I he Baokward Chil
^ Study of til eF^ychology and
irea tmefit of Ba.':kwardriess
The
Backward Child
A Study of the Psychology and
Treatment of Backwardness
A Practical Manual for Teachers and Students
By
Barbara Spofford Morgan
With an Introduction by
Elizabeth E. Farrell
Superintendent of Ungraded Classes, New York Public
Schools
G. p. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
JlDc 1(nicIietbocf^er presd
1914
Copyright, 19 14
BY
BARBARA SPOFFORD MORGAN
Ube mnicfterbocfter ipress, Hew Viovb
INTRODUCTION
THE problem of backwardness in children
is one which necessarily occupies the
attention of school administrators. A solu-
tion was expected by many when medical in-
spection of school children became general.
Undertaken first as a public health measure,
the medical inspection was soon centred on
the detection and the correction of physi-
cal defects found in school children. We
were then flooded with information as to the
number of children suffering from defective
vision, defective nasal breathing, malnutri-
tion, etc. A vigorous campaign was carried
on for their correction. Teachers and school
superintendents looked for the almost total
elimination of the problem of retardation
when physical defects were corrected. This,
however, was not the case. Certain children
were still unable to make progress. Disci-
Hi
29668^
iv Introduction
pline was no whit easier. Another remedy
was needed.
The remedy lies in the recognition of
individual differences in the mental make-
up of school children. Gross differences we
have recognised, at least since the time of
Seguin and Itard. Of the finer distinctions
we have been imconscious, as is evidenced
by the general uniformity in school curricula
throughout the country; the literature on
methods of teaching; the training given to
persons desirous of entering upon teaching
as their life work. Because we could see
the damage done to children's bodies by
hours spent at desks too large or too small,
we have now provided adjustable seats and
desks. Because we could not see the damage
— either positive or negative — which is
done to the minds of children who are forced
to attend a school where the particular
mental differences and difficulties are not
understood, we have put the whole burden
upon the child and called him stupid.
Mrs. Morgan's work is an effort to direct
Introduction â–¼
the minds of teachers to this point. No one
can read this book without feeling the abso-
lute necessity of breaking into smaller
sections this great group of backward children,
in some such way as the physician has sepa-
rated the group of sick persons into those
with digestive disorders, nervous disorders,
circulatory disorders, etc. Unless the phy-
sician can localize the disturbance from which
his patient is suffering, he is boimd to do
experimental work, and by a process of
elimination seek to establish principles of
treatment. Similar work with backward
children will result in groups of those with
disorders of attention, deficiencies of voli-
tional control, etc. To carry the analogy
a step further, — ^it is reaUzed that the phy-
sician has to reckon with personal idiosyn-
crasies when he prescribes medicine. All
who need a stimulant cannot take quinine.
What is the practice in treating backward
children? We assume that what the back-
ward child needs is not different mental
stimulants, but more of the same thing. As
vi Introd-uction
a consequence, we have classes for backward
children where the bare bones of reading,
writing, and arithmetic are offered. The
effort is made to give these children the
elements of education without any knowledge
of their ability to get control of and to use
the particular elements offered. We never
question the ability of a child to learn to
read; we assume that each child is able to
learn long division. When they fail to do
either, we never question the appeal made by
the teacher in her work. The type of thing
the child remembers is seldom known; the
way in which he attends, the relation be-
tween his emotional life, his power of imagi-
nation, and his volitional control almost
never modify his school experiences. We
have taken for granted and trained ac-
cordingly the most complex mechanism in
man, — the human mind. We have haggled,
and are still haggling with its intricate yet deli-
cate, instinctive, perceptive, emotional, and
volitional power. The teacher of some day
will look back upon us as we look upon the
I ntrodviction
vii
soothsayers and astrologers of a much earlier
time. As they did, so we are doing, ladling out
our notions and our cure-alls. As they treated,
all bad health was alike ; so, generally speak-
ing, is our treatment of all mental defects the
same. The children of the muses are not fed
on the ambrosia of the gods. The school treat-
ment of the leaders of men to be, does not dif-
fer one iota from that of the man with the
hoe; the same kind and amount of food is
given to all children in the elementary school.
