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In no case was an associated condition accepted as the cause of backwardness unless it was shown
that the child was kept back a year or more owing to that particular condition. For instance, the object
was not to find how many children were suffering from short sight, but to find in how many cases short
sight was the cause of backwardness. Again, the first heading in Group I. of the classification covers
a large and definite class of children whose backwardness was probably caused by earlier physiological
dulness, and who, at the time of the examination, had just crossed the line separating the bright and
dull, or who had actually become sharp. This late mental development generally occurs about 10 or
12 years of age in Standard II., III. or IV., and often appears as the satisfactory result of much labour
and individual attention on the part of the teacher. In this group are also included not more than
5 per cent, of all backward children who did not go to school till late in life, or who possibly from some
flaw in correlation between the two departments had been left another year in the infants' school.
The group of physical defects is dealt with in some detail on p.
Group II., consisting of the dull and backward children, includes all those who are a drag on
the rest of the class, and make very little progress in the standards.
Mental incapacity has been divided into three heads; the first two do not come into consideration
here, as they should not be in elementary schools, or only in special classes. The remainder constitute
a large proportion of the dull children and suffer from so-called physiological or natural dulness,
not secondary to any known cause.
Of the 600 children examined, 370, or 61.7 per cent., were placed in Group I. as intelligent children
and capable of deriving benefit from instruction; while of the remaining,230,or 33.3 per cent., were placed
in Group II. as, in addition to being a hindrance to the progress of the class and a tax upon the teacher,
they are not capable of deriving material benefit from the ordinary routine of the elementary schools.
With regard to Group I., the 370 intelligent but backward children, it was found that 41 per
cent, boys and 34 per cent, girls had been dull children in their infancy or in the lower standards,
while 27 per cent, boys and 26 per cent, girls were backward as the result of prolonged or frequent
absences, unavoidable or intentional, and of these, frequent change of school accounted for nearly half.
Physical defects of general or special organs accounted for 9 per cent, of the boys and 8 per cent, of the
girls, and not more than 3 per cent, of the boys and 4 per cent, of the girls were backward directly on
account of social or moral disadvantages of their home life or their own incorrigibility. The remaining
20 per cent, boys and 28 per cent, girls were grouped under various combinations of these causes.
Of the dull children, the mental condition has not been fully analysed yet, but of the 230 cases,
67 boys, or 58 per cent., and 50 girls, or 43 per cent., were naturally dull without any circumstance to
account for it, while, in addition,5 per cent, of the girls were recommended for transfer to Special Classes.
Only 4 boys (3.5 per cent.) had any serious physical defect, which was found chiefly as general delicacy
in 16 per cent, of the girls. Of both boys and girls, 6 per cent, were dull owing to absence from school
through ill-health or other reasons, and only 3 boys (2.6 per cent.) and 5 girls (4.3 per cent.) suffered
almost entirely through moral or social disadvantages. The remaining 34 boys and 28 girls had their
dulness and stupidity much aggravated either bv physical defects or irregular attendance.