CHAPTER SEVEN CHILD D
Child D is a boy, born March 9, 1910. [1] He was first described by Terman, who tested him in 1917. D, like E, was brought to the attention of the writer by the principal of the Horace Mann Kindergarten (Teachers College, Columbia University) as being a child of remarkable endowment. He was at that time 7 years 4 months old and had a Mental Age of 13 years 7 months, with an IQ of 184 (S-B).
FAMILY BACKGROUND
D is descended from Russian Jews in the paternal branch and from
English Jews in the maternal branch.
Father. D's father immigrated to America at an early age. He is a high school graduate and was a student of engineering but abandoned these studies in the third year to do newspaper work, and later entered the advertising business in a large city. His leisure is spent in writing, and he has published a number of books, including three novels and a philosophical drama dealing with religion. His first book, a novel, was published when he was 21 years old. He was 28 when D was born.
Mother. D's mother went to school for only a few weeks and has been largely self-taught. Before marriage she was statistician and registrar in a large philanthropic organization. She has published stories, reviews, and poems, and a book on education. She has always taken part personally in the education of D. She was 26 years old when D was born. D is an only child.
Noteworthy relatives. Noteworthy relatives beyond the first degree of kinship include the following: a chief rabbi of Moscow, who was exiled for aiding the Nihilists; a distinguished lawyer; a man who by his own efforts became a millionaire; a concert pianist; a composer and virtuoso; a writer; and "a relative decorated for science in Poland."
The maternal great-grandfather was a famous rabbi who compiled and published a Jewish calendar covering a period of 414 years. This calendar contains, in regular order, the exact period of every new moon's appearance, the sabbaths, festivals with scriptural portions for each, and the equinoxes of the solar year according to the prescribed and authorized Jewish laws and corresponding to dates in the common era. The tabulations have been carefully compiled from various works of ancient rabbinical astronomers, with annotations in Hebrew and English.
This rabbi was also the great-grandfother of the four first cousins of D, whose intelligence quotients have been taken, and who rated 156, 150, 130, and 122, respectively. A second cousin in the maternal line yielded at the age of 6 years an IQ of 157.
PRESCHOOL HISTORY
D cut his first tooth at 4 months of age. He could say words at 8 months and talked in sentences at 11 months. In November, 1910 (8 months), he said "little boy" when his shadow appeared on the wall. D could stand, holding to chairs, at 9 months of age, and he walked alone at 11 to 12 months. At the age of 18 months, while sitting on his mother's lap as she sat before a typewriter, he learned to read by looking at the letters. The records kept by the mother indicate that he "learned to read and count in 1911." One such record reads, "October 11, counts all day long."
At 8 months of age D strung in succession 5 yellow and 5 red balls and then began on blue, when the activity was interrupted. In March, 1912, he was using words to express relationships, such as "will" and "shall" (correctly), "but," "and," "my," "mine." At 2 years 6 months his vocabulary (incomplete) was 1690 words.
D's earliest memory goes back to 2 years of age, when he saw a rat and thought it was "a little brownie." An example of the quality of the questions asked by D in the first 36 months of life is one he asked in October, 1911 (19 months): "Has every door two knobs?" "Why?" His mother reports: "He was always asking unexpected questions."
This child was not placed in school at the usual age because he did not fit into the school organization. At the time he should have entered kindergarten D could read fluently and could perform complicated arithmetical processes. His intellectual interests were far beyond those of even the highly selected children of a private kindergarten. Therefore, his parents kept him out of school and obtained the companionship of other children for him by sending him to a playground.
D was first seen by the present writer [L. S. H.] while he was attending this playground, in the year 1916-1917. It is very interesting to note how D made social contacts with the other children while pursuing his own interests. For instance, he published a playground newspaper called "The Weekly Post." [2] He composted, edited, and typed this paper, issued at intervals, and it had a regular playground circulation.
TRAITS OF CHARACTER
No faulty traits of character have been ascribed to D by parents or teachers interviewed. He was rated for character by Terman's method under Terman's direction, with a result of 1.93 from parents' estimates and 1.90 from teachers' estimates (the median score, for comparison with average children, being 3.00). D is thus rated by parents and teachers alike as well above the average in character. The desirable traits most often mentioned are refusal to lie, loyalty to standards once adopted, readiness to admit just criticisms, unselfishness, and amiability.
