A Case of Special Difficulty with Reading
- Author:
Bernice Leland, B.S.,
Detroit City Normal School.
Dana sat at the Kindergarten table peering up at the examiner in eager curiosity. Her face was dirty and her dark blue dress was smeared with traces of a recent meal. The busy little hands patted a decorative bow on her gown, twisted her handkerchief into a grimy string, and smoothed back the unruly tufts of hair which reached out at unexpected angles, Then, rocking back and forth on two legs of her chair, she quickly put a series of questions and punctuated each one with an excited little laugh. “Why was she over here in this room?Should she stay?Would other children come?What were in those cases over there?Didn’t Bob used to be in this room?
What should she do here anyway?” Whatever the performance was going to be, she was apparently eager to begin. That was on September 11, 1919. Since that time Dana has been mainly engaged in the desperate business of learning to read, and the problem spreads out before her as the puzzle of the universe. Words are spiteful things, staring at her from the printed page with an exasperating air of familiarity at times, then escaping her at the critical moment and requiring in a most perverse manner to be determined with exactness. However, she goes about it with an ever ready smile which wreathes her face into an attractive picture regardless of soil and stain, and during these many weeks of struggle Dana has made some interesting discoveries.
First?She finds that when she comes upon a word which she cannot name at sight, she can remember where she has seen it before. Then she turns quickly to the helpful sentence, reads it and knows the word. Or, if it happens to be a phonetic word, she repeats to herself a “key word” and blends the elements without difficulty. Secondly?She has found that when she spells the word aloud at once, it is a very satisfactory help. Either or both of these means she employs readily, of her own initiative, and so, slowly but surely, Dana is learning to read. However, an interesting chapter precedes this part of the story.
Dana was first seen by the writer a few days before the examination. She was then six years eleven months old, the third in a family of seven, five of whom are boys. One other girl, a twin of Jack, who is now two and a half years old, died at one and a half years of age. Her mother is a small attractive woman, thirty-five years old, of Swiss origin, the wife of a fairly well-to-do railroad man.
They own a well-ordered home in one of the best residence districts in the city.
Dana had failed to pass the first half of the first grade in June, 1919. The teacher said she was “all right” and would “probably pass this time.” Nevertheless, she was tested, partly because of her failure and partly because of personal interest, as her two older brothers were known to have found school progress very difficult. Neither boy was considered feeble-minded.
Quantitatively, the test scores were quite satisfactory: Witmer Formboard, 28 seconds, third trial, 7.25 years.
Witmer Cylinders, 70 seconds, third trial, about 6.G years. Porteus Maze Tests, 8 years. Binet. Scale (Stanford Revision) G years 10 months. I. Q. 98.7. Her failures on this test were: Yr. VI. Counting 13 pennies?Correct on the third trial.
Comprehension?One correct. Yr. VII. Fingers. Bow Knot?not tightly drawn. Yr. VIII. Ball and Field?This appeared to be a haphazard performance in spite of considerable regularity of line. Counting backwards. Similarities?gave differences. Definitions?one correct. Yr. IX. Date. Making change. Digits backwards. Yr. X. All tests. One comprehension correct.
Her auditory span for digits was 6. The quality of her performance was unstable. The exhilaration manifested at each success was quite out of proportion to the emphasis placed upon the test by the examiner. One felt her at once to be the type of child for whom the teacher’s voice is lowered, seldom raised, and who needs the calm, guiding influence of a well-balanced personalitj^. This was especially evident during the Porteus tests, which she completed in almost hysterical triumph.
The double chevron pattern with design cubes puzzled her. She puckered her face and went at it, but there was an inadequate quality about her attention. The imperfect particularization which led her to try block ten of the formboard in recesses eleven and nine, and nine in seven could not compass the confusion of this pattern. She placed six of the blocks correctly and would have been satisfied had not the examiner suggested, “Is it like mine?” Then she completed the test correctly. In order to do this an accurate visual memory image must be held for a sufficient time to enable the child to push the block into place. Subsequent experience with Dana has added some significance to her failure with this test and to the fact that on the cylinder test she used the method of keeping to the block until correctly placed, thereby comparing perceptual images of block and recess, as she could not do with the design.
