Clinic Reports. X.
Benjamin was returned to the clinic by his mother in March, 1917, over a >ear after his first examination. His age was eleven years and four months, he complaint, as before, was truancy, stealing, and backwardness in school, he mother reported that the boy ran away less, stole less and had settled down a little, especially since he had joined a boys’ club at the Y. M. C. A. In three school terms he had advanced from 3A to 4A Grade. She was still, however, not satisfied with his progress or behavior, and since the diagnosis had been deferred at the earlier examination she returned to find out definitely, if possible, whether mental deficiency was a factor in this unsatisfactory state of affairs. In the mental examination given, Benjamin showed no evidence of feeblemindedness. He was quiet and attentive, with a somewhat listless, but wholly persistent attention. As he became more friendly, he showed a mild but pleasant responsiveness.
time of his shortest trial with the Witmer formboard places him among e slowest of Dr Young’s eleven year old boys. Distribution of attention was Q?t quite up to par; he made two wrong moves in both the first and third trials, slight tremor of the hands showed some nervousness and this was increased by e direction to do it as fast as possible, so that his last trial was the poorest of the three.
Again, with the Witmer cylinders, he worked without much speed or energy ut steadily, at first with one hand only. His method was good. At the beginning ? trial, he tried to put blocks into recesses a little too large for them, but mstantly recognized the error and soon ceased entirely to make this miajudgnlent. e never left a block in a wrong recess.
Benjamin seems weak in motor ability,?i. e. he is slow for his age and a bit acking in ingenuity in handling this material, but the performance with the _ealy Construction Tests indicates that he learns rapidly from experience, is visual images seem adequate but not strong, and his analytic attention to 0 “mages and percepts were somewhat weak, conditioning his inability to manipulate them readily. The occasional poor distribution of attention seemed associated with listlessness, for distributive concentration of attention was quite a equate in his energetic attack on the Healy Puzzle B, which interested him. j the Binet-Simon Tests (Stanford Revision) his mental age was 10 years, ? Vj. 88.2. Three twelve year tests, which it is very possible he might have passed, ^ere omitted for lack of time. This might have brought him closer to full age. enjamin is certainly not retarded more than a year (possibly less) on the scale ?f mental age. He not only passed the tests credited to him, but his reactions to them especially in the detection of absurdities, comprehension, vocabulary and definition tests were definitely normal. His greatest deficiency was in memory span for digits. He could repeat only 5 digits forward and 3 backwards. He failed on seven trials in the repetition of 6 digits, though a year ago it is reported that he had a span for 6 digits. This fluctuation of memory span may be characteristic of Benjamin. Early in the afternoon he failed in three out of four trials to repeat 3 digits backward, and at the end of the afternoon succeeded m three out of four trials. It may be associated with the patent lack of energy m his attention.
The diagnosis was backward but not mentally deficient. , Sarah Warfield Parker, A.M., Graduate Student. XI. This case illustrates the varying mental ability and behavior to be found in a case of syphilitic degeneracy.
When first seen at the Psychological Clinic, Samuel was six years of age and was brought by his foster mother because of erratic behavior and apparent backwardness. He has been seen almost every year since that time for one of these reasons, and she recently brought him again because of a sudden cessation of efforts to progress in school, coupled with misbehavior in the schoolroom. He is now thirteen years of age and has the average anatomical and physiological development for his age. His health is good. This boy is the illegitimate son of a woman of good family, by her cousin. With his twin sister, who died of diphtheria at the age of five years, he was adopted into a good home when he was less than a day old. Since that time he has been given excellent care in good surroundings.
At the age of six he showed marked nervousness, was backward and behaved badly, correction and discipline seeming to have little effect upon him. He entered school but lost most of two years because of nervousness. He was then placed in a special class, where he has remained up to the beginning of the present school year. Several years ago, anti-syphilitic treatment was begun and following this he showed physical and mental improvement. The quality of his school work improved, and in two years he did three years of school work. It was then considered advisable to place him in a regular fourth grade, and though he had previously indicated a desire to get out of what he called the “dumb class,” when placed in the regular grade this year, he resented it. Since that time he has refused to do his school work, has been disobedient in school and has been the cause of much disturbance in the room.
The mental examinations of Samuel have shown continuous progress in mental development, but he is retarded to the extent of almost two years. In tests which he has performed upon several occasions, he makes a particularly good showing as he remembers and improves upon what he did before. The attention and interest he shows are normal but he seems to fatigue rather quickly. In school work, he shows by test that he can do the work of the grade he is now in. The status presens is not that of feeblemindedness, so far as we are willing to say, but we agree now with the previous diagnoses, that he may yet prove to be feebleminded. The diagnosis is syphilitic degeneracy, to which are attributable the mental inequalities and the variability of behavior. There is a place for him in a small town, and as he has shown a preference for country life, it is advisable that he be placed there.
F. C. Paschal, A.M. Harrison Fellow in Psychology. XII. Josiah was brought to the Clinic by his mother and a visiting nurse because of incorrigibility and refusal to go to school. He was a large boy of 7 years and 8 months. He had brown hair and brown eyes and would have presented a rather pleasing appearance had he not been dirty and ragged. He was very timid and feared to be away from his mother for a moment, crying loudly at intervals without any apparent reason while being examined. The case is of particular interest for several reasons. It would seem that Josiah has sufficient ability to be trained to remunerative employment. In general behavior he would seem to be about two years retarded and to be about years old. Intellectually he may turn out to be as low as a low grade imbecile. He appears to have a specific defect of memory and analytic attention. n school he is in the first grade and he scores 6 years and 10 months by the Binet ests. The mechanical tests do not show any great mental deficiency. It would seem to be a case where objective interpretation of tests would give the boy an index of normality, while the analytic interpretation of his performances shows !m to be seriously deficient. The bad history of the family adds interest to the case.
The physical measurements showed about two years acceleration. He has a ^ajs been generally healthy. He was very dirty and had a bad cold. According to the visiting nurse the family is known to every charitable organization in town. His father drinks heavily and is thought to be feebleminded. He is so illiterate that he cannot drive a coal wagon, as he cannot read 16 names of the streets and does not know the Philadelphia streets although he as lived here all his life. The whole family is under probation. When the Pro ation officer calls, Josiah runs away swearing at her.
n the mental examination Josiah did rather poorly in all the mechanical e? s- He was successful with the formboard, but did not succeed with the he m GrS’ ^ ^ie ^iree trials- His memory span was five digits. In school work u as very deficient, but he has been irregular in attendance, not being present more than a few days in the last term. The test that was really significant in his ^8e was the teaching test. With wooden letters it did not seem possible to eac i him the names of more than two letters at once. When he was given more with ^’’S num^er he remembered none that had gone before. It was the same , 1 design blocks. Up to a certain complexity he was capable of succeeding u eyond this he could not be taught to go.
Such a case, Dr Witmer suggests, raises the question as to what really constitutes the norm of human mentality. It would seem possible that Josiah grow to manhood and raise a family at least as well as his father has done. -the diagnosis in this case was middle grade imbecile (Barr Classificafirst ^ie rRcornmendation was that Josiah be forced to attend school in the s grade and be made to learn his letters. It was also recommended that he be given clinical teaching and that there an attempt should be made to overcome ms Pantile stammer. Donald M. Marvin, A.M., Graduate Student.
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