MENTAL MEASUREMENTS
General intelligence tests of D show the following results:
DATE BIRTHDAY STANFORD- ARMY ALPHA THORNDIKE TEST
AGE BINET POINTS FOR FRESHMEN
OF D (POINTS)
MA IQ D Norm D Norm
Aug., 1917, 7-4 13-7 184
Jan. 29, 1921 10-11 Passed all 185 —
for Super. (Form 5)
June, 1922 12-3 Adult. 106 70-80
It is thus seen how greatly D suprasses the average child in mental tests. In the five years which have elapsed since D's first test there has been no tendencey to become mediocre. At the age of 7 years he showed an IQ of 184; at the age of 11 years he exceeded by a wide margin on Army Alpha the median score for postgraduate students in first-rate universities; at 12 years he far exceeded the median score of college freshmen on Thorndike's test for that group. The validity of these scores is consistently borne out by the school history.
PHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS
The following measurements, as of May, 1922, were made in the gymnasium of the high school attended by D: [3]
WEIGHT (LBS.) HEIGHT (IN.) HT.-WT. COEFF.
D NORM D NORM D NORM
76.0 82.8 64.0 57.7 1.19 1.44
D's health has always been excellent and no physical defects are known to his parents. He is rated as very stable nervously. His slenderness has been rated as a defect by one examiner; although he greatly exceeds the norm in height, he falls below in weight. He is therefore very tall and slender in appearance, which is characteristic of his father and uncles.
MISCELLANEOUS CHARACTERISTICS
Diversions. At the age of 7 years D's favorite amusements were skating, "Mechano," reading, playing ball, writing, tabulating, solitaire, chess, and numerical calculation in all its forms. As development has proceeded, he has continued most of these recreations, turning more and more, however, to games of intellectual skill. He likes other children and likes to be with them; he has established relations with them by editing newspapers for them, teaching them about nature, and the like. Play in the sense of mere purposeless sensorimotor activity has not been enjoyed by him.
Imaginary land. From the age of about 4 years to about the age of 7, D was greatly interested in an imaginary land which he called "Borningtown." He spent many hours peopling Borningtown, laying out roads, drawing maps of its terrain, composing and recording its language (Bornish), and writing its history and literature. He composed a lengthy dictionary—scores of pages—of the Bornish language. The origin of the words "Borningtown" and "Bornish" is not known. It seems possible that D's imaginary land may have arisen out of the mystery of being born.
Gift for music. D has had piano lessons for several years, and he has displayed remarkable ability to deal with the mathematical aspects of music. A sample is shown of his musical composition, illustrating his understanding of musical symbols and his ability to interpret through this medium. He composed music before he had any instruction in playing musical instruments. He read certain booklets which came with Ampico and decided to compose. He can compose music which he cannot himself play.
FIG 4. PART OF A COMPOSITION BY D AT AGE 8 YEARS 7 MONTHS.
[The composition is titled "Op. 1, Dog's Dance," in A Major, with a "Tempo 75," "Moderato," in 8/8 time. The composition is marked by 16th-note flourishes, eighth-note triplets, each stave occasionally briefly changing from their original clef to opposite clef (e.g., from treble to bass clef or vice versa) and back again, a dedication ("Dedicaded [sic] to 'Brutus' my aunt's dog,"), and the following directions to the pianist, mirroring the dog's activity, appearing under the bass clef: "Asleep" (1st measure), "Bell rings" (2nd measure), "Gets up" and "barks" (3rd measure) "scampers" (4th measure), "scampers back" (6th measure), "rests" (measures 7 & 8), "Hears footsteps" (9th measure), "trots" (end of 10th measure), "Ball is thrown" and "Scampers after it" (11th measure), "Ball stops" (13th measure), "He foosle-woosles it" (14th measure), "Trots back" and "Drops it" (15th measure), "Regrets it" and "Trots" (16th measure), and "Drops it" (17th measure). There are very few errors in notation for a hand-written composition of this complexity; the errors that are made appear to be simple oversights, such as using quarter-notes in a triplet instead of eighth notes, using a half note when only a quarter beat remains in the measure, and the like.]
