Mentally defective children / by Alfred Binet and TH. Simon ; authorized translation by W. B. Drummond ; with an appendix containing the Binet-Simon tests of intelligence by Margaret Drummond and an introduction by Alexander Darroch.

  • Alfred Binet
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Mentally defective children / by Alfred Binet and TH. Simon ; authorized translation by W. B. Drummond ; with an appendix containing the Binet-Simon tests of intelligence by Margaret Drummond and an introduction by Alexander Darroch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    defective fail to adapt themselves to school life by reason of their mental deficiency, the ill-balanced fail owmg to their inco-ordination of character. In the second case, as in the first, there is a similar defect of adaptation, and the best proof that this defect is present in a particular child is the continued evidence of several years, the testimony of different masters, who declare that, with the best will in the world, the}'' cannot break in the recalcitrant child to rule. But it must be recognised that the appreciation of want of balance is more delicate, more subjective, than that of retardation. The latter is indicated by a definite incontrovertible fact—the insufficiency of instruction. On the other hand, lack of balance has only a slight effect on a child's intelligence and his success in his studies. It is indicated to outsiders especially by the complaints of the masters. And the latter, to tell the truth, may be led to exaggerate a little, especially if they see a means thereby of ridding themselves of children with whom they have not much sympathy. We shall see in a little, when we speak of the role of the inspector, how the latter must check the statements of the head-masters. Distribution of the Pupils in a SchooL—To put into practice the principle which we have just formulated, a circular is distributed to the schools asking the head- masters to arrange the children in each class according to age upon a blank table furnished to them. The work is easy, and the return should be required in a maximum period of eight days. Within this ]Deriod twenty elemen- tary schools in Paris supplied us with the information which we asked for through their inspectors. We give one of these returns, which we shall examine briefly, insisting only on the essential jjoints. We ask, then, that on the table, of which a blank copy is supplied, the head-master shall give the number of children who on October 1—that is to say, the first day of the session—were of such and such an age—e.g., six or
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