MENTAL ABILITY AND ACHIEVEMENT
2. Intelligence of speech-defective children with physical
handicaps.
3. The incidence of speech defects among children known to be of below average intelligence.
Carrell analyzed a school population of 1,174 children.127 He found that the speech-defective children, taken as a group were lower in average intelligence than the general population. Craig surveyed and analyzed a population of 692 first, second, third, and fourth grade children enrolled in four Negro schools in Augusta, Georgia for the incidence of speech defects and factors of intelligence, reading abilities, grade placement, and socio-economic background.128 He found that in regard to intelligence, at the fourth-grade level the children with severe speech problems tended to fall below the non-defective group.
Among physically handicapped children with speech defects the cerebral palsied and the deaf show a higher proportion of those mentally below average than does the total population. Stanton after surveying the literature on the intelligence of crippled children, noted that the cerebral palsied group showed the lowest mean scores.129 Most objective findings, even when allowances are made for the nature of the motor disabilities, indicate that a disproportionately large number of cerebral palsied children are also mentally retarded. In a study, for example, Wolfe found that 26 percent of the subjects of his study
were so limited in intelligence that they had to be considered
uneducable.13°
Deaf children as a group fall below the mean intelligence level of hearing children. This general observation holds when either
individual or group tests are used.131
Hard-of-hearing children were found to fall slightly but significantly below
the normal hearing on tests of verbal intelligence. A slight but not significant difference was also found in a non-language test.1
Oleron, using the Raven's Matrices Test, concluded that the deaf were
equal to the hearing in concrete mental functioning but inferior to them in abstract intelligence.1
EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT
Orthopaedically Handicapped
It has already been pointed out that
a physical disability by itself need not necessarily constitute
a mental deficiency. Nevertheless investigations have shown that, in many cases, the educational development of the physically handicapped
children is retarded by their disability.134 A cerebral
palsied child, for example, may be exceptionally intelligent, but he is erroneously taken to be an idiot because his receptive faculties like seeing or hearing are defective, or because the expressive mechanism of speech and scribbing is faulty.
Crippled children appear to be limited in mental
capacity and educational achievement because their disabilities have
been unduly allowed to restrict the range of their experience. Thechild who is crippled in early life and who has to spend his
precious years of schooling in bedor in hospital will have lesser
opportunity to develop mental abilities, unless a special effort is made to
provide appropriate education for him. He has no opportunity of
mixing with others of his own age or to explore his environment owing to his
physical limitations. The child who cannot talk until he is five, thechild who cannot walk until he is seven and the child who cannot write until heis nine has years of experience and self-expression to make up. Behind him lies strenuous training for activities of daily living which has
ultimately enabled him to arrive at the initial stage of education.
This training has eaten up
the time which a normal child
uses for learning other things.
Consequently the disabled child lags behind
his counterpart in
educational .achievement 135 The magnitude of this developmental lag will depend on the extent to which
hyperactivity, inability to focus, confusion due to unscreened auditory and
visual background stimuli, perseveration, poor conceptualization, and emotional disturbance interfere with the child's Iearning.136
Dunsdonl37 observes that neuromuscujarly impaired children may be expected to function at a level 10 to 15 points lower than their
estimated intelligence quotients.
123
/
Quite understandable is the interference in learning caused by slow;
inaccurate movements of hands and eyes, both in independent functipn and in school activities requiring co-ordinated motion. Physical difficLilty in writing as well as the undue expenditure of energy in turning pages and changing body position will impede school progress. The presence of brain damage will have direct influence on intellectual functioning as well as frustrations in interpersonal relationships and in striving for unattainable goals.