Gifts for form and color in drawing. D's talent for color, for drawing and design, has been marked from the time he could wield a pencil. His drawings, paintings, and designs would fill a book by themselves. A sample of his original work at the age of 10 years is reproduced.
FIG. 5. DRAWN BY D AT AGE 9 YEARS 9 MONTHS.
[This is a drawing of a small bird. The beak is somewhat elongated, the legs straight, and the eye quite large, appearing similar to simplified / stylized animals on a crest.]
This conventionalized bird is a fragment from his decoration for the chest in which he kept his "scientific work" at that time. This oblong chest he painted Chinese red, with three figures on the front. These were the conventionalized bird here shown, a conventionalized nest with eggs, and a conventionalized butterfly— all painted in striking combinations of yellow, blue, green, and red.
D loves color, and one of his favorite playthings has been a sample folder of silk buttonhole twists of three hundred shades. Between the ages of 8 and 9 years he would go over and over these, classifying the colors in various ways, scoring them for beauty, and renaming them to satisfy his appreciation of them. Some of these names will give an idea of his appreciation:
spotted pale dark darking green darkling green regular green shame blue paper white spoiled pink apron blue soft light pink beau yellow meadow beauty pink visitor's green cat black alien white royalest red feeling blue
One of his favorite games (aged 8 to 9 years) was to assign a numerical value to each of the 300 shades and then to list them for "highest honors." "Royalest red" nearly always won in these contests.
Origination of new concepts and new words. From earliest childhood D has felt a need for concepts and for words to express them that are not to be found in dictionaries. His occupation in this field he calls "wordical work." Some examples are recorded by his mother in the following note dated December, 1916.
Was having his dinner and being nearly finished said he didn't care to eat any more, as he had a pain in his actum pelopthis. He explained that his actum pelopthis, actum quotatus, serbalopsis, and boobalicta are parts of the body where you sometimes have queer feelings; they don't serve any purpose. He said he also had a place called the boobalunksis, or source of headaches; that the hair usually springs out from around the herkadone; that the perpalensis is the place where socks end, and the bogalegus is the place where legs and tummy come together. He also named one other part, the cobaliscus or smerbalooble, whose function is not explained. The definitions are exactly as he gave them in each instance.
On February 23, 1917, his mother wrote:
He has not referred to these places since. I do not know where he got the idea for such names, unless possibly from The Water Babies. He would probably refer them to some Bornish source.
The invention and classification of the Bornish language already referred to is another example of D's "wordical work." He has also invented hundreds of words which have not been included as Bornish. An example of his hand-writing, illustrative of words he has invented, classified, and recorded for pleasure, is here shown.
FIG 6. ONE OF D'S VERBAL INVENTIONS.
[The word defined is written as "Ob(b)iquicki(e)us" (the "e" is circled, perhaps suggesting a later revision to combine the "o" and "e") The definition which follows is: "Obiquickeous is a cube sensibilitant word. One of the most important words. It is an adj. and a noun.">[
Invention of games. D has invented many games. To illustrate this aspect of his mental capacity, there are his designs for three-handed and four-handed checkers. [4] D held that these would be better games than two-handed checkers because they are more complicated. A description of the games invented by D, together with his mathematical calculations concerning the chances and probabilities in each, would fill many pages.
Calculation and mathematical ingenuity. It is difficult to say that D is more gifted in one mental function or group of functions than in others, for his ability is so extraordinary in all performances that without means of measurement one cannot tell in which he deviates farthest from the average.
However, it is to be observed that the quantitative aspects of experience have always played a very striking role in all his performances. Even in dealing with color he turned to mathematics and made his values quantitative. Throughout childhood he spent hours playing with numerical relationships. These calculations cover hundreds of pages. There is reproduced here a sample of such work, chosen at random from scores of like material. There is no doubt in the mind of the present writer [L. S. H.] that D could, by practice with short-cut methods, easily become a lightning calculator. By age of 12 years D had finished college entrance requirements in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, all with high marks.