To persist in particularization required obvious effort. In other words, she was easily distracted, but immediately returned to the task, lengthening her time by only a second or two here and there. She might have counted thirteen pennies correctly on the first trial as she did on the third if she had made the necessary effort to control the situation. Likewise on the comprehensions. Without a doubt, she lost a part of the problem as her attention lapsed now and then for an almost unappreciable time. This is verified at home and in the school room where she is by no means dull of comprehension. On the contrary, her grasp of the situation set forth in the story or reading lesson, or concretely confronting her is quite sufficient. Her mother states that she can send her on errands if she “can keep her still long enough to make her listen to what is wanted.”
In the matter of school subjects Dana scored almost nil. She had practically no reading vocabulary,?she knew the names of A, S, C, T, and could write. She could count but did not know any combinations. When the examiner dictated “I see a tree” she wrote “? ees tree.” After a little instruction on “see” she wrote “g see ^ tree”. Apparently, she was carrying around some distorted memory images. It hardly seemed as though she could have come through six months of first grade teaching without a better knowledge of reading if there were no difficulty more than that of attention, which was evident but not very severe. Training would at least improve that, so we decided to give her a chance in a small group.
The first notes made in the school are dated September 18, 1919. The date of this report is April 12, 1920. Observations during this time are as follows:
Dana was frequently unable to tell the name of a letter taught to her the day before, a few hours before, nor, at times, a few minutes before. She could find the letter at once among her printed alphabet cards, however, if it were named for her. For example, ” Give mem” ?correct response at once.
She could write the letter from dictation, copy it, or hold the memory image long enough to walk to the blackboard and write it. Her alphabet cards present the printed form only, which meant that she must not only translate probable visual into motor activity but render the print into script. Often writing the letter was followed at once by her saying the name. She could arrange the speech organs ready to say the letter but the name would not come. She knew whether the letter presented was new or one previously studied even though she could not name it. Often she could tell just when it was first taught, where on the table she had placed a row of them repeating the name each time she placed the letter, and how far the row had extended.
Over and over and over again, a letter was presented to her, named, written, matched until finally the name came more readily with the subsequent presentations. As soon as possible she learned to spell simple words, mostly phonetic. She promptly began using this knowledge of spelling to help her determine the names of letters. She could remember in what word she had seen and heard the letter and she spelled it aloud. For example, “1” was very troublesome. When it was presented on November 19, after drilling on it since November 5, she at once repeated “ball, b-a-1- it’s 1.” One day, she was told “e.” The teacher then said “I’ll tell you how to spell me and then you build it.” “0,” she replied, “I know. It’s m, and that new one.” But she could not call the name “e.” When she learned i, her attention was called to the dot and that the name of the letter was the same as the organ of sight. “Oh, yes,” she replied, “I can think eye just the way I do tea.” This association had not been suggested to her, so far as is known, and it was such evidence as this occurring day after day, which indicated that associative processes in general were active and adequate. From October 15 to November 3, and again from November 20 to January 12, she was excluded because of scarlet fever, first her brother and then she herself being ill. It was found when she returned in both cases that she remembered eveiy letter known previous to her absence. This was a real test of retentiveness and the result was extremely encouraging. On January 19, she completed the alphabet. This had been accomplished during daily periods averaging about fifteen minutes each and she was taught alone at this time. Some letters, notably 1, n, h, f, had taken a longer time than the rest.
Meantime, she was working away at reading, about thirty minutes each day with three other children. The more letters she knew, the more rapidly she acquired words. As spelling simple words had helped her to determine letters, now naming the letters aloud helped her to read other words. The weak visual memory was thus reinforced by both auditory and kinaesthetic. She has completed the Aldine Primer now, 130 pages of the Aldine First Reader, the Sunbonnet Babies Primer and 25 pages of the Mother Goose Reader. She makes considerable use of the little library in her school room, frequently securing a new book from the shelf when her other work is completed and earnestly searching out sentences or phrases which she can read. She is quite dramatic in her interpretation, and she can answer either fact or thought questions on what she has read. She reads and executes with perfect composure such lessons as require her to make a little speech to the children about the day’s activities, or to lead the others in play or dismissal. As suggested before, phonetic synthesis gives her no trouble, once she has determined the elements. But notice, that this determination does not come easily. She gets at the phonogram just as she does at many words, spelling it aloud and tracing her association to a key word.
