CHAPTER ELEVEN CHILD H
Child H, at the time this account is written, [1] is a girl of 17 years, but the data on record terminate with her tenth year. She was born March 25, 1924, in New York City. Her parents have kept a diary of her development, and an aunt with special educational interests has made various observations and records of her and has also familiarized herself with the parents' records.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
Her grandparents on both sides were Austrian Hebrews. The maternal grandfather was a rabbi and did some writing. The maternal grandmother is said to have shown some unusual mental alertness, a surprising and almost untutored aptness in numerical calculation. At 65 years of age she learned to play bridge very well, and in her old age continued to show lively interests.
Parents. H's father is a newspaper reporter. He attended college for three years. He was 29 when H was born. Her mother is a high school graduate and before marriage was a stenographer. She was 28 when H was born.
PRESCHOOL HISTORY
H is reported as a healthy child, of average stability. She is a first-born child. She began to walk at 14 months and to talk at 16 months, according to the parents. She cut her first tooth at 9.5 months. H did not learn to read until after she was 4 years old. At this age she was fond of play and her playmates were children ranging in age from 3 to 9 years. Her favorite recreations were sedentary—drawing, painting, mosaic blocks, and the like.
At 2 years of age she was given a box of wooden beads for stringing. "She very quickly learned the art of holding the string in the right hand and the bead in the left, and became very much absorbed in her work. Suddenly she looked up and said, 'Beads, onions.'" The record continues: "Alternatives seem a preferred mode of expression at present, so that she wants 'soup, not peas'; her hands are 'clean, not dirty.'"
At 2 years 10 months, upon seeing a picture of a little girl mailing a letter, she told herself the following story:
Once upon a time there was a little girl and she wanted to mail a letter. She went out and looked for a letter box and found one near the drug store. She mailed the letter and it came to Wawarsing and Sheve received it." (Sheve was an aunt living at Wawarsing.)
Storytelling and writing plays and verses became a favorite pastime in later childhood.
At this time H had imaginary companions. "For several days Mr. Parkey (an invented character) was her very close friend. She played with him, conversed with him, loved him, killed him, and brought him to life again." She also invented new names for her dolls—Flossie became "Woozie" and Alice became "Katch."
At 2 years 11 months she asked the meaning of the words "excitement," "guarantee," and "neatness." She constantly asked about the meaning of words. She sang songs to herself, such as "Go into the next room, where there's no steam heat." At this age she asked how babies are made. "Where do they come from? How do they come out? Why? Will a baby grow in my belly when I'm a big lady?"
At 3 years she wanted to know if people "wear out" like brushes and combs. She purchased for an imaginary house "an extrola," "a gate-legged table," "a gate-legged bookcase," and "gate-legged chairs."
At 3 years 0 months, waiting for her cereal to cool, a lump of butter put into it is slowly melting. H remarks, her eyes on the butter, "Now it's a baby—baby died—no more baby."
And noting the snow, she said, "My muffler is as white as the snow." She looks again at snow and muffler. "No, it's a different white."
There is on record a vocabulary compiled by the mother when H was 3 years old (May 23, 1927). It was based on a count of "all the words used by H regardless of whether she could tell exactly what they mean. Tenses of verbs are given but no plurals of nouns." The list includes about 1400 words, approximately classifiable as follows:
Nouns 745 Pronouns 17
Verbs 401 Prepositions 15
Adjectives 161 Conjunctions 5
Adverbs 63 Interjections 9
MENTAL MEASUREMENTS
March 24, 1927. Age 3 years. Stanford-Binet examination given by Dr. Ella Woodyard, with the following results: Mental Age, 5-6; IQ, 183.
March 8, 1930. Age 5 years 11 months. Stanford-Binet examination given by Leta S. Hollingworth, with the following results: Mental Age, 8-9; IQ, 148. At this time H was in Grade 1A.