FIG. 7. Playing with numbers, Child D, age 7, to find what number under 100 has the greatest number of factors, counts up factors in each and awards "highest honors" to 96.
[This figure lists the numbers 86-100, and shows the numbers factored. The winning numbers he included are 96 (6 [factors]), 48 (5), 24 (4), and 16 (4). It appears that he ranked the "winning" numbers not according to the actual numbers of the places (i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places), but rather by the order of the primes representing them, i.e., 2 is first place, 3 is second place, 5 third, and 7 fourth. Additionally, the notes "H. C. F" and "L C. M." are to the left of the 96 and 16, respectively, likely indicating "highest common factor" and "lowest common multiple" of the factors of the "winning" numbers.]
Tendency to classify and diagram. To classify the data of experience has always been one of D's chief interests. One such tabulation was of parts of speech in various stories and poems. [5] Figure 8 is a sample taken from many pages of reclassification of birds. The caption, "Proper Scientific Name," represents the name considered by D to be better than those now recognized by ornithologists. His classifications of words, numbers, colors, musical notes, objects, and so forth would fill a large volume. He often constructs diagrams to clarify or condense meaning.
FIG. 8. A SAMPLE OF D'S CLASSIFICATIONS
[PART 1 OF 2, Columns 1-3].
Classification of birds seen in summer 1918. Classified in Feb.,
1919. "Proper Scientific Name" is the improved name given by D—.
Found Name Genus or, Scientific
Here (Popular) [Species,] etc. N a m e
* Towhee Species Erythopthalmus
X Wh.-eyed towhee Sub-Species E. Alleni
X Green-tailed " Genus Oreospiza
X Blue Grosbeak Species Caerulea
* Indigo Bunting " Cyanea
X Painted " " Ciris
X Lark Bunting " Calamospiza
Melanocorys
* Barn Swallow " Erythrogastra
* Tree " Genus Iridoprocne
* Red-eyed Vireo Species Olivacea
Wood Warblers Family Mniotiltidae
* Black & White
Warbler Species Varia
* Yellow Warbler Species Astiva
* Sh.-Billed
Marsh Wren Genus Cistothorus
* Red-br. Nuthatch Species Canadensis
FIG. 8. A SAMPLE OF D'S CLASSIFICATIONS
[PART 2 OF 2, Columns 1-4 ("Scientific name" repeated)].
Scientific Name Proper Scientific name Equal
Erythopthalmus Pipilo Eryth. **?
E. Alleni P. Leucophtalmus ***
Oreospiza Pipilo **?
Caerulea Cyanea ***
Cyanea Caerulea ***
Ciris Pictus **?
Calamospiza Melanocorys Melanospiza Leucoptera ***
Erythrogastra Leucurus ***
Iridoprocne Hirundo ***
Olivacea Erythropthalmus Yes
Mniotiltidae Dendroicidae **?
Varia Striata **?
Astiva Xantho or Auro Yes
Cistothorus Telmatotytes ?
Canadensis Borealis Yes
[no previous columns] Erythrogastra **?
Interest in science. By the age of 10 years D's chief interest had come to center in science and it continued to center there. His classifications of moths, birds, and the like and his observations of their life cycles are "monumental." There are volumes of these recorded observations as in Figure 9.
FIG 9. ONE OF D'S RECORDS OF OBSERVATIONS. LIFE CYCLES OF BIRDS.
[Here, the species of birds are listed in a column, with months of the year listed and spread out horizontally, with the first, 15th, and last days of the month underneath each month, and sometimes the 10th and 20th also. The species include: Holbcel's Grebe; Horned Grebe; Pied Billed Grebe; Loon; Loon Black-Thr.; Loon Red-Thr.; Puffin; Black Guillenot; Murre; Murre Brunnich's; Razor-billed Ank; Dovekie; Skua; Jaeger Pomarine; Jaeger, Parasitic; Jaeger, Long-tailed; Gull, Ivory; Gull, Kittawake; Gull, Glaucous; Gull, Iceland; Gull, Kumliens; Gull, Gr. Bl.-Backed; Gull, Herring; Gull, Ring-Bileed; Gull, Laughing; Gull, Bonaparte's; Gull, Little-Casual; Gull, Sabine; Tern, Gull-Billed; Tern, Caspian; Tern, Royal; Tern, Cabot's; Tern, Trudeau's; Tern, Forster's; Tern, Common; Tern, Arctic; Tern, Roseate; Tern, Least; Tern, Sooty; Tern, Black. Each bird has a line or lines to the right of its name, corresponding to the times of year.]
