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37
In the earlier years the average mental age is about half the chronological age, but the retardation
is progressive, the mental progress slowing down at an earlier period in the defective.
In the higher ages there is evidence of actual deterioration, changes of the nature of simple
dementia being superimposed on the original disability. Under the Mental Deficiency Act the chief
problem has been to assess the fitness of the individual for an environment in the world, or, in the words
of the Act, to determine whether he needs care and control for his own protection or the protection of
others. Under the Education Acts the problem is one of fitness for the more limited environment of
school life and of assessing the probabilities that the individual will benefit from the educational facilities
at his disposal. The data derived from graduated intelligence tests are probably of greater value in
this connection since educability in the school room is probably less limited by emotional factors than is
success in the world at large.

The tables show that those deemed ineducable in special schools are retarded to the equivalent
of from half to two-thirds of their actual age, and from the age of nine upwards they show few signs of
increased intelligence.
Those admitted to special schools are, on the average, retarded to an equivalent of between onethird
and one-half of their actual age, and show a definite progress at about half the normal rate. That
is to say, in two years the average special school child makes an advance that the normal child would
have made in one year, but mental progress ceases at an earlier age.

Those given a further trial in the ordinary school are retarded, or it may be assumed they would
not have been nominated by their teachers for examination, but this retardation has been less than a
third. For example, nearly all the children at nine years of age showed a mental age over six. The
advance in this group also was at a rate rather over half the normal.
There is a certain degree of overlapping between the groups due to the fact that the decision
rests not only on estimates of mental age from actual examination, but on the attainments in reading,
writing and the like. So long as ability to read school books is a postulate for attendance at ordinary
elementary schools, some provision in special schools is needed for those unable to learn to read or write,
even though otherwise their mental processes differ but little from those of their fellows.
The relative scholastic abilities of the Mental Deficiency Act cases as compared with those dealt
with under the Education Acts show that there is a concentration at the ends of the scales; the educable
cases being in school unless other circumstances intervene to necessitate segregation.