Visually Handicapped
Telford1 and Sawrey note that visual defects of the type found in some 25 to 35 per cent of school children, most of which are not sufficiently severe to require special educational programmes, do not
seem to affect educational achievement. While hyperopia
(farsightedness) and astigmatism (irregularity of the cwvature of the cornea) are associated with less than normal progress in reading, myopia (near sightedness) is associated with above-normal progress in reading (Farris, 1936; Eames, 1955, .1959).The first report on the use of an achievement test with the blind was published in 1918 by Hayes, who used a reading test with blind pupils. In 1927, Maxfield published her Adaptation of Educational Tests for Use with Blind Pupils,139 in which she gave directions for the administration of parts of the Stanford Achievement Tests and the Gray Oral Reading Check Tests. Since then many achievement tests
have been used and adapted for use with the blind, such as the Metropolitan Achievement Tests, the Sones-Harry High School Achievement Test, and the Myers-Ruch High School Progress Test.
The Stanford Achievement Tests in their various forms have been used most widely in schools for the blind. The College Entrance Examination Board also offers its tests in braille for those blind students who plan to enter college. Hayes found two basic changes necessary in adapting achievement tests for use with blind pupils: (1) greater detail in preliminary instructions; and (2) an increase of three times the time allowance given for seeing pupils.140 This ratio was indicated as desirable in a study by CaldwelI.141
In general the results of studies on the achievement of blind pupils revealed that grade by grade children acquire about as much school information as seeing children do, with the exception of arithmetic in which their scores are generally lower. Lowenfeld noted
a drop in the achievement in literature and in history in the curves showing results of the New Stanford Achievement Test in seven schools for the blind.142 He explains this drop in subjects which per se should not present particular difficulties to the blind, by the slowness of braille reading which confines the blind pupil to a much smaller amount of reading than his seeing peers. He stresses in this connection the importance of using talking books which enable blind students to read about three times as fast as their average braille reading rate.
Although blind pupils show grade by grade about the same achievement as seeing pupils, Hayes points out that "blind children average at least two years older than seeing children in the same grades; so comparisons by age, either chronological or mental, demonstrates their retardation."143 Lowenfeld reports on the age grade relationship for 481 pupils in four grades of twelve schools for the blind.1" In the third and fourth grades the blind showed an over-age of 2.5 years, in the sixth grade of 2.9, and in the seventh grade of 2.8 years. Various factors are responsible for this age-grade retardation, such as environmental influences resulting in lack of opportunity for observations, slower acquisition of knowledge due to lack of sight and slower braille reading. No recent data have been published on age- grade relationships, but it may be possible that findings in this field would show a change due to the increased use of aural sources of information, such as the talking book and the radio, and to the greater integration of blind children with seeing children.
It must ofcourse be recognised that whatever is said about blind pupils as a group does not permit any conclusion concerning the achievement of individual blind students. Many of them finish high school in competition with seeing students in public schools at an equal age and excel even in such subjects as arithmetic, geometry, and physics.
The most valuable source of information on tests and testing techniques for use with blind pupils and adults is A Manual for the Psychological Examination of the Adults Blind,145 which also includes information concerning special considerations of a blind client's history and source for securing testing material.
Some incidental facts relevant to the school achievement are:
1. The cause of blindness and age of becoming blind are unrelated to school achievement (Hayes, 1934).
125
2. Age of school entrance is negatively correlated with school success (Hayes, 1934).
3. Blind children have particular difficulties in arithmetic (Nolan 1959).
Acoustically Handicapped
Early studies of educational achievement by means of standard tests revealed that children in schools for the deaf were retarded by three to five years (Reamer146, Day, Fusefeld and Pintner,147 Hall148).
The amount of retardation increased with age, so that older deaf children were more retarded than younger children. Day, Fusefeld and Pintner reported that the educational quotient (Educational age divided by chronological age) was 71 for 12 year-olds and 67 for 15 year-olds. Others have reported EQ's of 79 and 89.149
More recent investigations have supported the conclusion of the earlier work.16° There is general agreement that greatest retardation occurs in understanding the meaning of paragraphs and words. Least retardation is found for arithmetic computation and spelling.
