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This collection of papers discusses various theoretical, clinical, and assessment issues in reading and writing delays and disorders. Topics include the following: integrating different theoretical approaches (cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, constructivism) into clinical approaches to reading and writing difficulties; difficulties of kindergartners in understanding the concept of reading and writing; a comparison of spelling, oral reading, and reading content in whole language and phonics-oriented first grade classes; the connection between visual processing and dyslexia; a reading evaluation tool for students with personality and behavior troubles; the use of writing by a deaf student; the role of the speech therapist in charge of deaf children in bilingual education; connections between difficulties in reading and writing and in accepting social norms; a therapeutic method for remediating surface dysgraphia; using "metagraphic explanations" with students with severe spelling difficulties; a comparison of text production between students with and without dysorthographia; a longitudinal analysis of text production; a didactic sequence for teaching/learning narrative discourse; and reflections on teaching versus therapy. (JSS)

This study explored the teaching and learning of school-related knowledge and skills in the home of a Spanish-dominant Puerto Rican kindergartner. The teachers, in this case, were the child's older siblings. The study was part of a larger exploration of language use in the classroom versus the home during activities defined by adults as lessons. Several hours of observation and audiotape recordings were conducted in the subject's home and were analyzed within the context of activity settings. (Activity settings are mediating contexts between culture and individual lives; they are goal-directed and collaborative interactions in which teaching and learning occur, and are defined by their components: personnel, cultural values, tasks, immediate motives, and scripts.) Interactions in the activity settings discovered during this study were analyzed on three levels. At the level of individual development, the subject demonstrated an active role in jointly constructing a zone of proximal development, including the use of private speech. At the interpersonal level, the data suggested that the activities of older siblings, together with those of parents, formed a coordinated system of caretaking and teaching as described in the cross-cultural literature. Whereas parents engaged in more formal teaching rather than play, older siblings provided a range of informal opportunities for learning that were embedded in play and other meaningful interactions. Third, at the cultural level, use of several different scripts, characteristic of different cultures, was apparent within the activity settings; older siblings often embodied a different cultural type of teaching than did parents. (Contains 29 references.) (EV)

Two case studies are presented here to highlight the importance of identifying cultural giftedness in language-minority children who are monolingual Spanish or bilingual Spanish dominant with low English proficiency. In one study, the child was monolingual, Spanish-dominant and culturally or non-verbally gifted; in the other, the child was an unbalanced bilingual Spanish-dominant/limited-English-proficient and culturally and linguistically gifted. The discussion helps to shed new light on the association between bilingualism and cognitive development and giftedness in young children. Quality of family life and socioeconomic status, based on parental education level and occupation, were examined for each child. The term "voices" is used to refer to the mainstream school culture view of linguistic and academic dimensions of giftedness based on standardized tests and performance standards guiding the curriculum. The term "voces" refers to the minority community view of cultural aspects of social and emotional dimensions of giftedness. Findings reveal that alternative assessments can capture non-verbal and verbal giftedness in minority children's culture and language; low socioeconomic minority children from nurturing families who provide cultural enrichment can develop emotional, cultural, and linguistic giftedness; and parents represent the minority voces while teachers portray the mainstream voices that result in complementary visions of giftedness that enrich language minority children's assessment. (Contains 47 references.) (Author/NAV)

Although children who live in environments of violence and poverty are frequently the subjects of psychoanalysis, much less attention is given to the fears and anxieties of children from more fortunate families. In the case of one San Francisco Bay Area school, the two head teachers in the kindergarten class were going to be absent for two non-consecutive weeks, following winter break, to interview prospective students for the upcoming school year. The teachers explained to the students what they would be doing during the upcoming week and that the assistant teachers would be in charge of the classroom. Despite the careful planning and preparation, the children complained about the disruption in their routines while the teachers were absent. The assistant teachers, who previously had been loved and appreciated, became the objects of dislike and disrespect. Children with a stable capacity for verbal negotiation began to revert to physical outbursts and temper tantrums. An interview with the children revealed an array of stories about being "bribed" with candy and treats by baby-sitters as comfort while their parents were away for the evening or a vacation. The teachers' leaving was seen as punishment for their oedipal strivings and successes. Because the teachers were leaving to interview prospective students, i.e., replacements, the conflicts became intensified and the affects difficult to manage. (BF)