The teacher of the future, not too far distant,
will want to know — not that the child is back-
ward, but in what particular area of his mental
fimctioning he is strong, and where weakness
dominates. She will want to know how he is
to be trained ; what sense appeal to make ; she
will ask that an educational prescription be
given in order to save her own strength and
to conserve the pupil's self-respect.
ELIZABETH E. FARRELL,
Superintendent of Ungraded Classes^
New York Public Schools,
December i, 191 3.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
ly yi ENTAL analysis looks to a future when
^'^ teachers will so understand every
child's mental structure that his whole educa-
tion will be directed to the fortifying of his
weak points and the development of his
tendencies.
The present analysis is applied to back-
ward children because they are one of the
most insistent of present school questions.
It is an effort to persuade teachers and
parents, in spite of a hide-boimd educational
system, to study the children that interest
them as individuals, and to recognise their
facilities and tendencies as intelligently as
they do their habits and manners.
I first noticed the existence of a practi-
cally imtouched field by observing the
gap between the psychologists and neu-
rologists, on the one hand, who are intent
ix
X Preface
on the mental side upon classifying, and on
the other hand the teachers who are eager
for expert knowledge but unable to use its
results. Accordingly an experimental clinic
was conducted for two years in New York
City, in which children were tested and
then trained in the particular deficiency
which that examination had revealed.
The material offered in this book is based
upon the verifications of that clinic. I have
been unable, among the mass of writing upon
psychological and pedagogical subjects, to
find any work which analyses mental oper-
ations into their component parts and builds
a scheme of training upon that diagnosis.
It is with full consciousness, therefore, both
of the scope and the novelty of my subject,
that I present it, and in considering my
temerity I beg to express a warm appreci-
ation of Miss Farrell's insight and encourage-
ment.
B. S. M.
New York,
1913.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE BACKWARD CHILD ....
On the border-line between normal and feeble-
minded — Common manifestations of his
character — Too general for precise treatment
— Futility of perxjetual schoolroom drilling — A
specific cause lies at the root of retardation —
Mental analysis the key to the original flaw —
Nature of tests and training.
CHAPTER II
PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS ....
Four primary processes of a child's mind —
Sense impressions the first to touch a baby's
mind — Later the recollection of sense impres-
sions gives the child his first comprehension
of distinctions, as between wrong and inexpedi-
ency — Eye-mindedness and ear-mindedness —
Synthetical and analytical turns of mind — Types
of attention — Association channels — Memory
— Abstraction — Expansive faculties of imagin-
ation, reasoning, expression.
xi
xii Contents
CHAPTER in
GIVING THE TESTS . . . .22
Tests characterised — The child must be unaware
that he is being tested — The teacher's attitude
— ^Typical instance of an examination — Deduc-
tions — Training prescribed.
CHAPTER IV
TYPES OF ATTENTION .... 38
Attention works in three ways — (i) Homogene-
ous attention, viz., attention to one thing over
a period of time — Tested by crossing out letters
— Under-nourishment — Fatigue — The child's
method is indicative — Cases in point — Devices
in training — (2) Simultaneous attention, viz.,
attention to several things at the same time —
Can be conscious or unconscious — ^Tested by
pictures on a card — Listlessness as a symptom
illustrated — (3) Disparate attention, viz.,
attention to two or more things over a period
of time — Tested — Rhythm utilised.
CHAPTER V
MEMORY 54
Memory works in three ways — (i) Automatic
memory, the faculty of remembering a series of
impressions — Tests described — Deductions —
The teacher must be spontaneous — ^Rhythm
used in training automatic memory — ^Alertness
and accuracy the result of training — (2) Volun-
tary memory, the faculty of consciously form-
Contents xiii
ing associations — It is apt to fall into disuse
— ^The test must avoid the school habits —
Trained by original rhymes memorised by the
child as he makes them — Illustration — (3)
Retentive memory is more largely physical
than the other types — Forgetfulness must not
be confused with poor retention — ^Three types
of attention and three types of memory sum-
marised and differentiated.
