The Superior Child
A Series of Case Studies. :Author: Alice M. Jones, A.M., University of Pennsylvania.
In the two preceding issues of the Psychological Clinic I have presented case studies of children chosen from my Superior Group. The first group of cases was selected on the single factor of a high Intelligence Quotient, the second, upon general superiority combined with some talent in the field of literary production. The present group is closely related to the latter, in that the criteria of selection are two?general intellectual superiority existing in combination with musical ability. These children are not of the type who are known in the literature as “musical prodigies.” In every case, however, they have been designated by persons whose musical judgment is supposedly sound (teachers and head masters of the conservatories of music in which they are working) as having most unusual ability. We have 011 record in this clinic one or two cases of more striking precocity in musical development, but when the factor of general intellectual superiority is made a criterion of selection, they are not acceptable candidates for this group.
I tried to indicate clearly in my preceding article that it is at best hazardous to make any prediction of future productivity in in any artistic field when we arc dealing with young, especially with pre-adolescent, boys and girls. The age range in this particular group is from eleven to fourteen years. Three of these children are already post-pubescent; I therefore believe that it is reasonably safe to predict that their musical interest will be a lasting one, perhaps the most significant factor in their future. In the fourth case (a girl of eleven years) the musical interest is already so intense that it seems scarcely probable that it can be other than lasting. The persistence of music as a significant factor in their lives seems all the more probable in that all these children possess to a marked degree the creative impulse, and spend many hours in improvising. Joseph, aged twelve years and ten months, is of Italian parentage, and has the beautiful brown eyes and ingratiating manner of his race. His attainments seem all the more remarkable when viewed in the light of his heredity and the social and environmental handicaps of his early childhood.
Both parents were born in Italy, and have never learned more English than that required for their most primitive needs in an alien, rural community. The father is a day-laborer, and is incapacitated for any adequate support of his family by chronic rheumatism. The mother is of a very excitable nervous temperament, rather unintelligent, but sympathetic. It is probable that Joseph’s ambition is fostered by her, rather than by the father. There are seven children, of whom Joseph is the oldest. The family “gets along” with casual financial aid from a local social organization. Joseph represents a situation which crops out persistently and irrepressibly in imaginative literature, but which occurs with relative rarity, I am inclined to believe, in the work-a-day world. He is the gifted child, of striking intellectual superiority, produced at a very inferior environmental level. Unfortunately, it is impossible to gain any adequate information as to this boy’s heredity further back than the present generation. Whether this child is a biological “sport” or whether his ability may be a legacy from some gifted ancestor, it is impossible to determine.
As usual in cases of this sort, it was the school which discovered Joseph, and which led Joseph to find himself. Although he was handicapped from the start with an inferior language equipment and with complete cultural starvation in the home, the boy’s unusual intelligence led to unusual interest and pains on the part of his teachers. Books are an unknown quantity in the world in which Joseph eats and sleeps and calls his home, but the boy, now in the eighth grade in school, told the examiner very seriously that Dickens and Shakespeare are his favorite authors. He loves to read all sorts of books, but especially those where the major interest is either historical or scientific. Moreover, he is not the sponge type, absorbing only the ideas of other men; he gives his imagination free rein in writing stories of his own, and has even tried his hand at verses. Joseph’s academic record is clear. He entered school at six years, has repeated no grades, skipped twice, and has a consistent average of “E,” which is excellent. He is popular with other children, is a leader among the boys at school, and is interested in athletics, although not heavy enough for teams. (He is not below his age norms for height and weight, but just at the maximum for his own age level; most boys in his school grade, however, are older and taller than Joseph, who has the lithe strength characteristic of his race.) The boy has unusual poise and general social orientation, is self-confident, realizes that lie is above average, but shows no objectionable superiority-consciousness. Indeed, in view of the special attention which he has always received, and in view of the unfortunate social and environmental factors, the boy’s balance is remarkable.
On the psychological examination, Joseph’s scores are consistently good. On the performance tests he showed excellent coordination and good intelligence, and his time scores, although not remarkable, were well within the limits for the Superior Group. His memory span is eight digits for both auditory and visual-vocal presentation, and he gives seven digits reversed. On the Binet Test his mental age is eighteen years, one and one-half months, which gives him an Intelligence Quotient of 141.2. His Intelligence Quotient would have been several points higher, had it not been for vocabulary, where he scored only 56. This relatively low vocabulary (for a superior child of his age) is, of course, a factor of the initial language handicap, which it will require years to overcome. Had his vocabulary score been 76, he would have passed every test in the starred Terman Revision. On the results of this examination alone, there is no question that both from the quality of his responses and the actual scores obtained, this boy must be included as a member of the Superior Group. In so far as talent is concerned, Joseph must have been born under some preternaturally auspicious constellation. The urge to create is strong within him, and it matters little in what field it finds expression. I have already noted that he writes stories and verses. For several years he has been “fiddling” (improvising for the most part) and he has had some inferior teaching at the hands of a local music-master. Last year, however, he was given a try-out at one of our best conservatories of music, and he is reported to be most unusual in musical ability. He has been taken on by the school (which is not a philanthropic organization) for free lessons. This, in itself, gives some indication of their judgment of his worth. The boy is truly in love with his violin, and has dreams of becoming a concert violinist.
