Milwaukee Project

The Milwaukee Project was a University of Wisconsin research project aimed at children born to mothers with an IQ of less than 80 with the aim of encouraging their intellectual development.

Why the project started

In the American city of Milwaukee , child psychologists pointed out a major problem in the 1960s: 33% of the city's mentally retarded children came from a neighborhood where 3% of Milwaukee's residents lived . The living conditions in this quarter were extremely bad. More than half of the residents were unemployed; Alcohol use and drug addiction are common. Two youth gangs based there fought for power, so that the children could no longer play in the playgrounds. The mothers were often single parents, had often given birth to their children at a young age and were overwhelmed with their upbringing. A high percentage of the mothers had an intellectual disability.

The project

The project, led by Rick Heber of the University of Wisconsin, was open to children whose mothers had an IQ of 80 and less. 40 mothers agreed that their children should take part in the project. Two groups of 20 children each were formed, a treatment group and a control group. As some mothers withdrew their children from the experiment, the number of children in the treatment group was reduced to 17 and those in the control group to 18.

The Infant Stimulation Center

The children in the treatment group were brought to a so-called Infant Stimulation Center as babies. Each child was given a personal supervisor there. These were academics with a doctorate in the field of education and psychology. It was the task of the caregivers to talk to the respective child, play educational games and read to them. In addition, the children were vaccinated and a doctor prepared a meal plan for each child. The project ended when the children were six. They were no longer promoted and attended the poor public schools in their neighborhood.

The successes

At 6 years of age, the children in the treatment group proved to be above average intelligent. They had an average IQ of 120. The children from the control group, on the other hand, only had an average IQ of 87. At the age of 14, the children from the treatment group still had an IQ of 101, those from the control group of 91.

The "Susie" case

The case of a girl who went down in literature as "Susie" is particularly interesting. Susie was born under extremely adverse conditions: her mother was the daughter of an alcoholic and spent her childhood in institutions. She was sexually abused in the last home she lived in and it was from that abuse that Susie was born. Susie's mother suffered from an exceptionally severe form of intellectual disability. Her IQ was below 50 and she found it difficult to do everyday things like shopping or running a household. Susie participated in the Milwaukee Project as one of the children in the care group. As a grown woman, she managed to obtain BA degrees from two different universities and then pursue a career. Your IQ is between 120 and 125.

Criticism of the project

The success of the Milwaukee Project, claimed by its executors, was celebrated in the public media and by well-known psychologists. Later, however, the project's lead scientist, Rick Heber, was fired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was sentenced to prison for embezzling public funds, as were two of his employees. The results of the project were not published in any journal working according to scientific standards, and questions about the raw data and the technical details of the study were not answered. Consequently, the existence of the project was even questioned, although the study was cited uncritically in numerous psychological books.

It is further criticized that the two groups were too small, so that it was not possible to check whether the results came about by chance. On the other hand, the high cost of the project has been criticized as it cost about $ 14 million.

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d Howard L. Garber (1988): Milwaukee Project: Preventing Mental Retardation in Children at Risk

↑ IQ Scores: IQ Score Interpretation ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Downloaded December 9, 2007 @1@ 2

↑ [1] Ingrid Wickelgren (1999): Nurture Helps Mold Able Minds, Science March 19, 1999: Vol. 283. No. 5409, pp. 1832-1834

↑ Reynolds & Fletcher-Janzen 2001, pp. 462-463, 635-636

↑ Summer & Summer 1983

literature

Howard L. Garber: The Milwaukee Project: Preventing Mental Retardation in Children At Risk. ( English ). American Association on Mental Retardation , Washington, DC 1988, ISBN 978-0940898165 , OCLC 16758049 , LCCN 87-026970 .

Cecil R. Reynolds, Elaine Fletcher-Janzen (Eds.): Concise Encyclopedia of Special Education: A Reference for the Education of the Handicapped and Other Exceptional Children and Adults , 2nd. Edition, John Wiley & Sons , January 2002, ISBN 978-0-471-39261-3 , OCLC 491121153 , LCCN 2001-026647 .
Robert Sommer , Barbara A. Sommer: Mystery in Milwaukee: Early intervention, IQ, and psychology textbooks . In: American Psychologist . 38, No. 9, September 1983, ISSN 0003-066X , pp. 982-985. doi : 10.1037 / 0003-066X.38.9.982 . PMID 6638665 .