A study explored the construct of phonological awareness by examining the effects of different instructional treatments on the development of generalized phonological skills, reading, and spelling. The effect of phonological instruction with kindergarten children who might be expected to have more than average difficulty learning to read in first grade was also tested. Subjects, 88 kindergarten children, were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. One treatment taught only auditory blending and segmenting with limited letter-sound correspondences, and the other a more global array of phonological tasks, also with limited letter-sound correspondences. Treatment effects were compared with two control conditions: letter-sound only, or no treatment. Results suggest that both types of metaphonological instruction improved phonological abilities and transferred to reading and spelling analog tasks; and that children whose phonological skills were initially low achieved a level of phonological awareness comparable to that of naturally proficient children, but were still less efficient in learning to read. Regression analyses suggested that blending and segmenting contribute more to variance on reading and spelling analog scores than a measure of generalized phonological awareness. (Contains 52 references; includes 5 tables of data.) (RS)

Japanese children are socialized to internalize parental, group, and institutional norms. Japanese adults believe "good" children to be sunao (cooperative). Sunao is difficult to translate into English, but can be thought of as being gentle and spirited. This paper presents a study that examined and described feelings and thoughts of Japanese children, their parents, and their teachers about sunao in a school setting. The kindergarten selected for this study was located in Kawasaki city, a middle class suburb near Tokyo. It was a traditional Japanese kindergarten and as such involved considerable group work. Children worked together on projects. At times the classes seemed to represent a single entity rather than a collection of individuals. The following themes emerged from analysis of the data: (1) sunao as a fundamental characteristic of the child; (2) sunao as both a positive and negative concept depending upon the use; and (3) sunao as a result of how the child is treated by others. Of the 60 children in the study, 56 understood sunao to be a positive attitude. Of the 69 adults, 26 defined sunao as honesty. Thirty of the 69 adults considered sunao to be a part of the whole child who is able to keep interpersonal harmony within a group situation. Sunao as behavior also can be seen two ways: being sunao to one's self and being sunao to others. The paper reports that sunao is one of the fundamental characteristics of the child: it affects their very being; how they behave and what they feel. Adults try to foster sunao through communication, modeling, and praise. Contains 17 references. (DK)

Using a personal anecdotal style, this paper describes ethical conflicts that occurred during a study conducted in a kindergarten classroom in which the researcher was a passive observer. The paper is framed around an incident observed by the researcher in which a kindergarten student was stigmatized as an outsider and mistreated by his peer group. The discussion of the researcher's role as a passive observer in a classroom stresses the need to capture the natural social setting of the classroom. The paper explores the ethical paradox of passive observation research. By avoiding intervention on behalf of a victim, a researcher can maintain objectivity and provide descriptions and analyses that have the potential to ultimately help victims; or a researcher can assist a victim in a sample of subjects being studied, but will thereby alter descriptions and analyses. (MM)

This pilot study examined the treatment of kindergarten children by one student teacher to determine whether there were differences in the teacher's treatment of male and female children. Data were collected by observing and tape recording a kindergarten classroom in which a student teacher interacted with 10 male and 10 female students for a 30-minute time period. Frequency of interaction between the teacher and individual students was noted. The chi-square goodness of fit test was used to analyze the set of observed frequencies. Number of interactions between teacher and students was 49. Results showed that the student teacher interacted more frequently with males (42 times) than with females (7 times). The study includes strategies to alleviate classroom inequities. (MM)

By describing the characteristics of the educational and developmental belief systems of low-income African-American parents of kindergarten children, this study extended previous research on parents' beliefs about early education and development to more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse subject groups. A sample of 115 African-American mothers and other primary caregivers of kindergarten children completed a version of the Educational Attitude Scale and reported their intended involvement in home and school learning activities. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 21 parents. Regardless of their own educational level, participants favored adult-directed, formally academic strategies for promoting children's learning and development. Behavioral expectations were especially high for African-American boys, particularly among less educated parents. Positive correlations between sets of items describing developmentally inappropriate and appropriate practices reflected a tendency to approve of both formal, paper-and-pencil learning and informal, concrete methods. This response pattern contrasts with patterns identified in previous research with affluent white parents and early childhood teachers, who made sharp distinctions between these educational approaches. Results suggest that most African-American parents support all attempts to enhance their children's learning and that theoretical distinctions are not salient. (MM)

