TRIPLETS By Anna Louise Butts, M.A. Mental Supervisor of Examinations, Division of Special Education, Philadelphia Public Schools. The enrollment of a set of Public Schools in the fall of 1929
triplets
in
one
of the
Philadelphia
looked upon as such an unusual occurrence that the newspapers featured the event as "news." Keporters besieged both the home and school, with the result that the was
triplets found themselves in headlines, with their pictures and history on the front pages. In the school itself they received due recogniMere twins were ignored. Teachers journeyed from their several class-rooms to gaze upon "the triplets." Little children cried to be placed in the same room as "the triplets." The triplets themselves were sent as one unit throughout the building?pretion.
sumably on errands but actually for display purposes?quite evidently enjoying their notoriety. It so happened that a psychologist from the Division of Special Education was in the school at the time, testing in connection with an ability group experiment. It was her duty to make a mental examination of each child entering the first grade, for the purpose of dividing the entire class into ability groups, which happened to be four in number. The triplets, therefore, came to her attention as candidates for examination and placement. The sentimental reaction of the parents and the school at this time was that these children be allowed to remain
together, regardless
of the results
The children themselves, having always been toat were first hopelessly lost when separated even for a short gether, time. Gradually, however they emerged from the state of being a of examination.
unit into three separate individuals. One began to hear talk not of "the triplets," but of the bright one, the dull one and the middle one; or of the oldest and the youngest. The examiner mean-
single
while bided her
time, waiting
velop individual characteristics,
so as
allow the classroom to dethe home had not endeavored to
as to
do. in
October, when the children had become individand ranked at three distinct points on an ability scale in their common classroom, they were given a mental examination all on the same day, when they were six years and nine months of age. The following chart aims to give a comparative analysis ual
Finally, late personalities
of the results of examination:
TRIPLETS
267
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Irene
Sally Appearance
Mary
Dark hair?dark
Irene
den brown eyes
brown eyes
look alike but are
Good?Robust
Good
Energetic
Average
Pleasant
Pleasant
Pleasant
Alert
Alert
Alert
Interested
Interested
Interested
Co-operative
Co-operativo
Co-operative
Confident
Irene
Red
hair?gol-
and
Mary
not identical. Health
Handicapped. Has been sickly. Had foot paralysis when younger; gait still unsteady. Less en-
energy
ergy.
Personality
the
lias
de-
Lacks confidence
sirable qualities of Self-assured
Sally
in lesser de-
gree.
Not the asand
surance
Self-reliant
Aggressive Poised?calm
enthusiastic
less
than either. calm
and
inferi-
ag-
of
Sally nor the dependence of Mary. More pliable than Sally; gression
Feeling of ority
Steady, depend-
Dependent Submissive
Excitable; enthusiastic to point of losing balance.
able.
Steady and pendable
Erratic
de-
From to the
unstable, the
heights depths.
Inefficient. Wastes
Efficient
time and energy. Manner mature A leader
necessity and
Runs a mid-
and to the Good.
a
course.
by
A
fol-
leader dle
Quick point.
both a
lower. down
Response
babyish. follower
Manner Of
Held
Sally; out by
brought Mary Quick and to point. Good.
the
Generally quick in coming, but slows up. Often irrelevant off the point.
Very Much
talkative.
detail,
but
268
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Irene
Sally
Mary rather
on vague the whole. Doesn't
stand up well "under lire."
Comprehension
Good
Good
Imagery
Good
Fair
Poor
Attention
Habits
Fair
Concentration
Rather poor in general, though in specific instances
good
distribution Hard
good. and
poor. sustain.
to
Distractible.
Plays
out. Use
good better Suggests ability than she has. Very talka-
Language
Use
Control
Good
Good
5-6-2
5-6-2
5-6-0
Had to be
Had to be
Could not
taught to reverse digits
taught to reverse digits
hend
good
Use
good
tive.
of Ability Memory Spans
Poor
its
compre-
reversing digafter teaching.
