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155
The Binet Simon tests have hardly been in use in
England long enough for judgment to be passed as to their
satisfactoriness or otherwise. Modifications will doubtless
have to be made from time to time, and more control experiments
will have to be made with normal children. The tests
for children under nine or ten years appear more satisfactory
than those for older children. The eleven and twelve-yearold
tests are decidedly difficult, and it is probable that a
number of normal children leaving an ordinary elementary
school would fail to pass them.
Anyone familiar with French children will realise that
the gift of verbal self-expression is more developed with
them than with corresponding English children, and it is
precisely in those tests which involve self-expression that
the Binet Simon questions appear somewhat too difficult
for the English child. In this connection it was interesting
to hear the experiences of Dr. Boulanger, who visited the
Leinster Road School in December with Dr. Shuttleworth.
Dr. Boulanger has specialised in mental work in Brussels.
He said that there the Binet Simon tests are more accurate
for the Belgian French children than the Belgian Flemish,
who, like the English, are lacking in powers of expression.
The method of dealing with the Educable FeebleMinded
child is satisfactory, but such is not the case with
children who are either worse or a little better. When a
child is found at the first examination to be non-educable—
either idiot or imbecile—or after trial at a special school is
found to be "not further educable," it has to be referred
to the Middlesex County Council, as have various other
groups of defectives, such as "not educable in a special
school without detriment to the other children." At present
the County has not the means of dealing with such children,
and there is a number awaiting institutional treatment.
The state of the large class of children certified after
examination to be "Dull and Backward" is also