certain to have
heard it more or less, and if his intelligence is normal the interest in
self will ordinarily cause it to be remembered.

The critic of the intelligence scale need not be unduly exercised over
the fact that there may be an occasional child of 3 years who has never
heard his family name. We have all read of such children, but they
are so extremely rare that the chances of a given 3-year-old being
unjustly penalized for this reason are practically negligible. In
the second place, contingencies of this nature are throughout the
scale consistently allowed for in the percentage of passes required
for locating a test. Since (in the year groups below XIV) the
individual tests are located at the age level where they are passed by
60 to 70 per cent of unselected children of that age, it follows that
the child of average ability _is expected_ to fail on about one third of
the tests of his age group. The plan of the scale is such as to warrant
this amount of leeway. But even granting the possibility that one
subject out of a hundred or so may be unjustly penalized for lack of
opportunity to acquire the knowledge which the test calls for, the
injustice done does not greatly alter the result. A single test affects
mental age only to the extent of two months, and the chances of two such
injustices occurring with the same child are very slight. Herein lies
the advantage of a multiplicity of tests. No test considered by itself
is very dependable, but two dozen tests, properly arranged, are almost
infinitely reliable.

III, 6. REPEATING SIX TO SEVEN SYLLABLES

PROCEDURE. Begin by saying: "_Can you say 'mamma'? Now, say 'nice
kitty.'_" Then ask the child to say, "_I have a little dog._" Speak the
sentence distinctly and with expression, but in a natural voice and not
too slowly. If there is no response, the first sentence may be repeated
two or three times. Then give the other two sentences: "_The dog runs
after the cat_," and, "_In summer the sun is hot._" A great deal of tact
is sometimes necessary to enlist the child's cooeperation in this test.
If he cannot be persuaded to try, the alternative test of three digits
may be substituted.

SCORING. The test is passed if at least _one sentence is repeated
without error after a single reading_. "Without error" is to be taken
literally; there must be no omission, insertion, or transposition
of words. Ignore indistinctness of articulation and defects of
pronunciation a