BINET SIMON TEST
4 year level
Passed all
Mary
Irene
Sally
Passed all
Failed
to
square?defect both imagery
copy in and
muscular control. 5
year level 6 year level
Passed all
Passed all
Passed all
Passed all
Passed all
to Failed give deomissions tected none.
7 year level
Fingers: Pictures:
Passed
Passed
Good
Good
Good
descrip-
Passed
Failed?counted.
Passed Passed
description
description
tion Differences:
Passed
Fly?Butterfly Wood?Glass
Failed
Failed
TRIPLETS
269
BINET SIMON TEST Irene
Sally Diamond:
Failed?drew
quadrangle,
a
but
Mary
Failed?figure a quadrangle
not
Failed?refused to
attempt,
not diamond 8 year level
Passed all com-
prehension
Failed all
Failed all.
ques-
tions
Vocabulary?
Vocabulary?5
Vocabulary?5
6*4 words
words
words
gown
gown
gown
tap
envelope
envelope
puddle envelope
health
rule
eyelash
health
rule
curse
curse
6 years 6 yrs. 6 mos.
3 years 5 yrs. 9 mos. 85.2
health
pork (%) Basal Age Mental Age I.Q.
6 years 7 years 103.8
98.8
PERFORMANCE TESTS
Sally Witmer Form-
53"?48"?30"
Mary
Irene 1'41"?33"?27"
2'26"?2'25"? 4'42"
board
(Time Score) min. sec. Witmer
Cylin-
ders
F?3/30"
4'21"?1'36"?
(Time Score)
F?F?3'30"
V35"
?1/29"
(6 errors)
min. sec.
Healy
A
F?15"?6"
10 second expo-
1/8"?15"?8"
F?F?F
(1 min.)
sure
(Time Score) min. sec.
Comprehension Bate of Discharge Learning
Fair
Good
Poor
Good
Fair
Slow
Good
Good
Po?r
Examiner's
2
Rating (3 point scale)
plus
270
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC A
more general personality study follows: These three little girls, Sally, Irene and Mary, are of Jewish parentage; the father is of Austrian birth and the mother native to the United States. These are intelligent, well-to-do middle class people, who maintain a pleasant, comfortable home and show interest in the welfare of their children. Their attitude is sensible
and
The
co-operative. High School. The triplets
only
other child is
a
daughter, already
in
are markedly dissimilar. They did not enter school until six and a half years of age because Mary has always been a sickly child; some form of paralysis prevented her walking as
others, and her gait is still unsteady though she gets right. At the present time she is the least energetic of three; the other two are healthy children, of whom Sally is the
early
the
as
about all the
more
robust.
In appearance also these children
are
not alike.
Irene and
Mary greatly resemble each other with their dark hair and dark brown eyes; but Sally, with her bright red hair and golden brown eyes, is quite different. She is also a child of heavier stature and not such fine facial features.
Her excess energy and healthful in addition to her appearance, make her by far the most colorful child of the three. Sally sparkles and the other two reflect
exuberance,
her brilliance. It is difficult to consider her with the others.
one
of these children without compar-
comparison, perhaps, makes one overing estimate Sally's ability. She is without question the leader and the one who takes the initiative, mothering the other two, particularly Mary. Sally is a child of confidence and self-assurance. She is This
able to do things not only for herself but also for others. She aggressive, in a thoroughly pleasant and helpful fashion. She has a great deal of poise, going at things in a calm, matter of fact way. She is interested and alert, but always well balanced. Her is
older child. She is quite dependable, showing So far as mental equipment is a steady consistency in her work. not test much above her own age level. Her concerned, Sally does
manner
is that of
an
always quick, to the point and more than adequate; but she shows no signs of unusual mental complexity. It is Sally's response is
efficient
use
personality
of her that
the classroom.
and her charm of her chief assets and make her outstanding in
ability,
are
her self reliant
manner
TRIPLETS "Where
always
Sally leads, Mary tries Mentally as
reach the mark.
to
271
follow, though she can as physically, Mary is
not
well
the She is slower in her response. She is not so quick to grasp a new idea. She cannot think out a problem for herself so well. She is not quite so well informed and cannot accomplish quite so much. The child's model is her sister Sally, and she realizes that she cannot keep up with her. Sally apparently tries to help her weakest.
but Irene chides her with being "dumb as a rock.'T The Mary has a very definite feeling of inferiority. She is at present very anxious to keep pace with the others and tries hard, but she is likely to give up in time, because she is clever enough
along,
result is that
to realize that she cannot do
so
well.
