| | | | | | Totals | 12 | 31 | 91 | 68 | 69 | 271 ---------------+-----+--------+----------+---------+----------+-------- We shall now give some hints as to the method of procedure. Reading is a test which requires only a minute. One chooses a text which the children can understand easily, preferably a lively piece with dialogue, so that one may judge more easily whether the pupil can read with expression. One should avoid prolonging the reading for more than forty-five seconds, for a young child tires quickly and reads worse at the end of a minute than at the beginning. Instead of contenting oneself with judging that the child reads well or ill, which does not mean very much, it is a great advantage to adopt these five grades of reading, which are easy to distinguish with a little practice, and are less subjective than might be imagined, for two judges generally give the same mark. On referring to the scale, it will be noticed that children quickly pass from syllabic reading to hesitating reading, but the passage from hesitating to fluent reading is slower and more troublesome. One will notice this difficulty in practice. By way of example let us quote our judgment of the grades of reading in the case of some backward children, and our consequent estimates of the degree of retardation. We draw them from our own observations made in a class for defectives in Paris. -------+--------------+-----------------------+--------------- Name. | Age. | Grade of Reading. | Retardation. -------+--------------+-----------------------+--------------- Coch | 14 years | _Hesitating_-fluent | 6 years Grio | 10-½ " | Hesitating-fluent | 2-½ " Sev | 13-½ " | Hesitating-fluent | 5 " Coff | 11 " | Syllabic-hesitating | 4 " Ro | 12 " | Syllabic-_hesitating_ | 5 " Ostro | 12-½ " | Hesitating-_fluent_ | 4 " -------+--------------+-----------------------+--------------- It will be noticed that in spite of their advanced age none of these children have attained the fluent grade of reading. In marking the reading one is sometimes at a loss owing to the absence on the scale of an exact description. Thus little Coff is judged syllabic-hesitating. The scale does not contain such a combination, which ought to figure between the syllabic reading of the infant class and the hesitating reading of the elementary class, first year. One may calculate the retardation either by admitting the existence of this intermediate term, or by marking Coff's reading "hesitating." The choice is of little practical importance, since its effect is a variation in the amount of retardation of only six months.