Abstract

1) In the context of research on disadvantaged children, the authors have concentrated their efforts on the study of the fantasy life of both advantaged and disadvantaged children, at age 4, 5 and 6.

Using a scale of development inspired by Anna Freud's concept of developmental lines, they have found statistically significant major differences in the evolution of the two groups, in studying both their libidinal and ego organizations. Such differences are consistently evident, although in varying degrees through the three years of observation. A minority of the disadvantaged children show good emotional resources in their first nursery years (age 4), and their development remains adequate through first grade. Most of them however present an inadequate development all along and continue in first grade to function at the level of a preœdipal phantasy life which they should have repressed or transformed.

2) A study of plastic productions in first grade (drawings) and of the learning indices which they reflect also reveals important disparities between the two groups. Advantaged children reach a state of serenity which allows them to enter easily into the world of formal learning and latency. Disadvantaged children are still too often under the domination of a dangerous phantasy world which delays their entry into formal learning and makes it problematic.

3) The review of recent literature suggests a pessimistic view about early intervention with disadvantaged children; the authors, however, believe in the necessity of tenaciously pursuing observations of such early interventions and long-term evaluations of results.