Every
now
to the examiner with some such remark
appealed dumb, am I ?'' Clearly she is encouraged as much as possible Just
now
making
a
and then Mary "I'm not so
as
defensive, and she should be give her more confidence. she hesitates to do many things because she is afraid of mistake. Unlike many children who feel inferior, Mary on
the
in order to
is interested and enthusiastic. She has a force and a desire within her which urge her on. She has discrimination enough to realize her own limitations, and when she is within her own powers she
gives quite good response; in the face of difficult or material, however, Mary is very dependent and helpless. constant reassurance, without which she cannot go on.
difficulty
of
Mary's
is that her attention is
so
unfamiliar She seeks A further
poor; she neither
con-
easily distracted and cannot sustain her attention for long, because of fatigue. This attention defect of course interferes with learning. Furthermore, Mary is an excitable child, emotionally unstable. She becomes so enthusiastic over some trivial thing that she loses her balance. All this makes for inefficiency and waste of time and energy; what limited ability she possesses is not well controlled nor co-ordinated. While Mary is inferior to her sisters and does not meet her own age standards, she is what can be called dull normal. Her trouble appears to be more physical and nervous than mental, more functional than organic. A casual observer, on meeting Mary, might consider her quite bright because she has a gift for language which enables her to talk well. She talks too glibly, however, without much thought behind it, often aside from the point in question. When it comes to a test, Mary's information is vague and her talk merely words. Irene is the proverbial "middle child." She treads a middle centrates nor distributes it well.
She is
272
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC
path. She has neither the confidence and assurance of Sally nor the dependence of Mary; she lacks Sally's color and Mary's enthusiasm ; but she is a child of ordinary mental ability, responsive, alert and confident to a reasonable degree. She is quite capable of doing things for herself. She is steady and dependable. Yet she is all this in a less striking and forcible way and in less degree than in the case of Sally. The difference between Irene and Sally is more one of energy and type of personality; in mental ability they are quite similarly equipped. Between Irene and Mary the difference is not so much in type of personality as it is in actual mental equipment and ability to use it. "Why these children, born of the same parents at the same time and reared in the same environment, are so different in physical, mental and personality endowment, is an interesting question; but not one for the public schools to answer. The problem of dealing with these children is, however, a function of the school. Aside from sentimental considerations, for the best development of these children, it would be wise to separate them. Sally will not suffer either way. Irene would stand a better chance of not being overshadowed by Sally. Mary would not have the unpleasant experience of seeing her sisters surpass her; she might miss Sally's motherly care for a while, but she would learn to depend more upon herself; with
a
group of duller children she would have
more
chance to
excel. For both emotional and educational reasons, therefore, it appeared best to the examiner to separate the three children. The problem of school organization did not have to be faced since four distinct groups were available. Of these four groups the lowest was discarded because it was composed largely of definitely feebleminded children.
In the next
higher
group
Mary
would meet her
intellectual peers. Sally, while not a child of superior mentality when judged on an absolute scale, could easily function in the highest group. In this same group could be found children of no better mental equipment than Irene; but in order to do nothing which would suggest favoritism to Mary and at the same time to remove the shadow of Sally's superiority, it was thought best that Irene go into the middle group. This placement was, accordingly, suggested to the parents who thoroughly agreed with the theory of it. After
a
day
of consideration and discussion, their sentimental
re-
TRIPLETS actions
were
outweighed by
a
273
realization of the educational advan-
tages of separation. in
Sally, Irene and Mary were consequently separated and placed ability groups in the order named. Sooner or later separation
would have been inevitable, with attendant heartaches and possible As it is, three little girls are working, each in a fairly homogeneous group; and three little girls, each successful in her own group, think that the only reason for their separation is the great
resentment.
