Developmental psychology.pdf

Intelligence 379
Goddard completely overlooked this possibility with the Kallikaks. So taken
was he by this "natural experiment in heredity" that he crowed "a biologist could
hardly plan a more rigid experiment or one from which the conclusion would follow
more inevitably." But the conclusion does not inevitably follow. The "bad side" Kallikaks
could have remained retarded because each parent was unable to provide appropriate
learning opportunities for his or her children, a condition that demonstrates
the role of cultural deprivation in mental retardation. Furthermore, measures of intelligence
were less reliable in that early day, and it may not be precise to call some
of the descendants retarded. Many of them were not tested at all but simply described
in anecdotal accounts by friends and neighbors. It has even been suggested that Martin
Kallikak may be wrongly implicated in the first place, for it was only the testimony of
a "feebleminded girl" that identified him as the father of that child.
Goddard was decidedly overzealous in his interpretation of these data, which
came from a seriously flawed field study, not an experiment. Perhaps his mistake arose
because he worked so extensively with severely retarded children, in whom genetic
defects can play a major role. This miscalculation led him to a position considered quite
erroneous today and one quite different from Binet, who had much greater faith in a
remedial environment (Tuddenham, 1962).
Emotional Factors Intellectual functioning also can be disrupted by adjustment
problems. The emotionally disturbed individual sometimes cannot even speak, read, or
do simple numerical calculations, and minor emotional problems may prevent a person
from achieving his or her full intellectual potential. Many individuals who are retarded
in other ways also experience emotional problems, for the original handicap leads to
frustration, which causes emotional upset, in turn engendering a further mental
handicap.
The importance of emotional factors in lowering test performance was illustrated
when an investigator modified the procedure for administering the Stanford-
Binet, inserting an easy test item in the sequence whenever a child failed to answer
correctly. This procedure raised the IQ of disturbed children by more than 10 points,
whereas it increased the performance of normal children only slightly (Hutt, 1947).
Treatment of the Retarded Appropriate provisions for mentally retarded persons
have been a constant issue in this country since Dr. Samuel Howe's plea to the state
legislature in 1848 "on the condition of idiots in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."
With few significant resources for their personal development, Howe predicted increases
in special education and also our current approach of including slow-learning children
in the regular classrooms, as much as possible.
The slow learner, who is able to profit from carefully paced classroom instruction,
is not considered mentally retarded. In the current approach, called mainstreaming,
the trend is away from complete separation of these children and toward the
provision of extra resources in the typical classroom setting. These provisions include
a slower rate of presentation of new material, greater structure in the learning tasks,
and the use of concrete rather than abstract materials (Salend, 1984; Figure 14.13).*
One persistent, yet seemingly simple problem with the less able children has
been their classification, accomplished through various tests and school performance.
These diagnostic labels have required regular replacement, not because they were necessarily
invalid but because "feebleminded," "dementia," and other terms took on additional
meanings never intended. Today we may have achieved a partial solution to
this problem, for the accent is on the positive. Insofar as possible the terms stress development,
not deficit, and there are three levels: educable, trainable, and totally dependent.
The mentally retarded child who is educable is unable to profit from regular
schooling, but he or she can learn academic, social, and occupational skills at a minimum
level, to the point of total or partial independence as an adult. The trainable
Figure 14.13
Education of Retarded Children. In
Massachusetts, the Chapter 766 law
requires the screening of children for
learning difficulties beginning at age
three and the availability of remedial
services also beginning at age three.
•Three children in the
neighborhood were much slower
than the others. I don't know what
was wrong with them, but they
were brothers and attended a
school for very slow learners. The
eldest was 13 and was easily
mistaken for an 8 year old. One day
he and his brothers mistook the
garbage truck, which was big and
white, for the big white ice cream
truck.