One would think that such an artistic equipment was enough for one small boy, but in addition to this, Joseph is said by his teachers to draw remarkably well. He has had no special training in this field, but he amuses himself with making copies of drawings and cartoons. After the examination, when the boy told me about his interest in drawing, I jokingly told him to make a copy of Binet Picture I (the Dutch Home) and in a few seconds, with little effort, he produced an entirely recognizable semblance of the mother, the crying child, and the cat. There seems little doubt that, with proper training, he could produce very creditable work in this field.
Joseph is not certain himself which will prove to be the dominant talent, music or drawing, and he cherishes a secondary ambition to become an illustrator or a cartoonist. The probability is that he will continue to be a producer in both fields, and in the literary field as well. Perhaps he will subordinate the other two to musical composition, in which ability to visualize and to verbalize must surely be of some significance.
The timely assistance of a social organization will make it possible for Joseph to go on to high school, and then to specialize in the direction of what proves to be his dominant talent. It was to determine the advisability of such assistance that the boy was brought to the Psychological Clinic. There was no question in my mind about recommending such assistance; it is my opinion that any expenditure made by society in training boys such as this one, will be repaid a thousand-fold.
Marlyn, aged fourteen years seven months, was discoveied for this study in a contemporaneous investigation of three hundred high school boys in this city. His scores on the tests given at the school were so exceptionally good that he was referred to me for a supplementary examination. It has been more than a year since I saw Marlyn, and our interview lasted less than an hour, but the boy made an indelible impression upon my memory. He was a tall, handsome lad, who would be estimated, at a casual glance, as seventeen or eighteen years of age. He showed the poise and general social orientation of the college senior. If he had ever passed through that unfortunate stage known as “hobble-de-hoy, it was long since, and the battle had left neither dent nor scar upon the polished surface of his personality. I was constantly tempted to look at the record sheet before me to retain the proper orientation regarding his age.
On the performance tests, Marlyn was the type which we call a “wizard.” Working with both hands, and with extraordinarily rapid distribution of attention, he completed all the tests given in an extremely short time. He made no false moves. A particularly difficult test, known as the Marvin Pyramid, devised in this laboratory, but not standardized, was solved the first time in five seconds, and on the second trial in two seconds. The solution did not appear to be accidental.
His memory span for digits was 10 on both auditory and visual presentation, and he was able to reverse 7 with ease. He was able to repeat thirty-two syllables in a sentence. He gave an excellent reproduction of both paragraphs at the Superior Adult level in the Binet folder. His basal age level was the Superior Adult, which gave him an Intelligence Quotient of 133.7, the maximum possible for his age. (In cases like this we wish for tests at a higher intellectual level.) His vocabulary score was 88, the highest which I have encountered in any high school child. His definitions were qualitatively excellent. His verbal reactions were as quick and clear-cut as was his motor rate of discharge.
At the time of the examination Marlyn was a high sophomore in high school, taking the academic course and doing altogether satisfactory, although not brilliant work. In spite of his unusual poise, he was in no sense a prig. lie had the normal number of interests, both social and athletic. He was well liked by the boys, but not too popular. He was fond of reading, and reported that he read approximately three books a week in addition to his school work, his other outside activities, and his practising. His instrument is the violin. He is not the “boy-genius” type. He has had, however, four years of lessons, with the consequent heavy toll of practice, and his violin is one of the primary factors in his life. He has done no concert work as yet, but is on the high road to a career. He feels relatively sure that he will, eventually, find his career in music. This point is not, however, definitely decided. Marlyn realizes fully the advantages which accompany a large income. He has a strong practical tendency which leads him to desire the assurance which such an income gives. There is some conflict within him as to whether he shall choose the lucrative but somewhat prosaic occupation of stock broker, or become a musician. Before he makes his final decision, he plans to go through college and acquire his background in the liberal arts. Since, at his present rate of progress, he will have finished college at twenty, this seems a wise course.
No matter what the final outcome in his life may be, I am convinced that this boy has talent, and that, should he decide upon an artistic career, in view of his general intellectual superiority, the prognosis for success is excellent.
