Twin Brother Act

Educator John Dewey stared, smiled and applauded. Neurologist Stewart Paton stared, smiled and applauded. Geneticist Charles Benedict Davenport stared, smiled and applauded. Likewise did four dozen other specially invited guests at the performances of a 19-month old boy known as Johnny. They watched the youngster critically as he climbed up a steep plank to get a banana, as he dropped down from a 5-ft. perch (see cut, p. 18), as he got around on roller skates, as he picked out familiar objects from a pile of hells, pencils, spoons and other miscellany--all the while gibbling &; gabbling with his august audience. Johnny has appeared in motion pictures displayed to psychologists in Chicago last autumn (TIME, Sept. 18). Last week's was his first personal appearance before a large audience. Like every smart entertainer, Johnny had a less brilliant but by no means dull, companion in his "act," his twin brother Jimmy. Precocious Johnny and normal Jimmy put on their performance at Manhattan's Babies Hospital. Manager was Dr. Myrtle Byram McGraw, jolly assistant director of the Normal Child Development Clinic of Manhattan's Neurological Institute. Impresario was Professor Frederick Tilney, learned director of research at the Neurological Institute. Although Professor Tilney urgently needs money for essential researches at the Neurological Institute and Johnny's father, who is temporarily a taxidriver, and Johnny's mother, who was a telephone operator, urgently need money for family expenses, neither the parents nor the impresario will capitalize the child. Even Johnny's family name is not revealed. Every morning since Johnny and Jimmy were 20 days old a nurse from Dr. McGraw's clinic has called for them at their home, every evening returned them. Competent as Johnny is at roller-skating, climbing, jumping and swimming-- activities which are beyond uncoached Jimmy--he cannot pedal a tricycle. This inability points directly to the significance of Dr. McGraw's work with him. Said she last week: ''The question before us has been this: Whether or not you must wait for a child's development of the nervous system. In our experiments we. may have hastened the ripening process of the nervous system, or we may have simply given the nervous system a chance to function." Almost simultaneously Jimmy and Johnny lost the ability to hang suspended by their fingers. They learned to sit up on practically the same day. When the infants started to reach for toys, to crawl, walk and climb, Dr. McGraw left Jimmy to his own development, helped Johnny improve his. The effect on Johnny has been to make him bold, self-confident and cocky, while Jimmy is a charming roly-poly who gets what he wants by crying or smiling. These contrary attitudes in the twins pose the question "whether or not, by intensive training during infancy, you can raise the mental level of a given individual." Explained Dr. McGraw: "You can get a definite change in attitude toward achievement, even during the early months of infancy, and attitude is one of the most important factors governing achievement of performance. . . . Presumably attitude plays an equally important role in the way adults face or meet their respective problems. Whether or not training a child to face difficult problems will mean that he will be more able to face the difficult problems of adulthood is a question we are not at present prepared to answer."

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