Figures 10 and 11 illustrate his interest in physical science. They have been taken from his notebooks and state problems which occurred spontaneously to him and for which he tried experimentally to find solutions. During a series of experiments "to determine the path of a tack," it is reported that "the house was full of tacks" which had been used in attempting solutions.
FIG. 10. COPY OF WORK DONE BY D "FOR FUN," MARCH 28, 1921, AGED 11 YEARS 1 MONTH.
of the problem: "Determine the appearance of a finger, F, to two eyes, E#R# and E#L#, focussed on a pole R at point P#S# along lines E#R#R and E#L#R."
[Diagram of solution.]
Thru [sic] R pass plane PL // to the plane of the eyes. Draw a
line from E#L# (which is nearer to F than E#R#) to F, cutting
PL in O. Draw E#R#O; thru F pass a plane // to PL and crossing
E#R#O in A. Thru A pass F' // F.
F' and F are the positions of F to E#R# and E#L#.
D.
So it can be shown that 2 other eyes would see F in positions F and F''.
.'. 4 eyes focused on R see F as F, F, F' and F''.
D.
FIG. 11. THE PATH OF A TACK. WORK DONE BY D AT AGE 11 YEARS.
Discussion
of the determination of the course of a freed tack, T, connected with other tacks by rubber bands.
A. Fig. 1.
[Diagram including points T, T'; band B; and ray L.]
When connected to a tack T' by band B.
Draw T[,] T'[,] or L.
T freed will travel along L, answer.
B. Fig. 2.
[Diagram including points T, T', T''; bands B, B'; and ray L.]
When connected to 2 tacks T' and T'' by 2 bands B and B'.
Answer: Along L, the bisector of T' and TTT''.
C. Fig. 3.
[Diagram including points T, T', T''; band B; and ray L.]
The same as B, but only 1 band B.
Answer same as to B.
D. Fig. 4.
[Diagram including points T, T#1#, T', T''; and ray L.]
When connected to 3 tacks by any number of bands.
Draw T'T#1#, and treat as in B and C.
D.
SCHOOL HISTORY
In the September following his ninth birthday D entered upon formal instruction in the junior high school. In the autumn following his tenth birthday he entered senior high school, from which he was graduated at the age of 12 years, with a scholastic record which won for him two scholarships.
He was admitted to a large Eastern college at the age of 12 years 6 months (1922-1923), and made a superior record throughout the course. It was very interesting to see that D continued to discover means of obtaining social contacts in spite of the great difficulties due to his extreme youth and his intellectual deviation. Thus it is not easy to plan how a 12-year-old boy might successfully participate in college athletics when the median age of college freshmen is over 18 years, but this problem was not too difficult for D. He presented himself to compete for the post of coxswain on the freshmen crew where, other things, being equal, light weight is an advantage.
He was graduated from college, with Phi Beta Kappa honors, in 1926, at the age of 16 years 2 months. At that time he was ambitious for a career in science.
EDITOR'S SUPPLEMENT
D undertook graduate work, with distinction, in the field of chemistry. He became an industrial chemist with an important position in the research phases of the motion-picture industry. Word has been received of his death in September, 1938.
[1] This child was described in some detail in Chapter IX of Gifted Children, 1926, and the earlier part of the present account is taken from that chapter. In the later part additional items are given, taken from the author's 1924 manuscript, and there are a few editorial additions.
[2] A facsimile of a page from this paper is reproduced on page 244 of the author's book, Gifted Children (The Macmillan Company, New York; 1926).
[3] A note shows that on March 16, 1926, at just 16 years of age, D's height was 71.5 inches and his weight 115 pounds, stripped. EDITOR
[4] See Gifted Children, pages 246-247.
[5] Ibid., page 245.