Stephanie, aged eleven years three months, was brought to the Clinic by her older sister, not because of her intellectual superiority, but because of the marked talent which she displays in music. The child is of Russian (Ukraniaii) parentage, and conies from a relatively high social stratum, her father being a physician. She is not physically prepossessing, and is noteworthy in this group of superior children, in that she is not above her age norms in height and weight. She is reserved, and in view of her relatively complex ideational processes, seems strangely lacking in vivacity. If she does not “blossom out” during her adolescence, she will not be unusually noteworthy as a personality.
On the psychological examination her scores, although not remarkable, are sufficiently high to place her within the Superior Group. Her work on the performance tests showed very fine coordinations, good intelligence, and excellent trainability. Her rate of movement was not unusually rapid, but the qualitative aspects of her performances compensated for her merely median time scores. On the three written tests her scores are consistently excellent. She finished all but one paragraph on the Monroe Silent Reading Test, and made no error in comprehension. Her arithmetic score was perfect, and she made three slight errors in the Hard Directions Test. On the Binet, her basal age level was twelve years, her mental age, sixteen years one and one-half months, and her Intelligence Quotient 143.3. Her vocabulary level was fourteen years.
Academically, this child is not accelerated. Indeed, inasmuch as she did not enter school until she was seven, she is now actually a year retarded in school work. The school has suggested incidental promotion upon several occasions, but the parents have been unwilling to permit it. The indications given by the psychological examination, however, are that Stephanie is well able to do the work of a higher grade after a minimum period of adjustment, and I can see no reason why she should be held back. She has never, in all her school career, made an average of less than “9.” This is in spite of the fact that her major interest and her greatest expenditure of effort has been in a field entirely outside the school. For even a casual acquaintance would soon realize that her life centers in her piano.
Unlike most children of a relatively high intellectual level, Stephanie is not a great reader. She reports that she rarely reads an entire book in the course of any single week. Her literary interests are rather immature; she still finds fairy tales the most attractive form of reading. She does, however, write little imaginative sketches, and occasionally devises the words for some simple little melody which she has improvised.
It is the piano, however, which is the core of this child’s existence. She has been taking lessons for five years, and has made exceedingly rapid progress. She is very well thought of at the conservatory where she is studying. At home, it is almost impossible to tear her away from the piano. Although she does not neglect the drudgery of practice, her greatest delight is in improvising. Here again we find the creative urge which marks the difference between the mere technician and the originator in the artistic field.
David, aged thirteen years two months, has already acquired all the superficial mannerisms of the musician. He is Russian Jewish, of a physical type which is relatively uncommon, flaming red-gold hair, which he flings back in long and rippling waves with the true musician’s gesture, and clear, bluish-white skin, flushed with a bright rose (the skin which is found only in combination with red hair). His hands are long and dazzlingly white; the fingers are delicate yet strong?typical musicians’ hands. Already David has learned the fascination which such hands can exert, and he uses them in conversation to the best possible advantage. Like Marlyn, David was discovered in the survey of high school boys in this city, and was referred to me because of exceptionally good scores. Nothing was known to the previous examiner about his musical ability; he was selected entirely upon the basis of test results. His reactions to the performance tests were quick, intelligent, and clear-cut. His memory span was 9 (visual-verbal) and 10 (auditory) presentation. He reversed seven digits with ease, and was able to give thirty syllables in a sentence. His scores on all the written tests were perfect. On the Binet test, his basal age level was that of the Superior Adult, which gave him an Intelligence Quotient of 148. This Intelligence Quotient is, in itself, sufficient basis for admission into the Superior Group.
In school David is a high freshman. His academic work is good but not remarkable. His best subjects are Science and English Composition. He is an omnivorous reader. He volunteered tlie information that he likes to read poetry, if it has both rhyme and rhythm, but that he “hates free verse.” He, himself, has succeeded in having some of his own poems published in the daily papers here.
In personality David is striking rather than attractive. He is very much a “person.” He has a very well-marked sense of superiority, which is, after all, not surprising.
From his earliest childhood this boy has been brought up in an atmosphere where music is exalted. The boy’s older brother is? a pianist, and has already won a medal for original composition. This same brother has been conducting a small orchestra, but is now about to go to Europe to study. David has had, since he was a small boy, a consuming desire to become the conductor of a great orchestra. One of his favorite pastimes as a young child was to stand before the Victrola with his brother’s baton, and “conduct” the records. This was not the merely imitative stage through which many small boys pass; it was the beginning expression of what has developed into the boy’s dominant trend.
David’s instrument is the ‘cello. He has had lessons for only three years, but already has a manager, and is doing solo and concert work. After he has finished high school he will concentrate definitely on his musical training. He, too, has unusual ability in improvising. With his general intellectual superiority, failure in his chosen field seems relatively improbable.
All the children in this test can claim a rating oi superior when judged only on the basis of the psychological examination. All of them also possess at least one marked talent, that of music, and most of them have one or more subordinate talents. All have the creative impulse which leads to origination. It is to such children we must look for our potential “genius” group.
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