Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and DevelopmentHollingworth, Leta Stetter
Science
Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and Development
Hollingworth, Leta Stetter
Gifted children; Stanford-Binet Test
K's maternal grandparents are of Jewish origin, both born in
America. The grandfather was a teacher, the grandmother was "in
business." This grandmother was the seventh of twelve children.
The youngest of these is said to be "a brilliant woman of executive
ability." The eldest, at the age of 79, "reads all the papers,
compares notes, etc." One of the brothers in this group was a
physician, another a lawyer. A cousin of K teaches in Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and was called during the First World
War for special work in mathematics. This man's sister is an
arch[a]eologist married to an archaeologist. Three of K's
grandmother's sisters are teachers; another is an artist.
No mentally deficient or totally incompetent persons are known
among the ancestors.
K has two siblings, brothers younger than himself. Both are
reported to be "bright."
_Father_. K's father is an electrician, a graduate of high school
and of Cooper Union. He was born in Antigua and was 32 or 34 years
old when K was born. One of his sisters is a high school teacher
in Brooklyn; another is a nurse; another, a stenographer.
_Mother_. K's mother is recorded as of American-Jewish origin. She
was 30 or 31 years old when K was born. She is a graduate of high
school and of Hunter College (A.B.), New York City, and holds
a license to teach music in the New York City schools. At the date
of records she was actively in service, teaching general subjects.
She had taken three maternity leaves of absence.
EARLY DEVELOPMENT
K's parents rate him as a child with excellent health, sturdy
but nervous. He may have had measles, but there were no other
childhood illnesses except occasional colds. When tiny, he would
wake up with "great imaginings." At a little older age he would
cry "with high tension"; "he no longer does this."
According to parents, K cut his first tooth at 6 months. He began
to walk at about 20 months and to talk at about 2 years. He learned
to read at about 3 years. "While still a baby in his carriage he
could read 'ice' and he would read the billboards. Before 3 he
would sit down with a book and read."
At 5 years of age K wanted to discriminate in meaning between
"bluff," "joke," and "fake." He is "untiring in his attention to
books. He will sit with an American history, an English history,
and Godey's _History of American Beginnings in Europe_ (which goes
into Greece and Rome) and the dictionary around him, and will
work at these for hours."
At the age here reported K had no playmates. His younger brothers
played by themselves. K did not like to play. His favorite
recreations were reading and transferring pictures, and consulting
almanacs and dictionaries.
He has a passion for accuracy. He has as yet made no collections,
and has no pets. He has no imaginary companions and no imaginary
lands.
MENTAL MEASUREMENTS
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