desire of each first
grade
teacher to have
a
triplet
in her class.
triplets
in
one
of the
Philadelphia
looked upon as such an unusual occurrence that the newspapers featured the event as "news." Keporters besieged both the home and school, with the result that the was
triplets found themselves in headlines, with their pictures and history on the front pages. In the school itself they received due recogniMere twins were ignored. Teachers journeyed from their several class-rooms to gaze upon "the triplets." Little children cried to be placed in the same room as "the triplets." The triplets themselves were sent as one unit throughout the building?pretion.
sumably on errands but actually for display purposes?quite evidently enjoying their notoriety. It so happened that a psychologist from the Division of Special Education was in the school at the time, testing in connection with an ability group experiment. It was her duty to make a mental examination of each child entering the first grade, for the purpose of dividing the entire class into ability groups, which happened to be four in number. The triplets, therefore, came to her attention as candidates for examination and placement. The sentimental reaction of the parents and the school at this time was that these children be allowed to remain
together, regardless
of the results
The children themselves, having always been toat were first hopelessly lost when separated even for a short gether, time. Gradually, however they emerged from the state of being a of examination.
unit into three separate individuals. One began to hear talk not of "the triplets," but of the bright one, the dull one and the middle one; or of the oldest and the youngest. The examiner mean-
single
while bided her
time, waiting
velop individual characteristics,
so as
allow the classroom to dethe home had not endeavored to
as to
do. in
October, when the children had become individand ranked at three distinct points on an ability scale in their common classroom, they were given a mental examination all on the same day, when they were six years and nine months of age. The following chart aims to give a comparative analysis ual
Finally, late personalities
of the results of examination:
TRIPLETS
267
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Irene
Sally Appearance
Mary
Dark hair?dark
Irene
den brown eyes
brown eyes
look alike but are
Good?Robust
Good
Energetic
Average
Pleasant
Pleasant
Pleasant
Alert
Alert
Alert
Interested
Interested
Interested
Co-operative
Co-operativo
Co-operative
Confident
Irene
Red
hair?gol-
and
Mary
not identical. Health
Handicapped. Has been sickly. Had foot paralysis when younger; gait still unsteady. Less en-
energy
ergy.
Personality
the
lias
de-
Lacks confidence
sirable qualities of Self-assured
Sally
in lesser de-
gree.
Not the asand
surance
Self-reliant
Aggressive Poised?calm
enthusiastic
less
than either. calm
and
inferi-
ag-
of
Sally nor the dependence of Mary. More pliable than Sally; gression
Feeling of ority
Steady, depend-
Dependent Submissive
Excitable; enthusiastic to point of losing balance.
able.
Steady and pendable
Erratic
de-
From to the
unstable, the
heights depths.
Inefficient. Wastes
Efficient
time and energy. Manner mature A leader
necessity and
Runs a mid-
and to the Good.
a
course.
by
A
fol-
leader dle
Quick point.
both a
lower. down
Response
babyish. follower
Manner Of
Held
Sally; out by
brought Mary Quick and to point. Good.
the
Generally quick in coming, but slows up. Often irrelevant off the point.
Very Much
talkative.
detail,
but
268
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Irene
Sally
Mary rather
on vague the whole. Doesn't
stand up well "under lire."
Comprehension
Good
Good
Imagery
Good
Fair
Poor
Attention
Habits
Fair
Concentration
Rather poor in general, though in specific instances
good
distribution Hard
good. and
poor. sustain.
to
Distractible.
Plays
out. Use
good better Suggests ability than she has. Very talka-
Language
Use
Control
Good
Good
5-6-2
5-6-2
5-6-0
Had to be
Had to be
Could not
taught to reverse digits
taught to reverse digits
hend
good
Use
good
tive.
of Ability Memory Spans
Poor
its
compre-
reversing digafter teaching.
BINET SIMON TEST
4 year level
Passed all
Mary
Irene
Sally
Passed all
Failed
to
square?defect both imagery
copy in and
muscular control. 5
year level 6 year level
Passed all
Passed all
Passed all
Passed all
Passed all
to Failed give deomissions tected none.