Students applying for admission to the preparatory class at Gallaudet College (U.S.A.) who probably represent the best students graduating from the residential schools for the deaf, have a mean age of eighteen years and nine months and obtain a median grade of 9.2 on the Stanford Achievement Test. This level is attained by the average fifteen year-old child (Fusefeld, 1954). This group of students, probably highly selected in terms of educational achievement, is retarded by three to four years. The educational retardation of deaf children may be partially the result of the excessive amount of school time required for them to learn to speak and their subsequent language deficiencies.
The development of improved methods for teaching these children, and the increasing number of children who acquire language in the home, nursery school and kindergarten prior to beginning their academic education may help reduce the extent of their educational retardation 151
Speech Handicapped
The consensus of evidence shows that even excluding the mentally retarded and the cerebral-palsied, children with speech defects are relatively retarded in school (Berry and Eisenson, 1963). Social
class differences can hardly account for the educational retardation of - children with speech defects just as they cannot do so in the eae of intellectual retardation, it would seem thatspeech defects constitute a greater handicap in formal learning than they do in acquiring the more general intellectual skills and informationrequired for satisfactory intelligence-test performance,152
Footnotes
I.
M.V. Lee, "The Children's Hospital: A Survey of theIntelligence of Crippled Children," Journal of Educational Research, )(Xlll(1931), 164-167. cf. William M. Cruickshank, op. cit., p. 324.
2. P. A. Witty and M.B Smith,"The Mental Status of 1480 Crippled Children,"
Educational Trends, 1 (1932) pp. 22-24. ibid.
3. R. Pintner, J Eiserrson, and M. Stanton, The Psychology of the Physically Handicapped, (New York: Appleton-Century.Crafts
nc, 1941) p. 270, ibid.
4. R. G. Gordon, J.A.F. Roberts, and R. Griffiths, "Does Poliomylitis Affect Intellectual Capacity?" British Medical
Journal, 11(1939), pp. 803- 805., ibid.
5. Fernald and A. H. Artitt, "Psychological Findings
Regarding Crippled Children,"
School and Society, XXI (1925), pp. 449-452. Ibid 6. James F. Garret, "Cerebral Palsy", Psychological
Aspects of Physical Disability, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, Rehabilitation Seivice Series No. 210
Washington D.C.p.60.
7. Charles W. Telford, James M. Sawrey, op.cit., pp 369-370.
8. A. Heilman, "Intelligence in Cerebral Palsy," The Crippled Child, XXX(1952), p. 12. ci. William M Cruickshank. op.cit., p. 320.
9. In M. H. Fouracre and E. A. Theill, "Education of Children with Mental Retardation Accompanying Cerebral Palsy," American Journal of Mental Deficiency, LVII (1953), cf. William M. Cruickshank, ibid.
James F. Garret, Psychological Aspects ofPhysical Disability, p.62.
11. Ibid.
12. William M. Cruickshank, op. cit. p. 321.
13. James F. Garret, op.cit. p.62
14. R. M. Taibl, An Investigation of Raven's
"Progressive Matrics" as a Tool for the Psychological Evaluation of Cerebral Palsied
Children (Doctoral Dissertation), University of Nebraska, 1951. cf. William M. Cruickshank, op.
cit. p. 322.
15. James F. Garret. op. cit., p. 62.
127
16. Ibid. p. 63.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid. p. 64.
19. E. A. Doll, "Psychological Significance of Cerebral Birth Lesions, "Amencan JournalofPsychology, XLV(1933), pp.444-452; also E.A. Doll, W.M. Phelps, and R.T. Melcher, Mental Deficiency Due to Birth injuly (New York Macmillian
Company, 1932), William M. Cwickshank. op. cit. p. 326.
20. W. Penfield and T. Rasmussen, The Cerebral Cortex of Man (New York:
The Macmillian Company, 1950). Ibid.
21. K. Goldstein, Brain Injuries Due to War (New York: Grune and Stratton, 1942). Ibid.
22. W. C. Haistead, Brain and Intelligence (Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1947); and "Preliminary Analysis of Grouping Behaviour in Patients with Cerebral Injury by the Method of Equivalent and Non-Equivalent Stimuli,"
American Journal of Psychiatry, XCVI (1940), pp.1263-1294.Ibid.
