Earl
Diagnostic Teaching
- Author:
Helen W. Brown, M.A.,
University of Pennsylvania.
Sounds of running feet, excited whispers in the vicinity of the wash basin, great scrambling for drinks of water and breathless inquiries for “my teacher”?Earl and his little pal had arrived for their lesson. Earl’s entrance was characteristic?teeming with energy, brown eyes sparkling, cheeks flaming, hair in great disorder and always that likable, mischievous smile. He was in the “little animal” stage of childhood, just eight years old.
Earl first came to the Clinic because of retardation in school. He spent three terms in second grade and then was placed in the Orthogenic Backward Class. Reading was his chief difficulty. His conduct in school was good and he appeared to try hard in his work. He had no significant medical history, just the usual childhood diseases of measles and chicken-pox. The family history was negligible. In Clinic, Earl applied himself earnestly to the tests which were given to him and solved them very well. He showed good imageability, excellent trainability and used an intelligent trial and error method throughout. His memory span for digits, both visual and auditory, was five, but he could get six on three repetitions. His reading proficiency was found to be about that of First Grade, which was poor for his age and grade. The conclusion reached by the examiner was that Earl’s mentality was normal and that his difficulty with reading was due to the fact that, as a member of a large class, he did not receive the amount of attention that he required. Clinic teaching was recommended to fully determine the cause of his poor reading and to suggest a way to help him. Earl was full of “pep” whenever he came to the Clinic, but all this superfluous energy soon disappeared when the lesson began. He loved to come, but it might be suspected that he liked to be excused from school and to ride in the trolley cars rather than to learn to read. He was attentive and serious about his work but obviously had no real interest in it. He knew his phonetic sounds with the exception of “u” and “y” and he confused “b” with “d.”
He had a habit of looking at a new word, not attempting to analyze it into letters, then looking at the picture and guessing at the word. So the problem for the Clinic teacher was to break up this old habit and form a new one of analyzing each word into its letters, sounding all the letters individually and then patting them together to form the word. Earl comprehended readily what was required and after several lessons, formed the habit of analysis of words into letters and of sounding the letters separately. The synthesis of the sounds into words was extremely difficult for him. Earl’s ability to synthetize was very poor. He was drilled in this every lesson, using anagrams, word cards and the blackboard. He improved but very gradually. Earl is now started on the right road, but he needs constant drill?daily if possible. He understands the principles involved, but his ability to synthetize is so weak that he will not be able to progress as a member of a large class without additional help. If he can receive a little individual instruction every day he will be able to keep his place in his class. This instruction will be very much worth while, as he possesses good native intelligence and excellent social orientation.
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