CHAPTER VI
THE MENTAL ROLE OF SENSATION . . 78
Mental sensitivity is independent of physical
constitution — ^A specialist's report should pre-
cede the present examination — Colour sensitiv-
ity tested for dulness or inaccuracy — Sound
sensitivity tested from the same point of
view — ^A tendency to visual- or ear-mindedness
determined by questions — Touch, smell and
taste tested for their absolute and relative
keenness — Sense training is valuable in young
children but later is chiefly used as a basis in
special work.
CHAPTER VII
INFLUENCE OF PERCEPTION ... 98
Perception is to be understood in the technical
sense of ideas in the process of formation —
Illustration discloses two possible points of
view, analjrtical and synthetical — Both forms
of perception are seen in newspaper stories — ^A
tendency to one or the other largely determines
xiv Contents
PAGE
a child's aptitude in studies — ^Analytic percep-
tion tested by anagrams and questions —
Synthetic perception similarly tested — The
teacher must determine which form comes
more readily.
CHAPTER VIII
ASSOCIATION CLUES . . . .1X5
Laboratory tests show the physical basis of asso-
ciation — Law of association — Tests used to
detect criminals are not successful with children
— Other methods of testing suggested — Ex-
amples of lists show various types of associa-
tion to be noticed — Such deductions have little
independent value but must be taken in con-
nection with the rest of the examination.
CHAPTER IX
ABSTRACTION AND ARITHMETIC . . I29
Abstraction translates sensation into ideas — ^The
difficulty of children in casting aside concrete
helps in arithmetic makes an analysis of
abstraction practical — Tests disclose whether
poor number sense or faulty abstraction is the
trouble — Devices in training are suggested.
CHAPTER X
IMAGINATION AND INVENTION . . I36
Invention is the applied form of imagination
— The feeling for drama is usually the first
Contents xv
development of imagination — Imagery or
similising is another form— Tests must bring
out which type of imagination prevails —
Children who show no facility of imagination
proper may work better within limits — ^The
type of imagination shown is more apt to
govern the child's course in life than in the
schoolroom.
CHAPTER XI
JUDGMENT AND REASONING . . -149
The causal connection of these two faculties
explained and illustrated — ^The first develop-
ments are elementary form and elementary
aesthetic judgments — Tested by squares of
paper and Binet and Simon caricatures —
Picture puzzles and catch questions are more
searching tests — ^The degree of certainty and
accuracy is to be observed.
CHAPTER XII
EXPRESSION AND RESPONSE . . .157
An apparently dull child has perhaps some pre-
ferred channel of expression — Tests in free-
hand drawing, talking, and writing described
— Technical excellence not considered here —
If the child shows no preferred means of
expression he can be stimulated by training in
illustrating stories according to his own ideas —
To stimulate expression is to create ideas —
Response cannot be tested but must be observed
by the teacher — Lines of observation suggested.
xvi Contents
CHAPTER XIII
TEST INTERPRETATION . . . . I72
Outline of the tests and summary of the deduc-
tions — Certain supplementary tests to deter-
mine actual f eeble-mindedness — ^An example in
detail illustrates the method of diagnosis —
Materials needed for the examination — ^Tabular
form for record.
CHAPTER XIV
METHODS OF TRAINING . . . -197
The examination shows that no cure-all is possi-
ble — ^The remedy must fit the disease — Sugges-
tions in training devices under the head of each
faculty.
CHAPTER XV
TYPICAL BACKWARD CHILDREN . . 209
Five examples of backward children, their diag-
nosis and treatment given as narratives — ^The
types illustrate, (i) slow rate of development, (2)
nervous intractability, (3) sullen intractability,
(4) listlessness, and (5) hysteria.
CHAPTER XVI
RECURRENT PROBLEMS .... 233
The mental processes in reading and writing
analysed in their simplest form — ^This analysis
accounts for confusion of letters, for inversion.
Contents xvii
i. e., reading "was" as "saw,'* and for the
inability to read what has just been written —
A similar analysis is applied to arithmetic to
explain inversion of figures and the difficulty of
adding a column of figures correctly but writing
the answer wrong — The stimulation of initia-
tive should underlie all training.
