Show wrong idea about growth idea lon long held that its rapidity tended to retard mental development proved to be erroneous studies made by harvard authority because a child prows grows rapidly is no reason for a slump in his scholastic work and parents need not torry v orry because their children shoot up like weeds according t to ci res researches lar ches nade by dr james R hobson ll alro brookline mass doctor hobson II at harvard examined the physical and mental characteristics characteristic of more than 1000 loys and girls of ages ran ranging ing from eleven to fourteen years in order to make his conclusions on the matter the material for those these investigations was secured from the files of the growth study conducted by the psycho educational clinic of the liar lard ard graduate school of education which began in 1921 1021 to measure the physical and mental development of more than school children in the first and second grades the same children have been re exam ined once a year by the study doctor hobson took for his data the records of boys and MO girls at the age when they were growing the fastest for boys he lound found that the period was from twelve to fourteen years old tor for girls eleven to thirteen doctor hobsons statistics chosen from the extensive physical measurements tabulated by the growth grouth study are in terms of height and weight the scholastic achievement records which doctor hobson selected for his cOm comparison Darison were measured by standardized tests of gains in arithmetic and reading in the introduction to his report doctor hobson singles out the popular notion that rapid physical growth is accompanied by decrease in the rapidity of 0 mental development while this view appears to have some basis la in the laws of natural ur compensation no scientific substantiation stati atio has been offered for it according to doctor hobson II the conclusions of his own research dispel the view after working for three years on I 1 the he statistics doctor robson found that the rapidity of boys and girls 1 growth in stature and weight bears no significant relationship to their gains in arithmetic or reading achievement during this period As one check on his work lie he studied the records of students who had grown the fastest and of who had grown the slowest he discovered that these groups failed to show any mental menta physical relationships tion ships which were not already present in the main body of those tested As a further check on his results doctor hohson hobson examined th the e case reco records ads of 25 extreme individuals du a 13 those who had grown the fastest in height or weight those who had shown the least physical develop those with the highest hest achievement and ampro improvement in ent in arithmetic and reading and those with the lowest the diversity of these cases helped to bear out his contention that there la Is no sa s1 significant ant relation between the rapidity of physical development and scholastic achievement example the boy whose height increased most in the period under examination had a high achievement record in both arithmetic and reading and showed consistent improvement in ent throughout the period whereas the boy with the lowest weight increase of all made very slight improvement pro in arithmetic and normal improvement in reading the boy with the greatest gains in knowledge and understanding of arithmetic showed nothing remarkable about his physical growth being somewhat under average the boy who made the least gala gain in arithmetic studies had a growth spurt a little above average but nothing startling doctor II hobson regards the elimination of rapid growth as a reason for lack of scholastic success as important because it makes possible a more accurate diagnosis of a childs scholastic and personal difficulties |