Lillian
- Author:
Catherine Riggs and Charlotte Easby-Grave,
Clinic Teacher, University of Pennsylvania
“Our Lillian, she don’t get on very well at school, so I bring her down here and maybe you can learn her something.” Lillian, a large, sallow youngster of ten years, the cause of all the trouble, sat in the corner and smirked and giggled as she heard her name mentioned. ‘’ But she ain’t dumb,’’ continued Mrs. Moffo, in her broken English, “she just gets nervous.” ‘Nervous’ seems to be Lillian’s alibi. When all else failed, she got a “nervous spell,” and so got her own way. There was, however, something wrong with the child physically for she was far from healthy looking. This physical condition was no doubt partly responsible for her retardation in school. Throughout last year Lillian was in an Orthogenic Backward class and her parents were much dissatisfied. They felt that she did good enough work to be put back into a regular class. Hence, she was referred by the principal of the school to the clinic, for a mental examination, in order to determine her mental status. At the time of the examination, she was nine years and eleven months old. In all the tests, she showed marked retardation. In the Binet, she came out with a mental age of seven years and six months?just about two years below her chronological age. In the mechanical tests, she did not do much better. The Witmer Cylinders she completed the first time in two minutes and fifty seconds, while the second time, it took her four minutes and twenty seconds. Both times she did it by the trial and error method, and showed absolutely no planfulness or discrimination. In the Mare and Foal test, she again showed poor discrimination and imageability. Several times she tried to force the leg of the animal in upside down and she did not seem to understand why it did not fit. Lillian’s very slow rate of discharge was conspicuous, as well as her marked neuro-muscular incoordination in the manual tests. Since there was such an obvious physical condition present, the diagnosis was deferred until the child could be given the benefit of good medical attention.
At the hospital, the doctor found Lillian to be in a very poor physical condition. Her teeth needed attention; her eyes were defective; tonsils and adenoids enlarged, and most important of all, she had chronic indigestion.
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Lillian is a logical product of her environment. She has been sick frequently in the past few years, but has had no medical attention. Mrs. Moffo is a rather inferior type of woman, and seems to have absolutely no idea about rearing a family. All the members of the family look as if they did not get the proper food, and from all reports, they do not. Here is a sample of Lillian’s breakfast: a glass of coffee, rice soup, fresh baked cake, and a piece of apple pie. It is scarcely to be wondered that she has chronic indigestion. It is a wonder, however, that she has nothing worse. Following the doctor’s recommendation, Mrs. Moffo brought Lillian to the hospital for treatment. The child improved noticeably under the treatment but the difficulty was that the mother did not bring her regularly. At the time of the appointment, either she herself was sick, or Lillian did not want to come. The social worker from the hospital tried to impress on the parents the necessity of her attendance. They seemed to understand and the father promised to see that Lillian got to the hospital on time but it did no good; the visits were just as irregular.
Lillian’s.improvement as a result of the treatment which she did receive was so marked that she was put in a regular third grade on probation. The latter part of October, she came to the clinic for diagnostic teaching. In the several months’ time, Lillian’s mental condition had improved materially, along with her physical condition. To begin with, her auditory memory span, at the time of the examination, was five digits while in November, she was able to give seven. Moreover, she did all her work with a greater amount of interest and energy. In arithmetic, she learned the ‘two’ table very quickly and by January was able to multiply any two figures by two. She had learned the principle of carrying numbers and also of borrowing in subtraction. Two months before, her arithmetic was only that of a first grade pupil. She knew her numbers and could count, but she could not use them in combination. Her proficiency is not yet up to the par for the third grade, but it has improved greatly. One of her chief difficulties in any work is carelessness, and this in her case is particularly hard to overcome because of her self-assurance. She is never willing to admit she is wrong, even if the evidence is before her. This may, however, be overcome by discipline, but it will have to be better discipline than she gets at home.
The first two months that Lillian was in a regular class, she failed to pass, getting only a “six” on her report. The last two months, she got a ‘’seven” and passed everything but arithmetic. At the time of writing it looks as if she will be promoted into the third B class next month.
It is, however, a question just how long she will maintain this improvement. While she is better physically than she was, she is still far from well, and her mother refuses to continue the treatment at the hospital. She claims now that it has done Lillian no good. She still has quite a few teeth that need attention, but Mrs. Moffo will not take her to the dental clinic because she says it makes the child nervous. She says, however, that she is going to take Lillian to ” their own dentist, a painless one on Market Street.”
From observation of Mrs. Moffo in her home, one can see that she has no control over any of her children, and the worst offender of the four is Lillian. Her mother will not force her to do anything because Lillian gets nervous and cries. She also claims that the child does not get along any better in school because of her nerves. Lillian has had the idea of “nerves” drilled into her so long that now she really thinks she is a nervous wreck. It is almost impossible to make Mrs. Moffo understand how necessary it is to discipline the child, and to make her forget her nerves. It is probable that Lillian will not continue to improve in her present environment. Her mother believes that she is doing the best she can for her and it is impossible to convince her otherwise. It is evident that Lillian’s mental condition is closely connected with her physical condition. When she was in such poor health, she was more than two years retarded mentally and if a diagnosis had been made, she would have been classed as feebleminded. At the present time, her mental level has so improved that she is doing passing third grade work. This is normal although below average for a ten year old child. Lillian’s mental development will never keep pace with her chronological age, but with a good physical condition, she will remain within the normal group.
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