London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1920
Annual report of the Council, 1920. Vol. III. Public Health
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100
Mental tests
of deaf
children.
The marked feature is the increase in the proportion of cases due to epidemic meningitis following
the prevalence of this condition in past years.
With a view to obtaining some criteria for estimating the mental level of a young deaf child,
Dr. A. C. Williams applied some mental tests to children at the Hugh Myddelton school for the deaf,
and also at the Homerton school for the defective deaf. Fourteen tests were chosen which did not
call for any speech in response and could be applied without the subject having any power of
lip-reading, knowledge of the finger alphabet, or ability to read written questions.
The following table shows the number tested and the proportion at each age who passed. The unit figure indicates that all succeeded, the decimals, the fraction of successes.
| Test. | No. tested. | Ages. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | ||
| Repetition of 2 digits | 56 | 1 | .6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Repetition of 3 digits | 55 | 0 | .25 | .75 | .8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Repetition of 4 digits | 50 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .6 | 1 | .5 | 1 | 1 |
| Copying a square | 63 | .8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Copying a diamond | 55 | .4 | .6 | .8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Counting 4 objects | 42 | .8 | .75 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Counting 13 objects | 54 | .3 | .67 | .75 | .9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Use of adaptation board (1/2) | 57 | .3 | .5 | .75 | .66 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Use of adaptation board (complete) | 47 | 0 | .2 | 0 | .35 | .86 | .66 | 1 | 1 |
| Fitting triangles (patience) | 50 | .6 | .6 | .5 | .7 | .86 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Reproduction of design (A) | 44 | - | - | .5 | .84 | .86 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Reproduction of design (B) | 44 | - | - | .5 | .38 | .64 | .5 | .8 | 1 |
| Tying bow knot | 50 | 0 | .5 | 1 | .85 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
In visual memory span the deaf were markedly inferior, e.g., the deaf child of 7 could only
reproduce 3 digits while a hearing child of that age succeeds with 5. This is of interest as an illustration
of how greatly the hearing subject re-inforces his visual memory by slight articulatory movements.
With the rest of the series in the table the results showed no consistent difference from those obtained
with hearing children. In the test with the Norsworthy form board the essential feature is the speed
of performance; the deaf gave records which were slower than those quoted for American children
who are not deaf. This may be due to a failure on the part of the deaf to appreciate that speed was
desired. The average times in seconds were:—
Age 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11
Deaf 50.3 46.4 37.5 32.5 29.3 23.7 21.6
Hearing 30.3 27.5 25.4 20.7 19.2 16.6 15.9
From these tests as a whole there seems little difference between deaf and hearing children
whereas it has been suggested that the deaf show a considerable retardation on the Binet scale as a whole.
This appears to affect more particularly those tests which involve verbal imagery and may be due partly
to lack of ability readily to comprehend the wishes and thoughts of others, or to express themselves
with facility and, partly, to a paucity of experience and associations.
TABLE I.
Number of Children inspected 1st January, 1920, to 31st December, 1920.
(a) ROUTINE MEDICAL INSPECTION, 1920.
| Age. | Entrants. | Intermediate group. | Leavers. | Total at routine medical inspection. | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3. | 4. | 5. | 6. | Other ages. | Total. | 8 | 12. | 13. | 14. | Continuation school group. | Total. | Elementary schools. | Special schools. | |||||
| Boys | 3,387 | 10,835 | 20,319 | 5,950 | 1,484 | 41,975 | 29,477 | 27,529 | 5,558 | 641 | 6,956 | 40,684 | 112,136 | 1,069 | ||||
| Girls | 2,725 | 9,224 | 21,202 | 5,947 | 1,569 | 40,667 | 29,282 | 27,095 | 6,092 | 608 | 6,416 | 40,211 | 110,160 | 854 | ||||
| Total | 6,112 | 20,059 | 41,521 | 11,897 | 3,053 | 82,642 | 58,759 | 54,624 | 11,650 | 1,249 | 13,372 | 80,895 | 222,296 | 1,923 | ||||
| (b) SPECIAL INSPECTIONS. | (c) TOTAL NUMBER INSPECTED. | |||||||||||||||||
| Special cases. | General* examinations. | Re-examinations. | Number of individual children examined. | |||||||||||||||
| Boys | 27,726 | 13,826 | 140,789 | |||||||||||||||
| Girls | 28,845 | 13,119 | 139,694 | |||||||||||||||
| Total | 56,571 | (26,945) | 144,876† | 280,483 | ||||||||||||||
* These cases are children seen as infectious disease contacts examined en masse, individual records being kept only
when some defect is noted for treatment or observation. These cases are not included in the total number of children
examined.
† Excluding 13,765 children see??? at both first and second reinspections.