This study examined relations between children's humor, behavioral characteristics, acceptance by peers in kindergarten and primary school, and self-perceptions. Subjects were 35 kindergarten, 88 fourth grade, and 95 eighth grade Norwegian children. For all students, assessments included sociometric ratings of classmates, teacher assessments of children's behavioral characteristics, and children's assessments of their own social behavior. Eighth graders also completed a peer assessment measure. Analysis indicated that kindergarten children's humor as assessed by their teachers was not consistently related to peer acceptance or rejection, or to self-perceived humor and behavior. For school-age children, the study used a theoretical model to analyze predictive relations between humor, behavioral characteristics, acceptance by peers, and self-perceptions of humor. For eighth graders, humor was found to be predictive of self-perceptions of humor; and humor as assessed by peers predicted peer acceptance. Self-perceptions of social competence were related to students' perceptions of their own humor. For fourth graders, no direct links from humor were found, but self-perception of humor still affected perceived social competence. (MM)

Comparing Hmong families with other ethnic or cultural groups (whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, and other Asians), this study examined family-related supports and risks in a low-income, ethnically diverse sample of 242 children entering kindergarten in St. Paul, Minnesota. All kindergarten children from 23 kindergartens in 6 elementary schools who attended Head Start for at least 3 months were eligible for inclusion in the study, and 121 chose to participate. A subsample of 121 children who did not attend Head Start was drawn from the same kindergarten classrooms. Family risks and supports were assessed by interviewing a parent or primary caretaker of the child (usually the mother) in the family's home. Measurements included family type, parent education, family status and instability, parents' psychological distress or well-being, family income adequacy, family social support, parent expectations, and parents' gender role beliefs. Analysis indicated several advantages for Hmong children, which included a two-parent family structure with relatively low stress and instability, high parental expectations, and strong social support networks. Disadvantages included families' difficulties in providing for the basic needs of their members, low parental education, and nonegalitarian gender role beliefs. The sample used in this study will be followed longitudinally as part of the evaluation of the Head Start Public School Early Childhood Transition Demonstration Project. (MM)

To examine the link between analytic and holistic modes of processing and the amount of domain knowledge, 2 category-learning studies were conducted with 5-year-old children. In the first study, 26 kindergarten children were classified according to their verbal knowledge about plants and their familiarity with flowers. They then performed a categorization task using two invented categories of flowers. The categories were constructed so that they could be learned either by an analytic, single-attribute rule, or on the basis of holistic, family-resemblance relations. Results indicated that regardless of their knowledge about plants or their familiarity with flowers, all children who reached a predetermined learning criterion used an analytic, single-attribute rule to categorize. In the second study, 33 kindergartners performed a categorization task similar to that used in the first experiment; the second experiment, however, used three values per attribute, thus strengthening the overall similarity structure of the categories. Analysis revealed that processing modes did not differ as a function of subjects' prior knowledge. Results from both studies did not support previous research suggesting that greater domain knowledge prompts analytic processing. Rather, these studies indicated that children's categorization performance was predominantly analytic, regardless of domain knowledge. (MM)

To examine language outcomes related to language acquisition and academic readiness, this study followed a group of toddlers with slow expressive language development (SELD) through their kindergarten year. Subjects were 27 children between 20 and 34 months who produced fewer than 50 words or no 2-word combinations on L. Resconla's (1989) Language Development Survey. This group was matched with a control group of 25 children with expressive vocabularies larger than 50 words. All subjects were given an intensive battery of assessments for receptive language, cognitive development, oral motor function, and adaptive behavior. A videotaped free play interaction between parent and child was analyzed for maternal linguistic input, child communicative behavior, and child phonological characteristics. Subjects received follow-up assessments during their kindergarten year. A conversational speech sample was analyzed for mean length of morpheme utterance, and a narrative sample was collected using a wordless picture book. Findings suggested that children with SELD as toddlers: (1) performed on par with children who exhibited normal patterns of language acquisition, in terms of general and nonverbal intelligence, daily living and motor skills, and receptive language; and (2) demonstrated deficits in phonological awareness and narrative ability, two areas related to language acquisition. (MM)

