12 13 21 35 32 12 16 29 30 20 18 20 20
could tell, and always told one of them if he were asked to “tell the story.” He cannot recognize figures, or count orally witli accuracy beyond forty-nine.
In writing he has made much progress. He can write well from copy and can read, if he has time to spell out the words, what he has written. He has written one “story” of seven sentences, telling about their horse. He can be given a column of letters and writes words containing the given letters correctly and legibly without any suggestion or assistance.
cat t lame e my e dog r may k torn b see f me g run h kate i boat fly golf hat He does not associate in any way printed and written words. He has added a number of words to his oral spelling list, and is very good in oral sentence work; is able to make intelligent sentences containing three given words, without any undue hesitation.
In physical training he has shown some improvement. There lias been a slight increase in cliest measurement, in height, and in weight. He is stronger and has more ability to coordinate his movements.
In the manual training department, he has made under direct supervision and assistance in measurements, a towel rack, a trinket box, a sled, and a wheelbarrow. Occasionally he knows the use of the tools independently, but most of the time the closest supervision is required.
After the tests have been made in the clinic, a brief course of further treatment is outlined for each child. The “prescription” for Royce reads: “Practice in making the various association tests, in tests of coordination, in all physical training, with special stress on boxing, wrestling and games. Walce the child up if possible. Continue his writing and lead to printed letters, trying to interest him in the grouping of words in order to read. Attempt to teach him the numerals, as each letter of the alphabet has been taught. Arouse him to a continued interest. Above all, be patient and persistent. He has only just begun.”
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