PEDIATRICS Vol. 45 No. 5 May 1970, pp. 811
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ADVICE ABOUT EDUCATING THE SLOW CHILD IN 1812

T. E. C. Jr. M.D.

Maria Anne Campbell1 in 1812 wrote a delightful book about female education including her ideas on the special needs of the slow child. Many of her suggestions cited below concerning the teaching of such a child are surprisingly modern:

There are many slow children, who are frequently confounded with those who are naturally dull, by preceptors who are not capable of discerning the different capacities of children committed to their care, or who perhaps, form their opinions too hastily on the subject; and from the mode of treatment, generally adopted . . . arises many errors. . . . They (slow children) are frequently told by their teachers, that they are incorrigible dunces. . . .This treatment so depresses their spirit, and suspends the free exercise of their faculties, that they begin to think it quite unnecessary to make any further exertion, imagining that they lie under an insurmountable natural defect. And thus it happens that more children are made dunces than born so.

When a child is known to possess a slow perception, care should be taken to impress habits of the strictest perseverance on her, and let not her dullness be treated as an irreparable misfortune. On the contrary, she should be told that by strict application to her studies, she may at length equal, if not surpass those of the most brilliant parts. Historical examples may be quoted to shew (sic) her the advantages that are to be derived from perseverance; amongst others, that celebrated one of Demosthenes' having overcome a great natural defect by perseverance. . .