23. Z. Piotrowski, "The Rorschack Inkblot Method in Organic Disturbances of the Central Nervous System," Journal of Neivous and Mental Diseases, LXXWVI (1937), pp. 525-537. Ibid.
24. M. R. Harrower Enckson, "Personality Changes Accompanying Cerebral Lesions," Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, XLIII (1940), pp. 859-890.
Ibid.
25. E. Meyer and M. Simmel, "The Psychological Appraisal of Children with Neurological Defects," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, XLII pp.
193-205, cf. William M. Cruickshank, ibid.
26. C. B. Cotton, "A study of the Reactions of Spastic Children to Certain Test Situaons," Journal of Genetic Psychology, LVIII (1941), pp. 27-44, cf. William M. Cruickshank, ibid.
27. E. E. Lord, Children Handicapped by Cerebral Palsy (New York: Common Wealth Fund, 1930), cf. William M. Cruickshank, ibid.
28. S. B. Sarason and E.K. Sarason, The Discriminatory Value of Test of Clinical Psychology, 11(1949), pp. 141-147.cf. William M. Cruickshank. ibid.
29. The reports of their research which have appeared in numerous professional joumals are to be found in summary form in A.A. Strauss and L. Lehtinen, Psychopathology and Education of the Brain Injured Child (New York: Grune and Stratton, 1947) cf. William M. Cruickshank, Ibid.
30. J. E. Dolphin , A study of Certain Aspects of the Psychopathology of Cerebral Palsy Children (Doctoral disseration, Syracuse University, 1950) Ibid, p.
327.
31. J. E. Dolphin and W.M. Cruickshank, "Pathology of Concept Formation in Children with Cerebral Palsy," American Journal of Mental Deficiency, LVI (1951), pp. 390-392, Ibid. p. 332.
128
32. K. Goldstein and M. Scheerer, 'Abstract and Concrete Behaviour: An Expenmental Study with Special Tests,' Psychological Monographs, LIII (1941). pp. 1-151. Ibid.
33. Z. S. Kiapper and H. Werner, 'Developmental Deviations in BrainInjured (Cerebral-Palsied) Members of Pairs of Identical Twins.' The Quarterly Journal of Child Behaviour, II (July, 1950), pp. 288-313.Ibid. p. 333.
34. Charles W. Telford, James M. Sawrey. op.cit. p. 371.
35. William M. Cruickshank, op. cit. p. 334.
36. A. A. Strauss and H. Werner, "Disorders of ConceptualThinking in the Brain Injured Child,' Journal of Ne,vous and Mental Diseases, XCVI (1942), 213. Ibid p. 334. p.
37. W. M. Cruickshank and J.E. Dolphin, "The Educational Implications of Psychological Studies of Cerebral Palsied Children,' Exceptional Children XVIII, (1951), pp. 1-18 Ibid. p.336.
38. A. A. Strauss, "Typology in Mental Deficiency,' Proceedings of American Association on Mental Deficiency, XLVI (1939), pp. 85-90. Ibid.
39. Ibid. P. 336.
40. Cruickshank, "The Multiply Handicapped Cerebral Palsied Child,' Ibid p.338.
41. Molly P. Harrower, 'Psychological Factors in Multiple Sclerosis', James F.
Garrett. op. cit. p.75.
42. Morton A. Seidenfeld, "Psychological Problems of Poliomyelities', Ibid.p.33.
43. Usha Bhatt, op. cit. pp. 247-248.
44. Charles W. Telford, James M. Sawrey, op.cit. p. 314
45. S. P. Hayes, "Alternative Scales for the Mental Measurement of the Visually Handicapped,' Outlook for the Blind and the Teachers Forum X)(XVI (October 1942) pp. 225-230. Berthold Lowenfeld, 'Problems of Children with Impaired Vision', William M. Cruickshank, Psychology ofExceptional
Children and Youth. p. 229.
