A Cooperative Orphanage Research

Abstract

For the past fourteen years the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station at the University of Iowa has been carrying on research studies in con nection with preschool laboratory groups located at the University. These laboratories, now numbering four, include children from the ages of two to five and represent a very definitely superior group from .the standpoint of intelligence. A year ago it was possible for the Iowa Child Welfare Research Sta tion to enlarge its scope of study of the preschool child to include a group of underprivileged children who are of somewhat lower mental levels than are those in the University laboratories and who are living under controlled variations of environmental influences. This extension labor atory is located at the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Davenport, Iowa, and is being sponsored jointly by the Station and the Iowa State Board of Control of State Institutions. In the early stages of this program, it was recognized that one of the major needs at the Orphans' Home was a more definite educational pro gram for the preschool child. In addition, since the Station was inter ested in studies relating to the effects of preschool education, a very definite need was felt for preschool groups where the multiple variable of individual homes could be somewhat reduced. A group of orphanage children under relatively comparable and con stant cottage conditions seemed to meet these requirements rather ade quately. Consequently, the Davenport cooperative preschool project was established and is, so far as we know, the first preschool to be operated anywhere with an orphanage and a university cooperating. For the sake of contrast with the level of society which the Univer sity preschools represent, it is probably well to mention briefly the back ground of the orphanage children. All the children in this particular orphanage are dependents and come from neglected homes. Ninety per cent of the fathers have the vocational status of day laborers or of semi skilled laborers. And in addition to that fact, we find that all are from homes which are not self-supporting. The educational status of the par ents is low?a few have had a year or two of high school, but a large ma jority have never gone farther than the eighth grade. And it goes with out saying that prior to their residence in the institution, the home sit 437