The author terms her process "mental analysis" and says it differs from the
Binet and Simon tests in that they are merely to classify children, and her
method discovers peculiarities and also gives the training necessary to
bring the child up to normal. She gives a psychological basis for her work
which will be surprising to many readers because of its great divergence
from the usual psychological treatment. The child's mind is considered as
having four primary processes, namely: (1) Sense Impressions, (2)
Recollections of Sense Impressions, (3) Association Channels (4) Abstraction
Processes. As the child grows older these are elaborated into Imagination,
Reasoning, and Expression. Attention is of three kinds: (1) Homogeneous
Attention or concentrating, which consists in attending to one thing for a
period of time; (2) Simultaneous Attention or observing, which consists in
giving attention to a number of things at once; and (3) Disparate Attention,
or giving attention to two or more things over a period of time. Memory may
be (1) Automatic, (2) Voluntary, or (3) Retentive. The function of the
tests is to determine just which one of these processes are weak or strong
and discover a method of education which is suited to the individual. Other
mental processes, such as sensation, perception, abstraction, and judgment
are discussed, and an interesting treatment distinguishing between the
analytic and synthetic type of mind is given.
One of the most important parts of the book is the discussion of the way in
which the tests are given. She insists that the relation of the child and
the examiner be very personal and informal and that the process be varied as
much as possible in order to prevent crystallization. Many of the tests are
the same, or much the same, as those of Simon and Binet, but the greatest of
liberty is taken in adapting them to the particular case. Much use is made
of conversation, puzzle-pictures and other little friendly means by which
the personal characteristics of the child may be learned. After this is
done, the proper training of the child is to be selected and the effort made
to bring him back to normality, for which purpose, some quaint and
interesting devices are used. One case given is that of a little girl whose
senses of sound and form were defective and who therefore could not learn
her letters. These letters were pasted on the keys of a piano and she was
taught to play a piece with one finger, meanwhile chanting over the names of
the letters as they were struck. In this way her sense of sound was trained,
she learned her letters and gained ability to learn more and faster.
Abstraction may be strengthened by having the child measure distances with a
rule, first calculating the distance with his eye. The power of association
may be made stronger by having the individual sort words or pictures which
are pasted on slips of cardboard; he is to arrange them according to meaning
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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