Triplets
- Author:
Anna Louise Butts, M.A.
Supervisor of Mental Examinations, Division of Special Education, Philadelphia Public Schools.
The enrollment of a set of triplets in one of the Philadelphia Public Schools in the fall of 1929 was looked upon as such an unusual occurrence that the newspapers featured the event as “news.” Keporters besieged both the home and school, with the result that the triplets found themselves in headlines, with their pictures and history on the front pages. In the school itself they received due recognition. Mere twins were ignored. Teachers journeyed from their several class-rooms to gaze upon “the triplets.” Little children cried to be placed in the same room as “the triplets.” The triplets themselves were sent as one unit throughout the building?presumably on errands but actually for display purposes?quite evidently enjoying their notoriety. It so happened that a psychologist from the Division of Special Education was in the school at the time, testing in connection with an ability group experiment. It was her duty to make a mental examination of each child entering the first grade, for the purpose of dividing the entire class into ability groups, which happened to be four in number. The triplets, therefore, came to her attention as candidates for examination and placement. The sentimental reaction of the parents and the school at this time was that these children be allowed to remain together, regardless of the results of examination. The children themselves, having always been together, were at first hopelessly lost when separated even for a short time. Gradually, however they emerged from the state of being a single unit into three separate individuals. One began to hear talk not of “the triplets,” but of the bright one, the dull one and the middle one; or of the oldest and the youngest. The examiner meanwhile bided her time, waiting so as to allow the classroom to develop individual characteristics, as the home had not endeavored to do.
Finally, late in October, when the children had become individual personalities and ranked at three distinct points on an ability scale in their common classroom, they were given a mental examination all on the same day, when they were six years and nine months of age. The following chart aims to give a comparative analysis of the results of examination:
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Sally Irene Mary Appearance Red hair?gol- Dark hair?dark Irene and Mary den brown eyes brown eyes look alike but are not identical. Health Good?Robust Good Handicapped. Has Energetic Average energy been sickly. Had foot paralysis when younger; gait still unsteady. Less energy. Personality Pleasant Pleasant Pleasant Alert Alert Alert Interested Interested Interested Co-operative Co-operativo Co-operative Confident Irene lias the de- Lacks confidence sirable qualities of Self-assured Sally in lesser de- Feeling of inferigree. Not the as- ority surance and agSelf-reliant gression of Sally Dependent nor the dependence Aggressive of Mary. More pli- Submissive able than Sally; Poised?calm less enthusiastic Excitable; enthusithan either. Steady, astic to point of calm and depend- losing balance. able. Steady and de- Erratic ? unstable, pendable From the heights to the depths. Efficient Inefficient. Wastes time and energy. Manner mature Manner babyish. A leader Of necessity both a A follower leader and a follower. Runs a middle course. Held down by Sally; brought out by Mary Response Quick and to the Quick and to the Generally quick in point. Good. point. Good. coming, but slows up. Often irrelevant ? off the point. Very talkative. Much detail, but 268 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Comprehension Imagery Attention Language Control of Ability Memory Spans Sally Irene Mary rather vague on the whole. Doesn’t stand up well “under lire.” Good Good Rather poor in general, though in specific instances good. Good Fair Poor Habits good Fair Concentration and distribution poor. Hard to sustain. Distractible. Plays out. Use good Use good Use good Suggests better ability than she has. Very talkative. Good Good Poor 5-6-2 5-6-2 5-6-0 Had to be Had to be Could not compretaught to re- taught to re- hend reversing digverse digits verse digits its after teaching. BINET SIMON TEST 4 year level 5 year level 6 year level 7 year level Fingers: Pictures: Differences: Sally Irene Mary Passed all Passed all Failed to copy square?defect in both imagery and muscular control. Passed all Passed all Passed all Passed all Passed all Failed to give omissions ? detected none. Passed Passed Failed?counted. Passed Passed Passed Good descrip- Good description Good description tion Passed Failed Failed Fly?Butterfly Wood?Glass TRIPLETS 269 BINET SIMON TEST Diamond: 8 year level Sally Irene Mary Failed?drew a Failed?figure not Failed?refused to quadrangle, but a quadrangle attempt, not diamond Passed all com- Failed all Failed all. prehension questions Vocabulary? Vocabulary?5 Vocabulary?5 6*4 words words words gown gown gown tap envelope envelope puddle health rule envelope eyelash health rule curse curse health pork (%) Basal Age Mental Age I.Q. 6 years 6 years 3 years 7 years 6 yrs. 6 mos. 5 yrs. 9 mos. 103.8 98.8 85.2 PERFORMANCE TESTS Witmer Formboard (Time Score) min. sec. Witmer Cylinders (Time Score) min. sec. Healy A 10 second exposure (Time Score) min. sec. Comprehension Bate of Discharge Learning Sally Irene Mary 53”?48”?30” 1’41”?33”?27” 2’26”?2’25”? 4’42” F?3/30” 4’21”?1’36”? F?F?3’30” ?1/29” V35” (6 errors) F?15”?6” 1/8”?15”?8” F?F?F (1 min.) Fair Good Poor Good Fair Slow Good Good Po?r Examiner’s 2 plus Rating (3 point scale)
A more general personality study follows: These three little girls, Sally, Irene and Mary, are of Jewish parentage; the father is of Austrian birth and the mother native to the United States. These are intelligent, well-to-do middle class people, who maintain a pleasant, comfortable home and show interest in the welfare of their children. Their attitude is sensible and co-operative. The only other child is a daughter, already in High School.
