From these remarks and estimates it is also easy to see how such a child may provoke adverse comments from teachers, may be found unsuited to school organization, and eventually even be reputed stupid or "foolish." Fortunately for A, most of his teachers have had unusual training and have been rigidly selected, besides, for insight and personality. If you have read Edison's biography, you will recall that under teachers less highly selected young Thomas "did not get on in school," was regarded as "foolish," and eventually was removed from school by his mother, who educated him at home, she herself being a teacher.
These difficulties of discrepancy between mental development and physical development are seen to be greatest in the earliest years of childhood. The judgments show that as A grew from his sixth birthday to his ninth birthday, he became less and less conspicuous in his poor penmanship and in his inaptitude at games.
MENTAL MEASUREMENTS
General intelligence tests of A have been made as follows:
DATE BIRTHDAY STANFORD-BINET ARMY ALPHA
AGE OF A MA IQ POINTS
A Norm A Norm A Norm
Dec. 30, 1920 6-6 12-2 6-6 187 100 (Not given)
Jan. 2, 1922 7-6 14-4 7-6 191 100 76 0 (Form 5)
Apr. 22, 1922 [1] 7-10 14-8 7-10 187 100 (Not given)
Feb. 22, 1923 8-8 (Not given) 95 0 (Form 7) [2]
Mechanical skill. On January, 2, 1922 (aged 7 years 6 months), A was given the Stenquist Assembling Tests of General Mechanical Ability and he made a score of 7 points only. He could tell what mechanisms were to be constructed from the materials in five out of the ten instances, but he was not "handy" enough to put them together. (The test depends very much upon size and strength of hands and upon the degree to which motor coördination is developed. Young children, therefore, of whatever degree of intelligence, are unable to succeed in it).
Musical sensitivity. On February 22, 1923, Seashore's Tests of Musical Sensitivity yielded results as follows, using the figures for eighth-grade children for comparison, because of A's Mental Age:
TEST PERCENTILE (EIGHTH GRADE) PERCENTILE (ADULTS)
A A'S FATHER
Consonance Below 27th 36th
Pitch 91st 81st
Intensity 41st 26th
Time Below 17th 78th
Tonal memory 70th 9th
Design. On January 2, 1922, the examiner made the following note in reference to A's performance with Milton Bradley color cubes (with which he always asks to play when he comes to the laboratory):
The child can construct the most complicated designs with Milton Bradley's color cubes in less than three minutes each, from memory—the design being exposed to vision and studied for one minute. Three colors are involved—red, blue, yellow, and white.