Dana began Number Work after the Christmas recess. She had had no instruction at all before and could not read the printed symbols at all. At present, she knows all about 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, but it requires repeated introductions to establish the symbol. She has referred to suggestive cards hanging before her in the room for the digits until she can read them, but when she writes the symbol it is frequently reversed. This is especially true of 5, 3, 7, 6. However, as with words, she is conscious of her difficulty and has assumed a critical attitude toward her work which is very helpful.
This afternoon she said, “Look at my fives (5’s). Are they turned around today? I think they are right.” They are. The other children are trying to help her. This morning Robert said, “Dana, you know your 5’s. Make them the right way around.” “Yes,” she replied, “I know 5’s now.” Simple thought problems to date have given her no trouble.
Briefly stated, Dana’s case appears to be one of low trainability in the specialized areas of visual memory. Somewhere between the primary receptive centre for vision and the region of the gyrus where memories of letters, words, and numbers are stored, there are “resistant pathways” which make it exceedingly difficult to produce an “easy discharge.” The condition is comparable to a mild pathological one of letter and word blindness, differing from it in degree and in cause which in Dana’s case is not disease, accident or injury. It must be a lack of development. Her history is entirely negative, so far as can be determined from several interviews with her mother who appears to be perfectly frank and truthful.
Dana’s greatest liability is the special memory defect. This is complicated by an attention which is not wholly adequate. It is very doubtful that she would have made anything like adequate progress in a regular grade. What has been accomplished is based upon the plan of diagnosing the case by tests and subsequent attempt to teach and continuing instruction according to these findings. The names of the letters are taught usually in the latter half of the first school year, the A1 grade. But how could Dana have completed the Blst without this tool which was supplied when she needed it, and is still freely used? Eventually, she casts it aside as she comes to see the word as a pattern and not as a series of smaller units which she must name before the whole can be interpreted. When a new word is presented to her, she spells it to herself at once, and upon each of many subsequent presentations. When she is asked to build it, she does this also. Then she picks out the letters in any order whatever, arranging them in correct order when she has them all in her hand.
Can Dana make good in school and later in the world? I consider her case a hopeful one not in the sense that a “cure” can be affected perhaps, but because she possesses important assets which overbalance her difficulty, serious as it is. Among these is an adequate retentiveness which must compensate largely for the special disability. After all, the reading vocabulary necessary to carry her along in society successfully is not endless. Furthermore, she has an eager desire to learn so that all available energy is poured into the learning process and not dissipated in an effort to beat the game or in forcing herself to endure a situation which is not satisfying. It seems, then, that her reading difficulty may in time become a minor consideration.
In intelligence, she certainly equals many a so-called “bright child.” No better evidence of this is needed than the manner in which she uses what abilities she has to make up for what she has not. In this respect she is a strong contrast to another of her group, who, finding it extremely difficult to learn words, makes no use of the means of self-help as Dana does. He is utterly helpless before a word which he does not recognize at once. Dana exercises her intelligence not only upon school subjects but upon other problems which arise all about her in the school room. And she is very happy at school, for she feels that a little girl who can not read glibly may nevertheless make an acceptable contribution to society. She, with two others of her group, has constructed a “costume” for the rose to wear in the “show.” Dana contributed a very fair share of planning to this little project and it is acceptable to the children.
Her idea that the cap must “stand up” suggesting the upright position of the budding petals has been carried out. Though the finished article is extremely crude, it represents the exercise of certain highly desirable qualities, notably, planfulness, initiative, a sense of responsibility and leadership, as well as conformity in activity which concerns the social group.
Dana is growing calmer too, as her unstable, giggling behavior appears to be settling down into something like childish poise. She works quietly and steadily at any task assigned to her now. She is sufficiently sensitive to failure and to just criticism, so that she does not repeat the same errors of conduct or judgment. She is affectionate and by no means difficult to manage, yet not dangerously subject to suggestion. Her personality is decidely attractive, which is no mean assetWhatever her limitations on an educational scale may be, Dana does not belong in a special class as organized at present, primarily for feeble-minded children. The recommendation in June will therefore be that she be placed in the slow moving group beginning the second grade in September, under a new plan of organization affecting all first and second grades in the city. Under this plan each child works in competition with others of his competency level. We shall hope that in this way steady progress, though slow, and the consideration of understanding instructors may keep alive Dana’s natural abilities which would otherwise atrophy and become useless.
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