The triplets are markedly dissimilar. They did not enter school until six and a half years of age because Mary has always been a sickly child; some form of paralysis prevented her walking as early as the others, and her gait is still unsteady though she gets about all right. At the present time she is the least energetic of the three; the other two are healthy children, of whom Sally is the more robust.
In appearance also these children are not alike. Irene and Mary greatly resemble each other with their dark hair and dark brown eyes; but Sally, with her bright red hair and golden brown eyes, is quite different. She is also a child of heavier stature and not such fine facial features. Her excess energy and healthful exuberance, in addition to her appearance, make her by far the most colorful child of the three. Sally sparkles and the other two reflect her brilliance.
It is difficult to consider one of these children without comparing her with the others. This comparison, perhaps, makes one overestimate Sally’s ability. She is without question the leader and the one who takes the initiative, mothering the other two, particularly Mary. Sally is a child of confidence and self-assurance. She is able to do things not only for herself but also for others. She is aggressive, in a thoroughly pleasant and helpful fashion. She has a great deal of poise, going at things in a calm, matter of fact way. She is interested and alert, but always well balanced. Her manner is that of an older child. She is quite dependable, showing a steady consistency in her work. So far as mental equipment is concerned, Sally does not test much above her own age level. Her response is always quick, to the point and more than adequate; but she shows no signs of unusual mental complexity. It is Sally’s efficient use of her ability, her self reliant manner and her charm of personality that are her chief assets and make her outstanding in the classroom.
“Where Sally leads, Mary tries to follow, though she can not always reach the mark. Mentally as well as physically, Mary is the weakest. She is slower in her response. She is not so quick to grasp a new idea. She cannot think out a problem for herself so well. She is not quite so well informed and cannot accomplish quite so much. The child’s model is her sister Sally, and she realizes that she cannot keep up with her. Sally apparently tries to help her along, but Irene chides her with being “dumb as a rock.’T The result is that Mary has a very definite feeling of inferiority. She is at present very anxious to keep pace with the others and tries hard, but she is likely to give up in time, because she is clever enough to realize that she cannot do so well. Every now and then Mary appealed to the examiner with some such remark as “I’m not so dumb, am I ?’’ Clearly she is on the defensive, and she should be encouraged as much as possible in order to give her more confidence. Just now she hesitates to do many things because she is afraid of making a mistake. Unlike many children who feel inferior, Mary is interested and enthusiastic. She has a force and a desire within her which urge her on. She has discrimination enough to realize her own limitations, and when she is within her own powers she gives quite good response; in the face of difficult or unfamiliar material, however, Mary is very dependent and helpless. She seeks constant reassurance, without which she cannot go on. A further difficulty of Mary’s is that her attention is so poor; she neither concentrates nor distributes it well. She is easily distracted and cannot sustain her attention for long, because of fatigue. This attention defect of course interferes with learning. Furthermore, Mary is an excitable child, emotionally unstable. She becomes so enthusiastic over some trivial thing that she loses her balance. All this makes for inefficiency and waste of time and energy; what limited ability she possesses is not well controlled nor co-ordinated. While Mary is inferior to her sisters and does not meet her own age standards, she is what can be called dull normal. Her trouble appears to be more physical and nervous than mental, more functional than organic. A casual observer, on meeting Mary, might consider her quite bright because she has a gift for language which enables her to talk well. She talks too glibly, however, without much thought behind it, often aside from the point in question. When it comes to a test, Mary’s information is vague and her talk merely words.
Irene is the proverbial “middle child.” She treads a middle path. She has neither the confidence and assurance of Sally nor the dependence of Mary; she lacks Sally’s color and Mary’s enthusiasm ; but she is a child of ordinary mental ability, responsive, alert and confident to a reasonable degree. She is quite capable of doing things for herself. She is steady and dependable. Yet she is all this in a less striking and forcible way and in less degree than in the case of Sally. The difference between Irene and Sally is more one of energy and type of personality; in mental ability they are quite similarly equipped. Between Irene and Mary the difference is not so much in type of personality as it is in actual mental equipment and ability to use it. “Why these children, born of the same parents at the same time and reared in the same environment, are so different in physical, mental and personality endowment, is an interesting question; but not one for the public schools to answer. The problem of dealing with these children is, however, a function of the school. Aside from sentimental considerations, for the best development of these children, it would be wise to separate them. Sally will not suffer either way. Irene would stand a better chance of not being overshadowed by Sally. Mary would not have the unpleasant experience of seeing her sisters surpass her; she might miss Sally’s motherly care for a while, but she would learn to depend more upon herself; with a group of duller children she would have more chance to excel.
For both emotional and educational reasons, therefore, it appeared best to the examiner to separate the three children. The problem of school organization did not have to be faced since four distinct groups were available. Of these four groups the lowest was discarded because it was composed largely of definitely feebleminded children. In the next higher group Mary would meet her intellectual peers. Sally, while not a child of superior mentality when judged on an absolute scale, could easily function in the highest group. In this same group could be found children of no better mental equipment than Irene; but in order to do nothing which would suggest favoritism to Mary and at the same time to remove the shadow of Sally’s superiority, it was thought best that Irene go into the middle group. This placement was, accordingly, suggested to the parents who thoroughly agreed with the theory of it. After a day of consideration and discussion, their sentimental reTRIPLETS 273 actions were outweighed by a realization of the educational advantages of separation. Sally, Irene and Mary were consequently separated and placed in ability groups in the order named. Sooner or later separation would have been inevitable, with attendant heartaches and possible resentment. As it is, three little girls are working, each in a fairly homogeneous group; and three little girls, each successful in her own group, think that the only reason for their separation is the great desire of each first grade teacher to have a triplet in her class.
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