April 21, 1933. Age 9 years 1 month. Stanford-Binet examination given by Alice M. Holmes, with the following results: Mental Age, 17-2; IQ, 189.
At this age she was in Grades 5A and 6B, P.S. 206, Manhattan, and is described as "a quiet and unassuming person, but most responsive. She would like to be with children her own mental age, for then she would get a mental stimulus and a social life that seems to be denied her now."
In this same month (April, 1933) the New Stanford Achievement Test: Advanced Battery: Form V, given by Alice M. Holmes, showed scores as follows:
Paragraph Meaning 109 Geography 105
Word Meaning 103 Physiology and Hygiene 90
Dictation 87 Arithmetic Reasoning 94
Language Usage 91 Arithmetic Computation 110
Literature 91 Average score 97.8
History and Civics 98
September 11, 1934. Age 10 years 6 months. H was given Army Alpha, Form 8, by Leta S. Hollingworth. Her score was 135 points, which is median for college sophomores. H was then in Grade 7B. It is noted that "This result is just what would have been predicted from tests made by us when H was 3 years old."
November 9-17, 1934. Age 10 years 7 months. During this week H was given a number of tests by Leta S. Hollingworth, with the following results:
Stanford-Binet: Mental Age: 18-6; IQ, over 174, "unmeasured
by the test."
Intelligence Scale CAVD
Levels I-M Score 394
Levels M-Q Score 392
Coöperative General Science Test for College Students: Score,
17; Percentile, 11.
PHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS
March 8, 1930
H NORM
Standing height 47 inches 45.2
Sitting height 24 inches
Weight 48.25 pounds 41.7
April 21, 1933
H NORM
Standing height 54.5 inches 51.1
Weight 66.5 pounds 57.5
INTELLECTUAL ABILITY
There is a collection of many records showing H's reactions and opinions from infancy up to the age of 9 or 10. These contain apt comments, sage remarks, and discriminating judgments. They reveal a lively intellectual curiosity and a socialized attitude.
H's parents have preserved copies of poems and short plays that H has written. A collection of the "best ones," selections written between 5.5 and 8.5 years of age, covers seventeen typewritten pages. Among them are the following.
If I had Aladdin's lamp, you see,
I'd give one wish to you and me.
And then we'd wish for every toy,
That every child should have some joy.
Age 5 years 6 months
On the clover fields he roams,
In the mountains,
At the homes,
Makes the trees and flowers grow,
And manufactures pure, white snow.
—God—
Age 8 years 6 months
There was an old soldier
He was all dressed in brown
This soldier had an honor—
He was known all over town.
This old soldier had a misfortune,
That was known too.
His beard it covered his medal,
And people couldn't see through.
Age 8 years 6 months
There are in the collection brief stories, continued tales, short verses, longer poems, dialogues, and plays divided into scenes, with appropriate stage instructions.
From after the tenth year there is an undated poem, submitted to the examiner September 19, 1939, by the aunt of H. This poem, entitled "The Gospel of Intolerance," won a prize in a poetry contest. Of it the aunt writes:
It was fished out from the wastebasket by my sister. To the question why she had thrown away the "Gospel of Intolerance," H answered that she did not think it was worth keeping, that she had no particular idea in mind when writing it, and that she was just practicing on the typewriter and thought of the phrase "They said no," and then the rest just came by itself. Incidentally, H has never read the Bible.
"The Gospel of Intolerance" occupies a full single-spaced typewritten page. It begins as follows:
The Gospel of Intolerance
They said no
And who shall but hear the whisper of command shall without
question don his uniform and go out upon the field of
death in obedience
And who shall lie asleep in the sun must be roused
And who shall sit in lavender chairs eating of the earth shall
drop his spoon
And who shall lie with the woman shall turn from his passion
And all this shall be done without words as the answer to the
whisper of that which is calling and that which is in
command
And he who shall stuff his ears with cotton must needs be
twice called
[1] By H. L. H.