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child is of vital importance. Furthermore, it is emphasized that developmental delays may also reflect adverse environmental conditions, such as abuse and child battering in general. The assessment of children in South Africa has entered a new era. There is increasing recognition that children from various cultural backgrounds need to be assessed. This is especially true for pre-school and kindergarten children who wish to obtain their education in a multi-cultural setting. This growing need brings forward the requirement for a "culture-reduced" instrument, that will allow for "culture-fair" assessment (Allan, 1992; Luiz, 1994). Before such an instrument is adapted, investigations into the demographic factors of South African children need to be conducted. A dire need exists for developing a single, valid, reliable, contemporary and culture-fair test, for use in the assessment of infants and young children of all population groups in South Africa. However, this task is not only highly difficult and rare, but also time consuming and financially costly. The developmental assessment of infants and young children, has been widely acknowledged as crucial in the early detection and intervention of any possible disability. Information obtained from assessment measures, serves not only as a tool for the correct diagnosis of any disability, but can also assist in the construction of appropriate intervention programmes (Bhamjee, 1991; Luiz, 1994). Despite a concerted effort by researches to address the need for the more reliable and valid assessment of pre-school South African children, the following shortcomings are evident: (i) The existing developmental assessment measures are not comprehensive, with most tests, except the Griffiths Scales, focusing on specific aspects of development or providing a mere screening measure (Luiz, 1994). (ii) Specific tests are standardized for specific cultural groups to the exclusion of others (Luiz, 1994), and there are limited standardized tests available to assess the development of 84% (OHS, 1995) of the pre-school population, namely, Black pre-school children. (iii) Specific tests are standardized for specific age groups to the exclusion of others. The available South African assessment instruments do not provide for the age 9
ange from birth to three years of age. This is evident even for White South African children, the cultural group for whom most of the tests are standardized (Luiz, 1994). (iv) Due to the specificity of tests regarding age ranges and cultural groups, related research is fragmentary in nature, resulting in limited generalizability of findings (Luiz, 1994). (v) Specific items within "culture-fair" tests are non-contemporaneous. The above mentioned shortcomings have serious pragmatic implications. When a young Black, Coloured, Indian or White child younger than 3 years needs to be developmentally assessed, the testers are required to use instruments that are not standardized for these groups. The dangers in using a test on pre-school children who form part of a population which was not representative of the normative sample, have far reaching ramifications. Furthermore, due to the afore- mentioned shortcomings, it is evident that there are gaps in the assessment of the development of young children in South Africa. In order to fill such gaps, there is an urgent need to establish a valid, reliable test that covers the important aspects of development, and includes items for the first three years of life for the assessment of all South African infants and pre-school children. Since the construction of a single test is fraught with many difficulties, an alternative approach has been put forward. This involves taking an existing "culture-fair" test, which is widely used in many countries around the world, and adapting it for use in all population groups of South Africa (Allan, 1988, 1992; Bhamjee, 1991; Heimes, 1983; Luiz, 1994; Tukulu, 1996). This has already been carried out in South Africa on numerous occasions. Examples include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) which has been adapted for use with Coloured and White South African children (Hart, 1970; Shillington, 1988); Foxcroft (1985) adapted the Reitan-Indiana Neuropsychological Test Battery (RINTB) for White, Coloured and Indian