A study investigated the relationship among the linguistic units that make up spoken language, the symbols of written language, and how spoken language is mapped onto written language (the alphabetic principle). Subjects, 79 kindergarten children from 5 classrooms in 4 schools in a large southeastern school district, were tested for their knowledge of the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, letter name knowledge, and orthographic knowledge. Results indicated that: (1) significant amounts of the variance in understanding of the alphabetic principle can be explained by phonemic awareness and letter name knowledge; but (2) these two variables did not do a very good job of explaining the variance in scores measuring children's understanding of the orthographic patterns of written English; (3) the distribution of scores on the orthographic information measure indicated that children were aware that words did not contain numbers and that most children were able to discern mock and letters in words; and (4) phonemic awareness rarely developed in the absence of letter name knowledge. Instructionally the implications are that experimentation with paper and pen may be as important to the literacy development of children as is reading. (Six tables and three figures of data.) (RS)

An ethnographic study observed a kindergarten classroom community, as "Peley" (of Southeast Asian origin) and "Raji" (of Indian origin) interacted with students and staff to develop their English literacy. Data included field notes collected at home and at the suburban, central New York elementary school. In-depth interviews with parents, educators, and the two children were conducted. Results indicated that: (1) the children struggled with their social interactions; (2) the children were often visibly confused during holiday festivities and classroom celebrations; (3) home-school communication was inadequate; and (4) the teacher struggled to understand the children but was unaware of the children's home cultures. Findings suggest that early childhood classrooms should adopt the additive or diversity perspective rather than focus on assimilation or cultural blending. (Twenty-six references are attached.) (RS)

The Natural Math project was undertaken to encourage parents of Native American and Black preschool and kindergarten children to engage in math activities and games at home. Natural Math also attempted to integrate Seminole culture into math materials. The project originally included only Seminole preschool and kindergarten children. Later, Boley school, located in a rural Black community, petitioned for inclusion. Natural Math activities included: (1) the provision of start-up supplies and other materials to the children and their families; (2) an initial meeting to explain the project and the proper use of the materials; (3) a portable computer lab; (4) a math fair; and (5) the distribution of materials for the summer. After their participation in the project, former Head Start children were tested for verbal, math, and social skills, and parents were surveyed. Participating students had higher raw scores than the students of the previous year. At Boley School, Natural Math materials were introduced to the children before they were given to parents, with several advantages resulting. An extensive literature review covers adult literacy and communication among Native Americans; a Native American perspective of giftedness; the role of culture in education; demographic and academic achievement data for six tribes; and Native American early childhood education and Head Start programs. A 36-item bibliography is included. (AC)

The Korean kindergarten curriculum involves a mixture of Japanese, American, and Korean methods. The Japanese influence is reflected in the use of large group instruction and an expectation of uniformity from the children, influences from the United States include a consideration for children's individual interests, and the Korean influence is seen in a focus on self-esteem, Korean culture, and a strong Korean identity. Korea has two kinds of kindergarten, public and private, both of which are regulated by the Ministry of Education. The curriculum focuses on physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and language development. Day care is available for prekindergarten children through day care centers, Semaull Head Start (a program for low-income children), and infant schools. Teacher training for early childhood education relies heavily on vocational training colleges. Three major cultural factors which contribute to the character of Korean children are Confucian ideology, Korea's history as an agricultural country, and the value Korean culture places on the group. Korean children express their love and respect for teachers differently than do American children, and are taught to be quiet and obedient. It is important for Americans who teach Korean children to be sensitive to these cultural differences. (MM)

A study explored emergent readers' reconstruction of two story text types for evidence of cohesive harmony. Data came from a subset of 12 kindergarten children in 2 classes in an inner-city school. All of the children participated in a storybook reading program in which two types of texts were used: simple, beginning reader text and complex, trade book text. Analysis of children's storybook reconstructions by text type prior to systematic exposure to the two text types indicated individual differences in cohesive harmony. Children's differential exposure to the two text types during the storybook reading program was associated with different levels of cohesive harmony in reconstructed texts for some storybooks. No significant increase in cohesive harmony at posttesting was indicated across classes for either text type or for repeated text. Findings suggest that a complex relationship exists among text type, exposure, and cohesive harmony. (Six tables of data and two figures presenting excerpts from reconstructed texts are included; 47 references and a list of the books used with the students are attached.) (RS)

