Note 9 — Chapter III · ToC
William Blackley Drummond translation
By way of comparison, the following dictation was given to ninety-two children in an Edinburgh school. The progressive difficulties depend upon the non-phonetic spelling and the lesser familiarity of words. Most of the children came to school in their sixth year.
1. Tom is a good boy. He has a book and a bat. He can run fast.
2. The dog is bigger than the cat, but he cannot climb so well. He would if he could.
3. The farmer walked through the wood till he came to the field. It was a fine day for sowing the corn. He hoped it would not rain till he had finished his work.
4. The weather was very stormy. The boughs of the trees were blowing to and fro in the wind. Clouds were chasing each other across the sky. The crows were watching the ploughman in the field.
Mistakes were marked according to the directions in the text. Thus "bows" for "boughs" counted three mistakes. The results were as follows:
Age of Children. Average Mistakes in Test Sentences.
1. 2. 3. 4.
6 to 7 years 0.32 2.64 — —
7 to 8 years 0.22 1.77 3.45 6.18
8 to 9 years 0.2 0.36 1.68 5.91