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Working memory is a limited capacity system in which information is temporarily stored and processed. Its optimal functioning is essential for educational attainment from the earliest grade. The working memory system enables the storage and mental manipulation of information during classroom learning activities that are crucial for the acquisition of complex skills and knowledge. Given the South African Department of Education's commitment to inclusive education, it was deemed important to consider the visual working memory functioning of deaf learners and how this may differ, if at all, from that of hearing children. In this study, the visuospatial components of working memory were assessed in 24 deaf children and 15 matched, hearing children, to determine what, if any, differences existed between these groups. The results indicated that the hearing children scored significantly higher than the deaf children on virtually all components of visuospatial short-term and working memory. The implication of thi...

This study investigated whether measures of verbal working memory are less sensitive to children’s socioeconomic background than traditional vocabulary measures. Participants were 120 school beginners, divided into high and low socioeconomic groups. The groups contained equal numbers of English first-language and second-language speakers. All were being educated in English. The results suggest that socioeconomic status accounts for considerable variance in vocabulary measures, while it explains only very small amounts of variance in working memory measures. In addition, the high socioeconomic group performed significantly better on the two vocabulary tests relative to the low socioeconomic group, while there were no significant differences between the groups on all but one of the four working memory tests. Working memory assessments appear to be less influenced by environmental factors and may constitute fairer forms of evaluation for children from differing socioeconomic backgrounds. As such, working memory measures may be a valuable supplement to psychoeducational assessment batteries.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine whether or not children with learning disabilities, specifically children with dyslexia, were more creative than non-learning disabled children of the same age. Torrance's Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) were administered to a group of 36 children with dyslexia in Grades four to seven, all attending the same remedial school. The scores obtained on the TTCT from the children with dyslexia were then compared to those of the normative sample for the TTCT. Results indicated that the children with dyslexia in all Grades were significantly better than the norm group at generating a large quantity of ideas. The children with dyslexia in Grade six also produced significantly more original responses than the non-learning disabled sample. It was concluded that the children with dyslexia within the current study may have higher than average ability on certain dimensions of creativity, and that these abilities could be drawn on when educating such children.