Two studies investigated the role of phonological activation in children's silent reading and listening comprehension. The first study addressed the interaction of reading skill level and phonological sensitivity. Subjects, 32 second-grade students, read eight short passages (four rhymed and four not rhymed) and chose one picture (out of three alternatives) to represent the meaning of the passage. The second study addressed the interaction of grade level and reading skill level with phonological sensitivity. Subjects, 34 kindergarten students and 26 second-grade students, listened to eight short passages (four rhymed and four not rhymed) and chose a picture (from three alternatives) to represent the meaning of the passage. Results of both studies indicated that phonological effects were evidenced in children's reading slowdowns and recall accuracy but not in situational comprehension accuracy as measured by the picture selection task. Children were less able to recall the exact sentences or even the gist of phonologically confusing texts that matched control texts. When recalling phonologically confusing texts, children were prone to make errors in which proper names and pronouns were misrecalled or forgotten, but all other semantic information was recalled correctly. The group of kindergarten less-skilled readers was the only group not to show phonological confusion in verbatim recall but showed phonological confusion in both gist recall and error patterns. Kindergarten children's reading scores and their performance on a standardized test of verbal short-term memory were correlated, suggesting that when memory is overloaded, phonological effects are not apparent in children's verbatim recall, but they are reflected in ability to recall gist. (Five figures of data are included.) (RS)

This study of the narratives of 48 black, low-income, urban kindergartners examined the frequency of topic-centered style (a discourse centering on a single topic) and topic-associating style (a discourse of personal anecdotes or episodes whose connections are never overtly stated). The children were from four classrooms in two schools in Pontiac, Michigan, a lower working class suburb of Detroit. The storytelling task was conducted between the child and a familiar adult interviewer. Results revealed that 16 children told topic-associating stories and 28 told topic-centered stories. Of the topic-centered narratives, 10 were retellings of familiar storybooks. Results appeared to refute earlier studies that concluded that black children show a preference for a topic-associating style. Story transcripts, and a list of 27 references, are included. (MM)

This study examined how modes of organizing conversation determine the type of knowledge conveyed to preschool and kindergarten children. Approximately 150 audiotaped conversations from 23 classes of students of different age levels from 2 to 6 years were analyzed. Children's spontaneous speaking turns or answers to teachers' questions were analyzed as a function of their relevance to the teacher's words, whether thematic, nonthematic, incorrect, or uninterpretable. Teachers' speech was analyzed as a function of children's speaking turns. It was found that information was not conveyed through the regular conversation structure in which the teacher asks a question, several children answer, the teacher reacts to one or none of the children's answers, and children seldom respect the speaking turns of their peers. There were relatively few instances of feedback from teachers to children, particularly when children's answers were incorrect, uninterpretable or missing. Children were required to express themselves briefly, and within the context of the topic. Further analyses of conversations in groups of 6 to 10 children were conducted. Results indicated that, compared to the original groups, there was an increase in speaking time for students. Results suggest that teachers should: diversify the objectives and topics of conversation; diversify the structure of the conversational group and their role in conversations; and individualize their exchanges with pupils. (HTH)

This paper describes the evaluation of a service delivery model for public school children, in preschool through the second grade, who were at risk for educational failure due to emotional problems. The project involved the design of a formal procedure to foster collaborative efforts between home and school to respond to children's behavior problems. It was hoped that responses to children's problems early in their school careers would prevent the negative spiral that leads to dropout. Interventions based on eco-behavioral principles were used by home visitors who worked in consultation with clinicians. A primary goal of all treatment plans was to enhance parent-teacher communication. Children in the experimental group (n=34) showed overall improvement, as judged by parents, and decreases in targeted problems, as reported by teachers and parents. The program decreased the number of children placed in special education. There were indications that improved communication between home and school was related to academic improvement. The protocol provides a possible consultation model for early intervention for behavior disorders. (Author/GLR)