7 year level
Fingers: Pictures:
Passed
Passed
Good
Good
Good
descrip-
Passed
Failed?counted.
Passed Passed
description
description
tion Differences:
Passed
Fly?Butterfly Wood?Glass
Failed
Failed
TRIPLETS
269
BINET SIMON TEST Irene
Sally Diamond:
Failed?drew
quadrangle,
a
but
Mary
Failed?figure a quadrangle
not
Failed?refused to
attempt,
not diamond 8 year level
Passed all com-
prehension
Failed all
Failed all.
ques-
tions
Vocabulary?
Vocabulary?5
Vocabulary?5
6*4 words
words
words
gown
gown
gown
tap
envelope
envelope
puddle envelope
health
rule
eyelash
health
rule
curse
curse
6 years 6 yrs. 6 mos.
3 years 5 yrs. 9 mos. 85.2
health
pork (%) Basal Age Mental Age I.Q.
6 years 7 years 103.8
98.8
PERFORMANCE TESTS
Sally Witmer Form-
53"?48"?30"
Mary
Irene 1'41"?33"?27"
2'26"?2'25"? 4'42"
board
(Time Score) min. sec. Witmer
Cylin-
ders
F?3/30"
4'21"?1'36"?
(Time Score)
F?F?3'30"
V35"
?1/29"
(6 errors)
min. sec.
Healy
A
F?15"?6"
10 second expo-
1/8"?15"?8"
F?F?F
(1 min.)
sure
(Time Score) min. sec.
Comprehension Bate of Discharge Learning
Fair
Good
Poor
Good
Fair
Slow
Good
Good
Po?r
Examiner's
2
Rating (3 point scale)
plus
270
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC A
more general personality study follows: These three little girls, Sally, Irene and Mary, are of Jewish parentage; the father is of Austrian birth and the mother native to the United States. These are intelligent, well-to-do middle class people, who maintain a pleasant, comfortable home and show interest in the welfare of their children. Their attitude is sensible
and
The
co-operative. High School. The triplets
only
other child is
a
daughter, already
in
are markedly dissimilar. They did not enter school until six and a half years of age because Mary has always been a sickly child; some form of paralysis prevented her walking as
others, and her gait is still unsteady though she gets right. At the present time she is the least energetic of three; the other two are healthy children, of whom Sally is the
early
the
as
about all the
more
robust.
In appearance also these children
are
not alike.
Irene and
Mary greatly resemble each other with their dark hair and dark brown eyes; but Sally, with her bright red hair and golden brown eyes, is quite different. She is also a child of heavier stature and not such fine facial features.
Her excess energy and healthful in addition to her appearance, make her by far the most colorful child of the three. Sally sparkles and the other two reflect
exuberance,
her brilliance. It is difficult to consider her with the others.
one
of these children without compar-
comparison, perhaps, makes one overing estimate Sally's ability. She is without question the leader and the one who takes the initiative, mothering the other two, particularly Mary. Sally is a child of confidence and self-assurance. She is This
able to do things not only for herself but also for others. She aggressive, in a thoroughly pleasant and helpful fashion. She has a great deal of poise, going at things in a calm, matter of fact way. She is interested and alert, but always well balanced. Her is
older child. She is quite dependable, showing So far as mental equipment is a steady consistency in her work. not test much above her own age level. Her concerned, Sally does
manner
is that of
an
always quick, to the point and more than adequate; but she shows no signs of unusual mental complexity. It is Sally's response is
efficient
use
personality
of her that
the classroom.
and her charm of her chief assets and make her outstanding in
ability,
are
her self reliant
manner
TRIPLETS "Where
always
Sally leads, Mary tries Mentally as
reach the mark.
to
271
follow, though she can as physically, Mary is
not
well
the She is slower in her response. She is not so quick to grasp a new idea. She cannot think out a problem for herself so well. She is not quite so well informed and cannot accomplish quite so much. The child's model is her sister Sally, and she realizes that she cannot keep up with her. Sally apparently tries to help her weakest.
but Irene chides her with being "dumb as a rock.'T The Mary has a very definite feeling of inferiority. She is at present very anxious to keep pace with the others and tries hard, but she is likely to give up in time, because she is clever enough
along,
result is that
to realize that she cannot do
so
well.
