Assessment of preschoolers at-risk with the WPPSI--R and the Stanford-Binet L-M.

The purpose of this study was to provide data on the validity of using the WPPSI--R with 16 preschoolers who had been referred for psychological assessment. A comparison of the preschoolers' performance on the WPPSI--R and the Stanford-Binet L-M was made. Children ranged in age from 3-0 to 6-0 years, with a mean age of 4-5 yr. The correlations between WPPSI--R and Stanford-Binet L-M scores were strong; WPPSI--R Verbal IQ and Stanford-Binet L-M IQ, r = .85; WPPSI--R Performance IQ and Stanford-Binet L-M IQ, r = .75, and WPPSI--R Full Scale IQ and Stanford-Binet L-M IQ, r = .82. For this very small sample of children whose mean IQ was significantly below average, the WPPSI--R appeared to assess validly their current intellectual functioning. Attention should be given concurrent and predictive validity as well as the efficiency of using the WPPSI--R with other and larger samples of referred children.     

Relationship of the Wechsler pre-school and primary scale of intelligence and the Stanford-Binet (L-M) in lower class children

Using 72 lower class children, concurrent validity of the WPPSI was studied employing Form L-M of the Stanford-Binet as the criterion. Correlations between SB and WPPSI were moderately high (.86 for FS, .81 for VS, .73 for PS), but the WPPSI appeared a somewhat more difficult test for the sample employed. Mean SB IQ (94.61) was higher than the mean FS (90.71), VS (89.38) and PS (93.68) IQs; it exceeded WPPSI IQ in 72% of all cases. On the WPPSI, PS IQ was significantly greater than either VS or FS IQs. Amont the WPPSI subtests, Vocabulary was significantly lower than all other subtests and Comprehension lower than Picture Completion, Mazes, and Block Design. The only significant sexual difference favored females on Similarities. For subjects whose FS IQ was below the group median IQ, relationships among each of the WPPSI scales and subtests were lower than for those subjects who scored above the median. This was particularly true for the Vocabulary, Animal House, and Picture Completion subtests.     

The effectiveness of fading in programming a simultaneous form discrimination for retarded children

A non-verbal teaching program, combined with reinforcement and extinction (Program Group), was compared with reinforcement and extinction alone (Test Group) in teaching retarded children to discriminate circles from ellipses. In the Program Group, fading techniques were used to transfer stimulus control from “bright vs. dark” to “form vs. no-form” and then to “circle vs. ellipse”. The Test Group had the task of learning the circle-ellipse discrimination with no prior teaching program. With the program, seven of 10 children learned the circle-ellipse discrimination. Without the program, one of nine learned. The eight Test-Group children who failed to learn circle vs. ellipse were then given the opportunity to learn the form no-form discrimination by reinforcement and extinction alone, without fading. Six of the eight learned, but only three of these six then learned circle vs. ellipse on a second test. All seven Program-Group children who had learned form vs. no-form also learned the circle-ellipse discrimination by means of fading; each of the seven made fewer errors than any of the three who succeeded on the second test. Children who failed to learn circle vs. ellipse adopted response patterns incompatible with the development of appropriate stimulus control.     

Gradients of auditory generalization for blind, retarded children

Severely retarded, blind children were conditioned to respond differentially to two intensities of a pure tone. Gradients of auditory generalization were obtained that were reliable and similar to those for normal adults, but often asymmetric and non-monotonic.     

Talking to children, foreigners, and retarded adults

Speech addressed to different categories of listeners was examined in a study in which undergraduate women taught a block design task to either a 6-year-old child, a retarded adult, a peer who spoke English as a second language (foreigner), or a peer who was an unimpaired native speaker of English. The speech addressed to children differed from the speech addressed to native adults along every major dimension that emerged in this study: It was clearer, simpler, and more attention maintaining, and it included longer pauses. Speech addressed to retarded adults was similar in numerous ways to the speech addressed to 6-year-olds; in some ways (e.g., repetitiveness), it was even more babyish. However, speech to the retarded adults did differ in timing from the other styles of speaking in that it included fewer and somewhat shorter pauses. Speech addressed to foreigners was more repetitive than speech addressed to native speakers, but in all other ways it was very similar. There was some evidence that speakers fine-tuned their communications to the level of cognitive and linguistic sophistication of their particular listener; for example, speakers addressing the more sophisticated foreigners (relative to those addressing the less sophisticated foreigners) used speech that included fewer devices for clarifying, simplifying, and maintaining the listeners' attention. We discuss the hypothesis that baby talk (the speech addressed to children) is a prototypical special speech register from which other special registers are derived.     

A validity study of the K-ABC, the WISC-R, and the Stanford-Binet with nonreferred children

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) is an attempt at improving assessment procedures related to the construct of intelligence. This study reports findings about the relationship between the K-ABC, the WISC-R, and the Stanford-Binet for 40 children with no known impairments serving as subjects. The intercorrelations of the K-ABC Mental Processing Composite with the WISC-R and with the Binet were .79 and .61, respectively. The overall results suggested some support for the use of the K-ABC as a measure of intelligence.     

Labeling, rehearsal, and short-term memory in retarded children

A short-term memory task was used to explore the effects of verbal labeling and rehearsal on serial-position recall in mildly retarded 9- to 11-year-old children. A stimulus array consisting of seven cards depicting familiar animals was presented for seven trials. In Expt I, recall when subjects labeled the pictures as they were shown was compared to recall when no labeling occurred. Total recall was not affected, but for the older CA group primacy recall was hindered and recency recall was facilitated by labeling. In Expt II, three variations of rehearsal of the names to be recalled were compared. When prompting accompanied rehearsal, recall improved at both recency and primacy positions. When prompting occurred for the primacy positions only, recall was higher for these positions but not for other positions. These results support the view that verbal skills affect recall in mildly retarded children similarly to normal children.