children; the Institute of Behavioural Science have adapted a variety of cognitive tests for use with Black children (Griesel & Richter, 1986; Griesel & Richter-Strydom, 1983); Allan (1988) adapted the Griffiths Scales for 5 year-old White English and Afrikaans South African children; Bhamjee (1991) adapted the Griffiths Scales for 3 to 8 year-old Indian children; and Tukulu (1996) for Xhosa speaking children. In summary, future research on the Griffiths Scales need to focus on adapting the Scale, taking into account those biographical and social factors which previously mentioned studies (Allan, 1988, 1992; Bhamjee, 1991; Mothuloe, 1990; Heimes, 1983; Luiz, 1994; 10
Page 1 and 2: A REVISION OF A SECTION OF THE HEAR
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS ii Page ACKNOWLED
Page 5 and 6: CHAPTER FOUR METHODOLOGY Problem fo
Page 7 and 8: LIST OF FIGURES vi Page Figure 1 Po
Page 9 and 10: Table 24 The responses given to the
Page 11 and 12: The major findings of the present s
Page 13 and 14: Die hoof bevindinge van die huidige
Page 15 and 16: Holt (1979) has comprehensively sum
Page 17 and 18: Figure 1 Population of South Africa
Page 19 and 20: of disabled people increases slowly
Page 21: second language or culture. Hamblet
Page 25 and 26: Africa cannot be separated from the
Page 27 and 28: 14 Hence, this study was aimed at p
Page 29 and 30: highly verbal in nature which is li
Page 31 and 32: perceptual-performance, quantitativ
Page 33 and 34: acquisition of this complex ability
Page 35 and 36: assessment of young children in Sou
Page 37 and 38: Table 1 Griffiths (1960) scoring cr
Page 39 and 40: that the two scales produced signif
Page 41 and 42: 28 (GQ) and in their performance on
Page 43 and 44: 30 British counterparts with respec
Page 45 and 46: 32 concluded that the Griffiths Sca
Page 47 and 48: 34 languages are usually successful
Page 49 and 50: individual been assessed. Hence, wh
Page 51 and 52: Wilhelm Wundt, the founder of exper
Page 53 and 54: ecome evident. Questions include th
Page 55 and 56: Plays language games (pat-a-cake, p
Page 57 and 58: 36-54 months. Grammar developmental
Page 59 and 60: understands, and, if the child appe
Page 61 and 62: 48 the child's performance on each
Page 63 and 64: 50 manipulate simple toys according
Page 65 and 66: children's verbal responses. The re
Page 67 and 68: CHAPTER FOUR METHODOLOGY PROBLEM FO
Page 69 and 70: Bailey (1987) lists several advanta
Page 71 and 72: espondents, many mailed questionnai
Page 73 and 74:
he studied the 2 Griffiths manuals
Page 75 and 76:
62 written responses of the complet
Page 77 and 78:
Stage 5 The most frequently suggest
Page 79 and 80:
66 The subjects in the present stud
Page 81 and 82:
Table 6 Demographic data for Sample
Page 83 and 84:
In the present study, parents were
Page 85 and 86:
Stage 6 Stage 7 For the large revis
Page 87 and 88:
number of stimuli from the revised
Page 89 and 90:
Table 10 The responses given to the
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
80 Table 13 indicates the responses
Page 95 and 96:
Table 15 Frequency and percentages
Page 97 and 98:
highest and lowest mean numbers of
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
88 Table 21 indicates the frequency
Page 103 and 104:
65 months elicited the highest mean
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Table 26 Means and Standard deviati
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
impacted on the spread of obtained
Page 113 and 114:
CHAPTER SIX CRITICAL EVALUATION AND
Page 115 and 116:
proposed criteria. Regarding Griffi
Page 117 and 118:
include: LIMITATIONS The limitation
Page 119 and 120:
e included into the Hearing and Spe
Page 121 and 122:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Aldridge-Smith, J., Bi
Page 123 and 124:
110 Development Bank of South Afric
Page 125 and 126:
112 Scale scores of 3-5 year old bo
Page 127 and 128:
University Press. Lister, C. (1981)
Page 129 and 130:
Kegan Paul. Kegan Paul. Kegan Paul.
Page 131 and 132:
Minnesota Press. Thomas, H. (1970).
Page 133 and 134:
APPENDIX A Letters and questionnair
Page 135 and 136:
Questionnaire attached to above let
Page 137 and 138:
APPENDIX C Letter to parents for th
Page 139 and 140:
Biographical questionnaire for pare
Page 141 and 142:
APPENDIX E Riordan (1978). The valu
Page 143:
130
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