Every
now
to the examiner with some such remark
appealed dumb, am I ?'' Clearly she is encouraged as much as possible Just
now
making
a
and then Mary "I'm not so
as
defensive, and she should be give her more confidence. she hesitates to do many things because she is afraid of mistake. Unlike many children who feel inferior, Mary on
the
in order to
is interested and enthusiastic. She has a force and a desire within her which urge her on. She has discrimination enough to realize her own limitations, and when she is within her own powers she
gives quite good response; in the face of difficult or material, however, Mary is very dependent and helpless. constant reassurance, without which she cannot go on.
difficulty
of
Mary's
is that her attention is
so
unfamiliar She seeks A further
poor; she neither
con-
easily distracted and cannot sustain her attention for long, because of fatigue. This attention defect of course interferes with learning. Furthermore, Mary is an excitable child, emotionally unstable. She becomes so enthusiastic over some trivial thing that she loses her balance. All this makes for inefficiency and waste of time and energy; what limited ability she possesses is not well controlled nor co-ordinated. While Mary is inferior to her sisters and does not meet her own age standards, she is what can be called dull normal. Her trouble appears to be more physical and nervous than mental, more functional than organic. A casual observer, on meeting Mary, might consider her quite bright because she has a gift for language which enables her to talk well. She talks too glibly, however, without much thought behind it, often aside from the point in question. When it comes to a test, Mary's information is vague and her talk merely words. Irene is the proverbial "middle child." She treads a middle centrates nor distributes it well.
She is
272
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC
path. She has neither the confidence and assurance of Sally nor the dependence of Mary; she lacks Sally's color and Mary's enthusiasm ; but she is a child of ordinary mental ability, responsive, alert and confident to a reasonable degree. She is quite capable of doing things for herself. She is steady and dependable. Yet she is all this in a less striking and forcible way and in less degree than in the case of Sally. The difference between Irene and Sally is more one of energy and type of personality; in mental ability they are quite similarly equipped. Between Irene and Mary the difference is not so much in type of personality as it is in actual mental equipment and ability to use it. "Why these children, born of the same parents at the same time and reared in the same environment, are so different in physical, mental and personality endowment, is an interesting question; but not one for the public schools to answer. The problem of dealing with these children is, however, a function of the school. Aside from sentimental considerations, for the best development of these children, it would be wise to separate them. Sally will not suffer either way. Irene would stand a better chance of not being overshadowed by Sally. Mary would not have the unpleasant experience of seeing her sisters surpass her; she might miss Sally's motherly care for a while, but she would learn to depend more upon herself; with
a
group of duller children she would have
more
chance to
excel. For both emotional and educational reasons, therefore, it appeared best to the examiner to separate the three children. The problem of school organization did not have to be faced since four distinct groups were available. Of these four groups the lowest was discarded because it was composed largely of definitely feebleminded children.
In the next
higher
group
Mary
would meet her
intellectual peers. Sally, while not a child of superior mentality when judged on an absolute scale, could easily function in the highest group. In this same group could be found children of no better mental equipment than Irene; but in order to do nothing which would suggest favoritism to Mary and at the same time to remove the shadow of Sally's superiority, it was thought best that Irene go into the middle group. This placement was, accordingly, suggested to the parents who thoroughly agreed with the theory of it. After
a
day
of consideration and discussion, their sentimental
re-
TRIPLETS actions
were
outweighed by
a
273
realization of the educational advan-
tages of separation. in
Sally, Irene and Mary were consequently separated and placed ability groups in the order named. Sooner or later separation
would have been inevitable, with attendant heartaches and possible As it is, three little girls are working, each in a fairly homogeneous group; and three little girls, each successful in her own group, think that the only reason for their separation is the great
resentment.
desire of each first
grade
teacher to have
a
triplet
in her class.