46. 5. P. Hayes, 'Measunng the Intelligence of the Blind' in Blindness.P.A.
ZahI (Princeton. N.J. Princeton University Press 1950) pp. 141-173. lbid.p.
228.
47. S. P. Hayes, First Regional Conference on Mental Measurements of the Blind (Watertown, Mass: Perkins Institution 1952). pp.3-11—ibid.
48. 5. P. Hayes, Contributions to a Psychology of Blindness (New York: American Foundation for the Blind, 1941) pp. 90-98. ibid.
49. Ibid. p. 229.
50. P. M. Halder, op. cit. p. 33.
129
51. S. P. Hayes, Alternative scales for the Mental Measurement of the Visually Handicapped," William M. Cruickshank, op.cit. p. 229.
52. Charles W. Telford, James M. Sawrey, op. cit. p. 315.
53. Ibid.
54. Berthcd Lowenfeld "Psychological Problems of Children with Impaired Vision", William M. Cruickshank, op. cit., p. 220.
55. Ibid. p. 221.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid p. 222.
58. Ibid. pp. 221 -222.
59. Ibid. p .222.
60. T. Heller, Studien Zur Blinden-Psychologic (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann 1895). Ibid. p. 223.
61. W. Steinbergh, Die Raumwahrnehmung de Blinden (Munich, 1920) ibid.
62. Ibid. p. 224.
63. Ibid.
64. Ibid.
65. S. P. Hayes, Contributiontoa Psychology of Blindness, (New York: American Foundation for the Blind 1941) pp. 16-48. ibid.
66. Berthold Lowenfeld "The Blind" James F. Garrett.. op. cit p. 186.
67. Ibid.
68. R. H. Wheeler and T.D. Cutsforth, "The Role Synaethesia in Learning,"
Journal of Experimental Psychology IV (1921) pp. 448-468. William M.
Cruickshank, op. cit. p. 225.
69. P. H. Wheeler and T.D. Cutsforth, 'Synaethesia and Meaning" American Journal of Psychology, XXXIII (1922) pp. 161-184. ibid.
70. R. H. Wheeler and T.D. Cutsforth, "Synaethesia in the development of the Concept.' Journal of Experimental Psychology, ibid.
71. W. Voss, Das Farbenhoren bei Erblndeten (Hamburg: Psychologisch- Aesthetische Forschungsgesellschaft. 1930). ibid. p. 226.
72. ibid.
73. Ibid. p. 227.
74. Charles W. Telford, James M. Sawrey, op. cit., p. 315.
75. R. V. Merry "Adapting the Seashore Musical Talent Tests for use with Blind
130
Pupils,' The Teachers Forum, III March,
1931). PP. 15-19. William M.
Cruickshank, op. cit. p. 227.
76. H. Caritrill and G.W. Aliport, The
Psychology of Radio (New York Harper &
Brothers, 1935), ibid.
77. Edna S. Levine, "The Dear, James F.
Garret, op.cit., Pp. 137-138.
78. E. S. Levine, An Investigation into the
Personaliry of Normal Deaf Adolescent Girls, (Doctoral Dissertation, New York University,
1948. University Microfilms No. 1156), William M. Cruickshank op. cit. P. 131.
79. V. Lyon et al., 'Survey of the Illinois Schools for
the Dear, American Anna/s of the Deaf, 78 (1933), PP. 157-175, bid,P. 132.
80. K. MacKane, "A comparison of the Intelligence of Deaf and Hearing Children', Teachers College Contributions to Education, No. 585 (New York: Colombia University Press, 1933), ibid.
81. H. Amoss, Ontario School Ability
Examination (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1936), ibid.
82. E. Peterson, "Testing Deaf Children with Kohs Block Designs', American Annals of the Deaf, 81, (1936), Pp. 242-254, ibid.
83. S. Roth, "Survey of the Psychological
Examination given by Dr. Stella Bowers', May, 1937, West Virginia Tablet. 61, 1938). ibid.
