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146
Annual Report of the London County Council, 1911.

The results vary very closely with the age, though certain features in which the influence of training
plays a more important role show better results than the others. Such, for example, are the naming of
colours and the recitation of the days of the week. Binet and Simon rate the intellectual status of
a child as the oldest age for which he can pass all the assigned tests but one, but to the level thus
determined a year may be added for every five tests passed which belong to a grade above the year in
question. They consider he whose final rank is three years or more behind the normal for his age
is mentally defective. The results of the present series were—
Up to the normal for his age 1 (age 7)
One year behind 1 (age 8)
Two years behind 5
Three years behind 16
Four years behind 5
Five years behind 4
Six years behind 1
The children who were only a little behind presented the difficulty from the educational standpoint,
they had not made or were unable to make any progress in reading and writing, which rendered
it practically impossible to continue their instruction in large classes. Professor Binet has recently
proposed a new series, or rather a re-adjustment of the ages for the tests in the former, and now considers
that all these should be passed to give the intellectual age. Dr. Goddard, of New Jersey, has
also recently published a list based on the foregoing, but modified according to his extensive experience,
but by either of these schemes all the children would be appraised at five years, and if the test for that
age at which all failed were omitted all would again fail with one of the tests appropriate to the age
of eight, even if capable of passing the intervening grades. There can be no doubt of the high value
of these tests, but on the one hand they take up too much time for general employment at admission
examinations, and on the other hand it is very essential that the child should be in a thoroughly natural
condition, which is not always the case on such an occasion.
These tests are suitable to test the progress of the children in a special school, but
though they may show the child's intellectual status they do not necessarily indicate his fitness
for instruction under the conditions at present prevailing in the ordinary elementary schools.
This may be an argument for a re-consideration of the methods of teaching backward children since the
tests have received an international approval as an index of general intelligence, though modifications