nicole kotras masters thesis

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necessarily indicate that the two language versions (English and Xhosa) of the Griffiths Scales are not equivalent. Culture must be considered to be a confounding variable in any study of the effect of language on test performance. Another aspect which could explain the significant difference on the Hearing and Speech Scale is the influence of the experiential world of the young urban child on test scores. Earlier research indicated that Black African children did not feel at home with pictorial representations (Biesheuvel, 1949; Minde & Kantor, 1976). Furthermore, it is possible that the children from different cultural and social groups were not equally familiar with some of the test items, which in turn affected their test performance. Allan (1992) stated that although the White and Black children were very similar in terms of parental education and occupational levels, Duminy (1973) proposed that the environment in which the Black child lives, is completely different from that of his White counterpart. Therefore, it is possible that the significant difference between White and Black children is due to cultural and environmental factors, rather than the language of the translation as such (Allan, 1992). In comparison with the British standardization sample, a significant difference was obtained for White children who scored significantly higher with respect to the GQ, the Hearing and Speech Scale (CQ) and Practical Reasoning Scale (FQ). Regarding the analyses of individual items, the items of each individual scale of the Griffiths Scales are arranged in order of difficulty (Griffiths, 1984). A decreasing trend was found in the percentage of 5-and 6-year-old children from each cultural group, who passed successive items of the individual scales. For the 5-year-olds from the British standardization sample and each of the South African cultural groups, the percentage of children who passed successive items of the individual scales was correlated. This was done for every individual scale. Allan’s (1992) study indicated that item bias may hinder a national multicultural standardization of the Griffiths Scales for South African children. The present British norms are furthermore not applicable for South African Indian and White children, but appear to be more applicable for South African Black and Coloured children. Bhamjee (1991) completed a study which investigated the applicability of the Griffiths Scales for South African Indian children. The sample (N = 360) consisted of children between the ages 3 years and 8 years, with equal numbers of each gender group. The differences were most significant in the pre-school age group. The results of the study indicated that the South African Indian children performed significantly higher than their 29
30 British counterparts with respect to the General Quotient (GQ) at each age level, and on at least three of the six Scales (i.e., Personal-Social, Performance & Practical-Reasoning) at each age level. Bhamjee's (1991) findings regarding socio-economic status, are consistent with those of previous researchers, namely, that there were significant differences in the performances of children from the different socio-economic groups, with the children from the upper group performing better (Allan, 1988; Heimes, 1983; Hindley, 1960). Bhamjee (1991) stated that the use of the British norms would be a serious mistake, as it would result in a failure to identify specific problems. Furthermore, assessing children with material which is not "culturally- fair" can also result in a failure to identify specific problems. Moore's (1967) longitudinal study which was completed with a sample (N = 76) of British children (41 boys and 35 girls) who were tested at five ages: 6 months, 18 months, 3 years, 5 years and 8 years, yielded valuable information regarding language and intelligence. Regarding the question of gender and language acquisition, Moore (1967) found that at 18 months of age, the girls surpass the boys significantly on the Hearing and Speech Scale (CQ). In general ability, the sexes started virtually equal. The girls scored a little higher during the period of language acquisition (first five years of life) and were then overtaken by the boys. The early superiority of girls is in agreement with many studies summarized by McCarthy (1954). The fact that boys tend to catch up before school age (? 5 years of age) was also found by Templin (1957). In a study completed by Smith (1914), he found differences in favour of boys only in respect of vocabulary. Allan (1988, 1992) and Bhamjee (1991) found that the performance of boys and girls did not differ significantly on the Hearing and Speech Scale. Worsfold (1993) completed a study aimed to establish how accurately Grade 1 performance can be predicted from (a) General Quotient (GQ) and (b) quotients of the six subscales of the Griffiths Scales. The results indicated that the Griffiths profiles of the subjects in the three scholastic groups (above average, average and below average) differed significantly on scales CQ, DQ, EQ, and FQ. Furthermore, it was found that the validity of the Griffiths Scales for predicting scholastic performance in Grade one was high. This justifies the inclusion of the Scales in a school-readiness test battery. In addition, the Scales are shown to be a valuable tool for the clinician, in the identification of children who may be scholastically "at risk".
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 and 24: ange from birth to three years of a
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: 28 (GQ) and in their performance on
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 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:
Table 19 The responses given to the
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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