The Backward Child
CHAPTER I
THE BACKWARD CHILD
THE backward child is often a subtle and
baffling personality. In the long list
of school problems there is none more diffi-
cult than his, none which yields more grudg-
ingly to direct attack. He stands on the
border-line between the normal and feeble-
minded, and the way in which his mental
shortcomings are treated may determine
whether he joins ultimately one class or the
other. To put it in another way, the back-
ward child must be brought up to the mark;
otherwise he will grow to maturity as an
incompetent or as a potential criminal.
The work of breaking down the barriers
2 TKe BacK^w^ard CKild
which hedge him in is the peculiar business
of the schools. Teachers in every large
city know how many backward children
are presented to them each year and how
seriously they clog the classes. At the same
time, the hope of the backward child lies
in the teacher, for he comes to school at that
period of his life when his mind is most
readily shaped.
Backwardness manifests itself in diffuse
and indefinite ways — a complete and ap-
parently impenetrable dulness, irritability
in small matters, inability to master this
subject or that. Teachers know that con-
tinual drilling has very little effect. The
child is as dull, as irritable, as uncompre-
hending as he was before. In other words,
general measures do not reach general effects.
But as a matter of fact, in the make-up of
every backward child a specific cause lies
at the root of his retardation. This cause
can be determined ; it can be directly attacked,
and its removal means the clearing up of the
general haze.
The BacKward CKild 3
The direct way to make such a determina-
tion is by mental analysis. Certain intel-
lectual faculties come into play with every
thought and every act; consequently the
clearness of the thought and the effectiveness
of the act depend upon the individual
quality of these faculties and on the harmony
with which they work together. The im-
pression which the teacher gathers is the
result of this co-ordination or lack of it, and
to imderstand the case she must analyse the
factors in the co-ordination.
Mental analysis is not a substitute for
any of the agencies in the educational field.
It does not duplicate the work of the neuro-
logist or medical specialist because it is con-
cerned with mental diagnosis. Physical
building up improves a child's general mental
action just ^s rain stimulates the yield of the
earth, but it does not cure a special mental
fault any more than the rain supplies the
peculiar chemical elements which the ground
needs. Neither does the scheme of mental
analysis set forth in this book touch in any
4 TKe BacKward CKild
way the purposes of the Binet and Simon
tests, which are aimed solely at classifying
backward children, and which throw no light
on individual peculiarities and offer no sug-
gestions for cure. Nor does this mental
analysis meet at any point the system of the
Dottoressa Montessori, which is devised for
the development of young children largely
through sense stimulation.
The principle of mental anal^'-sis, in striking
at the cause and not the effect of backward-
ness, is applied in the use of simple tests
which the child performs and in so doing
reveals to the teacher the unconscious
mechanism of his mind. The scheme of
mental analysis set forth in the following
pages equips the teacher with the means to
find out where a child *s mind is at fault.
While it uses some of the classic Binet and
Simon tests, the point of departure is en-
tirely different. The tests have been selected
as bringing into play the mental faculties
which must be analysed, and in selecting
them it has been a special point to avoid any
THe BacKiJvard CHild 5
device which would illustrate the effect of
the school training on the child rather than
the native ability of the child himself.
Laboratory conditions and the measurements
of the neurologist's examination are dis-
pensed with because the sHght hitch in the
working of a child's mind is too subtle to be
detected by charts or pulse tests. But the
examiner, sitting casually with the child as
if playing with him, makes a comparative
determination as to which faculties are weak,
without attempting the misleading exact-
ness of a percentage.
The psychological basis of the tests is
explained in the following chapters in as
much detail as is practical. Experiments in
training are described as foundations which
a teacher can build upon and broaden.
These experiments were made upon in-
dividual children in daily periods of three-
quarters of an hour, and they were made by
untrained persons working under precise
directions based upon the showing of the
examination. The results show that just
6 THe BacK^ward CKild
as a person's physical health is improved by
using a prescription of medicine which takes
very little time as he goes about his affairs,
so a mentally backward child can be brought
up to par by daily attention to the actual
root of his trouble. Three points are espe-
cially important: the training must be in-
dividual, or the effect will be blurred; it
must be for a short period at a time or it
will be neutralised by fatigue; and all the
devices used must be focused on the de-
ficiency revealed by the examination.
