The Success of Young Children in Number and Letter Construction

TO TRACE the entire course of children's progress in learning to make numbers and letters would necessitate observation of the child from the time he makes his first random scribbles. For all practical purposes satisfactory data are obtainable from objective samplings of children's efforts to write taken at the age of four or five. The data represent an attempt to measure objectively the success of young children in their early efforts in making numbers and letters. Cumulative objective records of this kind are necessary for the determination of the nature of such learning and provide the only reliable basis for educational procedure with respect to it. The ability to draw successfully from memory, or to copy letters or numbers depends upon maturity of two kinds, visual-perceptual capacity and motor coordination. Lack of adequate visual-perceptual maturity for copying designs successfully is illustrated in the case of the child who in attempting to copy the Diamond of the Binet test remarks during his struggles that he must put the ears on. Suiting the action to the word, the resulting diamond, instead of having four straight sides, has several little excursions or projections that spoil his work according to the test standards. The child who has adequate visual-perceptive maturity for his task, but lacks sufficient motor control to execute it is illustrated in the not uncommon case of the child who can match designs or geometrical forms, but is unable because of inadequate motor control to produce more than a semblance of the original design which he is asked to copy.