Reversible Retardation

For fear of disease, Indian mothers in the primitive Guatemalan village of San Marcos leave their infants alone in their huts during the first year of life. They have neither toys nor playmates, and they emerge from that isolation severely retarded--up to four months behind middle-class infants in the U.S.

According to standard theory, such an experience during a child's first year should handicap him for life. But Harvard Psychologist Jerome Kagan last week reported quite different findings. By the time children in San Marcos reach the age of eleven, Kagan told the American Association for the Advancement of Science, they score as high on tests of memory, reasoning ability and perception as middle-class American children. So except in cases of physical defects, he concluded, "infant retardation is reversible, and cognitive development in the early years is plastic."

To Kagan, the implications for U.S. schools are obvious: they give up too early on slow starters in reading, writing and arithmetic--particularly those in slums. In contrast to critics like Harvard Sociologist Christopher Jencks, who argues that heredity and home environment determine how well children do in school, Kagan believes there is much that schools can do. Instead of judging all children according to how well they master "narrowly intellectual skills," he said, they should encourage deprived children in music, art and public speaking, while trying to help them catch up in other areas. Most of all, he said, teachers should develop the child's selfesteem, which is "the No. 1 factor in school success."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.