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11 Stewart, 1997; Tukulu, 1996;) have found to have a significant influence on performance. Progress could hence be made towards an assessment instrument which is more "culturally-neutral" and contemporaneous for all the children of South Africa. GRIFFITHS SCALES Since the introduction of the Griffiths Scales into South Africa 20 years ago, a considerable gap has been filled in the developmental assessment of infants and young children. Furthermore, the contribution made by the Griffiths Scales is also evident in the United Kingdom since its introduction in 1954. To date the Griffiths Scales have been successfully utilized in South Africa on a wide-range of population groups (Allan, 1988, 1992; Bhamjee, 1991; Heimes, 1983; Houston-McMillian, 1986; Lombard, 1989; Luiz, 1988a, 1988b, 1988c, 1994; Luiz, Oelofsen, Stewart, & Mitchell, 1995; Mothuloe, 1990; Stewart, 1997; Sweeney, 1994; Tukulu, 1996; Worsfold, 1993). Furthermore, the Griffiths Scales have been translated, using the Brislin (1970) back-translation technique into Afrikaans (Allan, 1988) and Xhosa (Tukulu, 1996). Also items from a number of Scales have been adapted (e.g., "potato" for "turnip"), making them more applicable for use within the South African context. A pertinent issue raised is whether available assessment instruments, such as the Griffiths Scales, which were developed for a specific cultural group at a specific time in history, can be legitimately administered and applied to a culturally different group within any one society. The Griffiths Scales main purpose was to fulfil the need for an intellectual assessment device for pre-school children (Heimes, 1983) in South Africa and the United Kingdom. However, since their introduction into South Africa (1977), numerous studies done by South African authors (Allan, 1988,1992; Bhamjee, 1991; Heimes, 1983; Luiz, 1994; Luiz, et al., 1995; Stewart, 1997; Tukulu, 1996) show that while the Griffiths Scales appear to be substantially culture-fair, some items require closer analysis and possible revision. Research at a national and international level (Allan, 1992; Luiz, et al., 1995) provided a preliminary analysis of all the items of the Griffiths Scales. The results indicated several items, which included the 20 small pictures and the large picture of the Hearing and Speech Scale, as culturally-biased and non-contemporaneous and thus in need of revision. It was clearly evident that the revision of the Griffiths Scales for the children of South
Africa cannot be separated from the broader social context in which these children are currently growing up. As the test is utilized in diverse settings, in both first and third world contexts, the revision of the pictures needs to include such pertinent factors. Hence, if accurate developmental assessment of children from diverse backgrounds is desired, test items need to be adapted for the different contexts in which the test is to be used. It is therefore evident that the revision of the small pictures and large picture is likely to require separate, context-specific (Allan, 1992; Bhamjee, 1991; Luiz, 1994; Luiz et. al., 1995; Tukulu, 1996) and contemporary-specific aspects. The Griffiths Scales, with special reference to the Hearing and Speech Scale, have been discussed in Chapter 2. As the main focus of the present study involved the Hearing and Speech Scale, the issues of language development and the concept of intelligence are briefly addressed below. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND THE CONCEPT OF INTELLIGENCE "Thanks to speech, man became man" (Humboldt, in Sampson, 1956). Of all of our gifts speech is the most specifically human. The human child vocalises at a very young age. They start their life with a cry and almost from the beginning, they express themselves in vague sounds (Gesell & Ilg, 1946). Their parent figure learns to distinguish their utterances and their references to pain, hunger and contentment by the end of the first month. At 6 months of age they are spending 3% of their waking time in speech activity. At 9 to 10 months they utter their first word. Vocabulary and understanding continue to increase, but it is not until about 18 months, that a consciousness of the meaning of speech dawns (McCarthy, 1930; Stern, 1924; Swan, 1992). At this age however, there is still much speech which is not in conventional form. In the pre-verbal stage of language development, the child's speech can be described as "incomprehensible" as it involves vowel sounds alone, or combinations of vowels and distinct consonants (Sampson, 1956). Children vary widely in the age and the efficiency with which, they learn to use language. Studies of animals and infants have shown that communication and intelligent behaviour are possible without language (Moore, 1967). However, Piaget (1928, 1932, 1959) demonstrated how children, by verbalizing their thoughts, are brought to the test of reality; while the experiments of Vygotsky (1962) and his school (Luria, 1961) showed how learning could be vastly improved and made possible at an earlier age by the introduction of 12
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 and 22: second language or culture. Hamblet
Page 23: ange from birth to three years of a
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
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Stage 5 The most frequently suggest
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66 The subjects in the present stud
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Table 6 Demographic data for Sample
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In the present study, parents were
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Stage 6 Stage 7 For the large revis
Page 87 and 88:
number of stimuli from the revised
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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
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highest and lowest mean numbers of
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
88 Table 21 indicates the frequency
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65 months elicited the highest mean
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Table 26 Means and Standard deviati
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Page 111 and 112:
impacted on the spread of obtained
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CHAPTER SIX CRITICAL EVALUATION AND
Page 115 and 116:
proposed criteria. Regarding Griffi
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include: LIMITATIONS The limitation
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e included into the Hearing and Spe
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Aldridge-Smith, J., Bi
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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)
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Kegan Paul. Kegan Paul. Kegan Paul.
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Minnesota Press. Thomas, H. (1970).
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APPENDIX A Letters and questionnair
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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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