So, for example, a 6-year-old whose test performance matched that of a typical 6-year-old was said to have an average I.Q., of 100, while a 6-year-old who performed like a 9-year-old was awarded a score of 150. was based on comparing his or her mental age, determined by a standardized series of tests, to his or her chronological age. Then, in 1916, Stanford University psychologist Louis Terman published the Stanford-Binet test, which made the term intelligence quotient, or I.Q., part of the popular vocabulary.Ī child’s I.Q. An early intelligence test had been demonstrated at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893-the same exhibition that introduced Americans to such wonders as the Ferris wheel, Cracker Jacks and hula dancing.
The recent advent of intelligence testing, which allowed psychologists to gauge mental ability with seemingly scientific precision, is one likely reason. While every generation produces its share of precocious children, no era, before or since, seems to have been so obsessed with them.
CHILD PRODIGY MOVIE
Much like the movie stars, industrial titans and heavyweight champs of the day, their exploits were glorified and their opinions quoted in newspapers across the United States. In the first few decades of the 20th century, child prodigies became national celebrities. The early 20th-century obsession with child prodigies was well documenting in tabloid newspapers, turning the kids into national celebrities.