Four Cases of Diagnostic Teaching
The Psychological Clinic Copyright, 1919, by Lightner Witmer, Editor. Vol. XIII, Nos. 8-9 January, February, 1922
By Gladys Poole, B.S.,1 Trenton Normal School. Formerly Clinic Teacher, University of Pennsylvania.
In 1919, the Psychological Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania added a teacher to its staff. The child’s response to teaching has always been a factor in determining his mental status, since failure in school is often taken to indicate the need of a psychological examination. Nevertheless the use of teaching for the purpose of discovering the mental status of a child is commonly beyond the province of the grade teacher.
The aim at the Psychological Clinic is not to educate the child. Although the teaching a child receives may incidentally further the purpose of the school, and in all cases is intended to be of some value to the child, nevertheless it is not used to bring backward children up to grade, nor to supplement in any way the work of the regular or special class teacher. Its aim is the diagnosis?especially the analytical diagnosis?distribution, and persistence of attention, the retentiveness and trainability of memory, the accuracy of observation and other mental qualities necessary to the education of the child. To do this, didactic material is chosen which will bring out the particular point desired. If a child has been failing in arithmetic, although competent in reading, the emphasis is placed upon such material as will demonstrate what the difficulty in arithmetic is. Diagnostic teaching has always been considered by Dr Witmer one of the most important methods of the clinical examination, but the Psychological Clinic did not have a special staff officer, called the Clinic Teacher, before 1919.
The following cases are cited to show several different types of children who have come before the Clinic and the results which have accrued from their careful study:
1 Miss Rebecca E. Learning and Miss L. Doris Wilcox were appointed Clinic Teachers for the Psychological Clinic at the Summer session of the University of Pennsylvania, July and August, 1919. In October, 1919, Miss Gladys Poole was appointed Clinic Teacher and a regular member of the staff of the Psychological Clinic. Miss Cornelia Mann served as Clinic Teacher during the Academic year, 1920-1921, and Miss Charlotte Easby has been appointed Clinic Teacher for the Academic year, 1921-1922.
Teddy.
Although but four years of age, Teddy had already acquired an unsavory reputation in the community in which he lived. He pulled the neighbor’s flowers, teased his dog, slapped the children who came to play and generally made a nuisance of himself. At home, his mother found it difficult to keep the peace between Teddy and his younger brother. The latter, smaller and of a more retiring disposition, was unable to keep his property safe from the depredations of his brother, and in attempting his own self-defense, he was always worsted. Toward his mother, Teddy displayed an “excessive determination” extremely difficult to deal with. He refused to obey and no amount of persuasion or punishment seemed to move him from a position once taken. His father was in no better favor with his eldest born.
Teddy was brought to the Clinic for diagnosis. He refused to try to do any performance test, and later, when he did try, would only take the most simple of material so that he did not appear to be more than two years advanced in his mental development. Observing the examiner occupied in conversation with his mother, and being unable to follow what was said, he finally pulled the Witmer formboard nearer, and gave a performance quite equal to that expected of a child of his years. More complex tests were then introduced and once the child’s interest had been captured, there was no further difficulty in getting him to work. He was taught to use this material, and so successful was he that he succeeded in doing the Witmer cylinder test, a test standardized for children much beyond his years. Several puzzles were used to advantage with this boy, the teaching method being that one which consists in setting a task well within the proved capabilities of the child, and then leaving him alone to do the work. This was a very successful method with Teddy, since he did not lack in persistence of attention and his interest had been fully aroused in work of this sort.
Teddy’s mother reports that oftentimes when he really wants to do something very badly, he still refuses to do it. This was shown in the Clinic by his refusal to accept a piece of candy offered him, this piece being a Hershey Bud which his mother had brought in case he should be late to luncheon. He wanted it, but refused to accept it at the hand of a woman he knew very well, although when it was left on the arm of a chair, he was finally willing to move over very slowly and take it.
After several weeks of being taught an hour each week, Teddy had covered at the Clinic all the material which he could possibly use. His mother had been encouraged to get him blocks, peg boards and other kindergarten games to keep him busy at home. At the same time, she began teaching him to count and to recognize some of the letters of the alphabet, as the amount of mechanical educational material is limited, and the next step had to be the continued use of more complex forms, i. e., figures and letters. Teddy readily learned to count, to count objects, to count backwards. He learned simple combinations and the usual simple words. While yet inclined to take his own time to do things, his mother found him much easier to handle at home, and at the last report, considered that a cure had been effected, educational work having taken the place of his former annoying activities. Discipline ceased to be a problem for Teddy. Mental activity and occupation of the right sort changed the boy from a crying, obstinate child into a smiling, interested one. Teaching was the method employed at first and continued because it offered the best means of interesting the child.
James.