84. A. Zeckel and J. van dor Kolk, "A
Comparative Intelligence Test of Groups of Children Born Deaf and of Good
Hearing by Means of the Porteus Test."
American Anna/s of the Deaf 1939, PP. 114-123, ibid.
85. W. J. Morrison, "Ontario School
Ability Examination," American Annals ol the Deaf, 85 (1940), pp. 184-189. ibid.
86. D. F. Capwell, "Perforrrjance of Deaf Children on the Arthur Point Scale", Journa/ of Consulting Psychology i 945). pp.91-94. Ibid.
87. E. H. Johnson, "The Effect of AcademicLevel on Scores from the Chicago Non-Verbal Examination for Primary Pupils,'
American Anna/s of the Deaf, 92(1947), PP. 227-233, ibid.
88. P. Oleron. "Conceptual Thinking of theDeaf,' American Annals of the Deaf, 98 (1953) pp. 304-310, ibid.
89. J. Drever and M. Collins, Performance
Tests of Intelligence (Edinburgh;
Oliver and Boyd, 1928), ibid.
90. H. Schick and M. Meyer, "The Use of the
Lectometer in the Testing of the Hearing and the Deaf,' American Anna/s of the Deaf,
77(1932) PP. 292-303, ibid.
91. H. Schick "The Use of a Standardized
performance Test for Pre-School Age Children with a Language Handicap,'
Proceedings of the lnternationaj Congress on the Education of the Deaf (Trenton,
1933) Pp. 526-533, ibid.
131
92. H. Bishop, "Perfomiance Scale Tests Applied to Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children," Volta Review, 38 (1936). pp. 484-485, ibid.
93. S. A. Kirk, "Behaviour Problem Tendencies in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children," American Annals of the Deaf, 83 (1938), pp. 131-137. ibid.
94. A. Streng and S.A. Kirk, 'The Social Competence of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in a Public Day School" American Annals of the Deaf, 83 (1938) pp. 244-254 ibid.
95. H. S. Lane and J. Schneider, "A Performance Test for School Age Deaf Children." AmericanAnnals ofthe Deaf, 86 (1941) pp. 441-447, ibid.
96. E. M. L. Burchard and H. R. Mykiebust, "A comparison of Congenital and Adventitious Deafness with Respect to its Effect on Intelligence, personality and social maturity, part I: Intelligence." AmericanAnnalsof the Deaf, 87
(1942), pp. 140-154. ibid.
97. D. L. Amin, "Differences Among Deaf and Hearing Children," Indian Journai of Psychology, 21(1946), pp. 91-92. ibid.
98. H. S. Lane, "The Relation between Mental Test Scores and Future Achievement," Proceedings of the National Forum on Deafness and Speech
Pathology (St. Louis, 1947), ibid.
99. J. Macpherson, A Comparison of Scores of Deaf and Hearing Children on (he Hiskey Test of Learning Ability and on Performance Scales (Master's Thesis, University of Washington, (1945), Ibid.
100. J. Macpherson and H.S.Lane, 'A Comparison of Deaf and Hearing on the Hiskey Test and Performance Scales," American Annals of the Deaf, 93 (1948). pp. 178-184, ibid.
101. E. S. Levine, op. cit. ibid.
102. J. C. Reamer, "Mental and Educational Measurements of the Deaf,"
Psychological Monographs, 29 (1921), No.132, ibid.
103. H. E. Day, I.S. Fusfeld, and R. Pintner, A Suivey of American School fo, the Deaf (Washington, D.C. National Research Council, 1928), ibid.
104. E. Peterson and J. Williams, "Intelligence of Deaf Children as Measured by Drawings" American Annals of the Deaf, 76 (1930), pp. 242-254, ibid.
105. M. Shirley and F.L. Goodenough, "A Survey of Intelligence of Deaf Children in Minnesota Schools," AmericanAnnals ofthe Deaf, 77(1932) pp. 238- 247, ibid.
106. V. Lyon, et at, opcit. ibid.
107. K. Mackane, Ibid.
108. A. Streng and S. A. Kirk, Ibid.