So essential is this last point that we
revert to the independent value of the
examination itself. Even when a teacher
can not arrange for special training, she
gains immeasurably in her general class-
work if she understands her backward
children in the light of mental analysis
and can bring an appreciation of each child's
mental peculiarities to bear upon the persist-
ent types of backwardness.
CHAPTER II
PSYCHOLOGICAL BASIS
IMITATION is a child's self-defence. He
^ very soon finds out that most grown
people like him best when he makes himself
a pattern of something which they already
have in mind. He is praised when he
measures up to their standard, and he is
blamed when he falls below it. So at the
first suspicion of trouble, he takes refuge
in conforming to a mould created by what
other children demand and his elders pre-
scribe.
If the normal child has to shelter himself in
a common standard, the slightly abnormal
child feels a much greater impulse to do so.
He is dimly conscious, it may be, of some
difference between him and other children
which is not in his favour. If he were actually
7
8 The BacKward Child
feeble-minded, he would not be sensitive
enough to know where he missed or what he
should imitate. If he were entirely normal,
there would be times when his sense of mental
and physical fitness would give him assurance
to be individual. But if he is on the border-
line between the feeble-minded and the
normal, he is always wanting to be like
others and so hide from observation and
possible disapproval.
The teacher who would persuade the child
into showing how his mind actually does its
work, must not allow the possibility of
praise or blame to enter the child's mind,
for the instinctive defence of imitation makes
him, for the sake of approval, do everything
as he thinks the teacher wants it instead of
following his natural impulse. And in order
that the teacher should have the observing
rather than the critical attitude she must
approach the examination with the idea of
bringing into play certain mental activities
which are fundamental to the thought pro-
cesses of everyone, whatever his degree of
PsycKolo^ical Basis 9
intelligence. In other words, she must
have a clear notion of the psychological
structure which she is about to explore.
The following outline of mental faculties
and their relations to each other will serve
as a basis to the more detailed discussions
of psychological analysis.
We will regard the child's mind as having
roughly four primary processes with which
to work:
Sense impressions ;
Recollections of sense impressions;
• Association channels which partly deter-
mine and partly are determined by them; and
Abstraction processes by which impres-
sions are translated into ideas.
And as the child grows, these fundamental
faculties, by increasing and interworking,
elaborate into
Imagination,
Reasoning,
Expression.
Sense impressions — sights and sounds and
touches, and, of slightly later development,
10 TKe BacKward Child
tastes and smells — are the first impressions
that the world makes on a baby. He sees
a rattle and he hears it go, and his idea of
the rattle becomes a combination of how it
looks and sounds. His idea of his milk
bottle is a combination of the long white
thing that he sees, and his empty feeling
going away.
And then later he gets more elaborate
combinations. If he throws a stone at a
window, it makes a noise as well as when he
throws it at a board fence; but the first
noise means breaking the window, and that
in its turn brings some unpleasantness which
he comes to understand as punishment.
But one of the first abstract differences
that a child learns is the difference between
wrong and inexpediency. It is impossible
to delude a child into believing that punish-
ment is as inevitable as other consequences.
For instance, if a child climbs on a chair and
stands too near the edge, the chair tips over
and he gets a fall. But not for a moment
does he confuse the fall, which he sees must
PsycHological Basis ii
happen under those conditions, with the
punishment he gets for breaking a window,
which he cannot help seeing is quite unrelated
to the cast of the stone and the smash of the
glass. So the first moral idea is the differ-
ence between wrong and inexpediency, and
the lessons of inexpediency bite deeper,
because Nature's laws work more inexorably
than those of man.
In fact, so convinced was Rousseau that
left to herself Nature would bring up a child
with perfect wisdom, that he based a whole
system of education on letting a child bear
the consequences of his own acts. Do not
punish the child for breaking the window;
let the window stay unmended, and let the