Albert
- Author:
Helen W. Brown, M.A.,
University of Pennsylvania.
Albert is a large-eyed, serious boy of twelve years of age, rather undeveloped physically. His face is pale, with a slightly yellowish tinge, his eyes unusually large and his general expression that of weariness. He is round-shouldered, pigeon-breasted, with a protruding abdomen and entirely lacking in that flexibility which a boy of his age should naturally possess. He is very “stiff.” His history, both medical and family, is not good. As a child, he had measles, whooping cough (a very bad case), catarrhal fever and pleurisy. At four years of age he caught on fire, and as a result of the fright, although not severely burned, lay perfectly quiet for a day and did not walk for three months afterward. His age for first walking and talking were normal. At present his health is reported as “generally good.”
His home life has been far from ideal. His father while living was a very heavy drinker and extremely abusive to Albert’s mother. His mother was very much over-worked and in a constant state of worry during her pregnancies. There are seven children in the family in addition to Albert, three of whom work in factories, one brother being in Glenn Mills Reformatory and one in a special class in public school. Albert himself lived for a time in a home where the matron was taken to court because of her abuse of the children. All these conditions it must be granted, constitute decided handicaps in Albert’s life.
At present Albert is in the Third B class in school, having entered at the age of seven. This is really a retardation of about three years in school work. Albert feels keenly this backwardness and quite normally dislikes being in the class with children so much younger and smaller than he. When examined at the Clinic, he was pronounced of normal mentality. His performance on the mechanical tests was both quantitatively and qualitatively excellent. He showed fine distribution of attention, good discrimination, a quick rate of discharge and an immediate grasp of the problems. In the Dearborn Formboard he showed good coordinarion of hand and eyes, and in the design blocks, excellent imageability. Albert was thoroughly interested in the tests and had a rapid discharge of energy. During the examination it was noticed that Albert was very shy, nervous and somewhat apprehensive. He possessed a slight hesitancy in his speech which seemed like a silent stutter.
Albert was referred to a Clinic teacher for further observation in order to discover the reason for his pedagogical retardation. The first thing noted by the teacher was Albert’s improper breathing, which affected his reading to a marked degree. He was out of breath most of the time. Dr Edwin B. Twitmyer examined Albert in his speech clinic and noted a slight spasm of the diaphragm at each breath. He pronounced him a potential stammerer and said that any slight shock might cause this stammer to appear. Exercises in correct breathing and out-door sports were recommended. Dr. Twitmyer’s breathing exercises were given to Albert by the Clinic teacher once a week for three weeks. In addition, Albert was supposed to practice them at home once a day. As he was reported very poor in arithmetic, the Clinic teacher tested him in third grade work. It was discovered that he did not know his tables and that he did not possess second grade efficiency in arithmetic. He was drilled on the tables at each lesson. Albert lived some distance away and became car sick each time he came to the Clinic; therefore the Clinic teacher arranged with the public school teacher to give him the breathing exercises and drill on the tables every day in school. This was done during the month of December and early January. Then Albert returned to the Clinic teacher in order that she might see how much he had improved. There was some improvement in breathing and consequently in reading, but apparently no work had been done on the tables. The Clinic teacher again drilled Albert on his tables, but as this in a question of every day drill, some more practical way must be found to help Albert. He needs a thorough and careful drill on the foundations of school work. He also needs efficiency training. He should be taught by the “whole” method, as it was discovered that the boy learned much more readily this way. Albert is not up to par physically. He lacks vitality and vivacity to a marked degree.7 He is the picture of inactivity. He should have a thorough medical and neurological examination and then plenty of fresh air and out-of-door exercise. It would be highly advisable to place Albert in a home in the country or in the mountains, if such a thing is possible. He is not the intellectual type of boy; lessons and school routine will probably never appeal to him, but there appears no reason, except the physical one, why he should not make progress in school far more normally than he does at present.
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