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sexual significance, but rather is of the nature of self display or intentional insult, and sex precocity
although morbid is often unassociated with congenital defect. Immorality brings many older girls to
the notice of the Mental Deficiency Act Committee, and the following table shows the relation between
their mental and chronological ages.
Actual age.
Mental age.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
12 — 1 — — — — — — — —
13 — — — — — — — — — —
14 — — 1 — 1 — — — — —
15 — — 1 1 1 1 — — — —
16 and over 8 41 39 62 42 18 19 8 — 5 8 — 5
The psychological examination of the subject shows the existence of mental retardation or of
temperamental defect and enables the degree of retardation to be broadly expressed in terms of years.
When this is considerable the subject deviates so far from the average of his fellows that he may be
provisionally regarded as defective. If this is accompanied by a history of school or social inefficiency
the social postulates of the law are in large measure fulfilled. If, in addition, he shows some signs of
imperfect physical development in the form of stigmata and there is a history of deficiency in other
members of the family, or some evidence of personal causal factors, such as meningitis, birth injuries
or a neuropathic family history, the diagnosis of mental deficiency is simple.
All such, however, are not often present, mental retardation and social inefficiency are essential,
but slight accessory evidence suffices in the absence of other explanations of the retardation or inefficiency.
Mere backwardness may be an explanation should there be a history of frequent absence or of
change of schools, more particularly if this has been accompanied by ill health. In this event, however,
the educational deficiency is likely to be much more marked than the failure at mental tests. The
backward child shows no retardation in tests involving little verbal imagery or dealing with home
as apart from school experience. At older ages they do well at the manual tests and mazes. In
the event of doubt it is the practice to return a child of school age for a period (or further period) at an
ordinary school, and then to re-examine him, when it should be found that if he is merely backward he
has made considerable progress at a rate corresponding to more than half that of a normal child. The
true defective under such conditions although making perhaps some advance does so at less than half
the rate of the normal.
Physical defects such as partial blindness or deafness or the condition known as aprosexia
associated with adenoids may lead to retardation, so that if such conditions are present the subject must
be placed under treatment and re-examined after this has been effected. If these are present the
tests involving the affected senses are notably inferior.
Malnutrition and debility or fatigue may lead to poor responses at examination. They can in
a measure be excluded by the history and by deferring report until the condition has been remedied.
They may, however, accompany real defect in which case the mental retardation shown will be
considerable.
Neuroses and psychoses can be distinguished by the history, the presence of special symptoms,
by the scattering of the response in the graduated series of tests and by the nature of the responses to
word association tests.
Epilepsy may be difficult to decide upon but a common sign is the marked variability of the subject's
response from time to time. When the history shows that fits have occurred from early life, and
mental retardation is present, it is usually safe to regard the subject as so far defective as to require
special education.
In all cases irregularity of development is characteristic; slight progress in some one line with
failure in many others being the usual history. Delay in talking and walking, in sitting up or in
becoming clean is valuable evidence which may be given full weight in a doubtful case.
Physical appearances may reveal the presence of some particular variety of deficiency such as
infantilism, microcephaly or paralysis. Where there are coincident physical disabilities, the resulting
influence on mental output has to be assessed and allowed for.

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