James, a nine and a half year old Irish lad, red hair and all, was brought to the Clinic because he was not getting along in school. He is in the third grade, but not doing passing work. He is very obstinate in school, and will not try to get the lessons. He sits with his head down making no effort at all. Mental examination showed him to be normal, with an intelligence quotient of one hundred on the Terman Revision of the Binet-Simon tests. There is no evidence from the examination that he is not very well able to do his work. James was given special teaching for several periods. He is certainly able to do the work he is supposed to be doing. During the periods, his teacher succeeded in discovering two rather important points. The first one is his very evident dislike of school. His relations with his teacher are not sympathetic, due to a lack of understanding on the part of both. He does, however, like drawing, and wishes to be a cartoonist. From specimens of his drawing made at the Clinic, it seems likely that he will be able to make his dream come true. With this as a clue, his teacher began trying to find out what appealed to him most in his school work. She found that he disliked his arithmetic very much, but liked history and geography, in both of which subjects he was rather better informed than was to be expected. He is fond of stories and makes up adventures. Possessed of the ardent, Irish temperament, full of dreams and fancies, it is not to be expected that this youngster would find the dull, stale routine of regular grade work pleasing. Effort was made to show him that he would have to go to school, and as an added incentive, arrangements were made for his admission to a Sketch Club in the city. Here children of promise are trained free of charge by the best talent available for such work.
Raymond.
Raymond was brought by his mother to the Psychological Clinic because he made no progress in school. He is eight and a half years of age, and has had two years of school work, one of which has been in a special class under an excellent teacher. He has learned almost nothing in that time.
The general mental examination showed that Raymond was considerably below the mental level usually reached by boys of his years. Poor distribution of attention, lack of control and co-ordination of muscles, a limited memory span and a general inability to follow instructions were among the defects noted at that time. He knew none of the number combinations upon which he had been drilled at school, and only one or two of his letters. He knew about three words. Since the class of which he is a member is a large one, and since his teacher could apply very little of her time to Raymond alone, he was given special teaching at the Clinic to determine more particularly his deficiencies, and more especially his t-rainability, as it did not seem, from the evidence taken at his examination, that he was educable.
A Clinic teacher gave two periods to Raymond’s teaching. She used performance tests, writing and anagrams as a part of the material for the experiment. She found Raymond’s co-ordination so poor that in attempting to write, he held his right wrist with his left hand to keep it steady, and even then nothing that he made was legible. He was so easily stimulated with some new bit of material that it was almost impossible to keep him at any one thing long enough to discover whether he could do it or not. This easy distractability of attention was his most noticeable defect. He talked constantly to himself, and on this account it was difficult to reach his consciousness with instruction. No amount of effort would get him to add a digit in a given series one beyond his memory span of four, and his retentiveness of such words and numbers as he could be taught was like that of the parrot. He was willing to show them off, but he could not use them for any further purpose.
A second period of teaching confirmed the impressions received at the first one. Nothing that he had tried the first time had been retained. The distractability of attention continued. With his limited memory span, poor retentiveness and easily distracted attention, it is impossible to educate this boy, and very difficult to train him. Because of this diagnosis, Raymond was recommended to an institution which cares for children of his type. There is no place for him in the public school or, later in life, in his social group. Harvey.
Harvey was another boy brought to the Clinic because he has not been getting along well in school. He is nearly eight years old, yet his appearance is that of a four-year-old. His height and weight are right for that age, and his general carriage and presence belongs to that age. Because he was seven, however, he was sent to school. The school found it impossible to deal with him anywhere, for he failed to respond in either the kindergarten or the first grade and there was no other class in which to place him.
Harvey’s general examination placed him at the same mental level as did his physical appearance. He had poor distribution of attention, a lack of understanding of matter with which he should have been familiar, and very little interest in anything to which he was introduced. Because his general physical condition appeared to be good, he was recommended to a Clinic teacher to determine his trainability.
The Clinic teacher discovered that he could not be pushed very hard as he seemed to lack physical stamina. He showed an easy distractability of attention, but once his attention was secured, and he was shown the way, he was able to remember how to do a particular piece of work. There seemed to be no difficulty with his retentiveness of memory and he had good imageablity. He made designs both from imitation and from memory. He really became interested in the work that was offered him, talking constantly about what he was doing. His attention fluctuated and it was with difficulty that he could be kept at a task until he had finished it. His method of attack was to do a little and then seek his teacher’s approval. Since his physical condition did not permit the boy to put ‘’pep” into his work, although it seemed likely that he could be trained, it was recommended that he be sent to a skilled physician to see whether something could be done to induce physical growth and development before further educational treatment was suggested. At the present time, he lacks strength for the real educational effort needed to show whether he has a mental equipment sufficient to make training profitable.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.