A study focused on families whose children were successful but not exceptional students in kindergarten. Subjects were eight parents (all mothers) whose children had been enrolled the previous year in a kindergarten program that maintained a whole language curricular orientation. The children (four girls and four boys) were highly successful in kindergarten though none had been deemed exceptional in the progress they made in learning to read and write by the teacher, parent, or third-party observers who were part of the research team. Parents were interviewed during the two months immediately following the children's completion of kindergarten. The parents were asked a set of questions concerning their approach to literacy learning and their satisfaction with the kindergarten's holistic curriculum. Interview results indicated several home-based literacy activities including the following: reading aloud; taking dictation from child; developing interest in words, through games, etc.; writing; and providing an informal and functional literate environment. Two conclusions were drawn from the study: (1) the home literacy activities described are similar to those described in that work and tend to validate the conclusions derived from previous work; and (2) the literacy activities in the home were highly congruent with those found in the whole language kindergarten. (MG)

Two naturalistic studies examined how children attempt to exert dominance over their peers, which tactics are most frequently used, and which appeals are most successful. The first study identified 3 categories of dominance behavior by a 6-week observation of playground interactions of 20 4- and 5-year-old children. The second study, conducted at the same child care center 5 months later to quantify the findings of study one to provide validity to the inductive constructs, coded 78 domineering behaviors, counted the number of behaviors in each category, the sex of the initiator(s) and target(s) and the success ratios. Results confirmed that verbal assertiveness was the most frequently employed domineering strategy of 4- and 5-year-old children, accounting for 72% of dominance behavior. Successful use of verbal assertion was found most frequently when commands were given by assertive children and when males attempted to dominate females. Domination of same-sexed target and female assertiveness over males were successful slightly more than half of the time. Results also revealed that physical assertiveness (12% occurrence) seemed to serve as a successful means for exerting dominance only when a child was able to exhibit athletic superiority. The most significant finding was the ability of some children to use theme plays to exert dominance over their peers (13% occurrence), a strategy used most often by females who feel confident that the target will play along with the scenario and assume the submissive position. (One table containing the coded domination attempts of children is included; 24 references are attached.) (KEH)

This study investigated the effectiveness of an intervention year prior to kindergarten for at-risk children age-eligible for school. The central question of the study asked if the experience of a developmental kindergarten was worth the extra year participating children must spend in the educational process. The format for the study was that of a three-way analysis of variance, with three groups of at-risk children: developmental kindergarten students (DK); retained students (RT); and students who were not retained (NRT). Children were placed in either the developmental or academic kindergarten on the basis of test placement results. Results indicated that there were significant program effects in favor of the DK students for all three academic outcome measures when comparing the DK students with the RT students, indicating probable program effects in those measures for the developmental kindergarten program. Three self-perception measures were significant for DK students when they were paired with the RT students: school ability, school behavior, and global self-worth. Results indicated significant probable program effects for and strong effect sizes for the children, specifically white and female children who attended developmental kindergarten. Those effects were present in all academic subject areas, in work/study habits, and for self-perceptions of scholastic ability. (Six tables of data and a figure are included.) (MG)

This review of the literature on kindergarten assessment and its relationship to primary reading achievement is divided into the the following sections: (1) studies which support early assessment; (2) studies which suggest the use of a battery over a single readiness test; (3) studies which utilize assessment data for treatment purposes; (4) studies which relate to the modality concept; and (5) studies which suggest a developmental sequence in the areas of perception and cognition. Research findings on the correlation of readiness test scores with primary reading achievement clearly indicate that early assessment should be a functional reality in every school district. Studies have shown the superiority of the battery over the single test for identification of high-risk learners. Research findings on specific methods and strategies for use with high-risk pupils are inconclusive. It is suggested that at the end of first grade, pupils whose preferred modality is congruent with the primary instructional strategy of the initial reading program will achieve higher than pupils whose preferred modality is not congruent with the primary instructional strategy of the initial reading program. (LL)

A survey of past research reveals that intellectual capacity, particularly verbal proficiency, are important factors in reading performance. The purpose of this study was to determine if classroom teachers, through informal observation, can recognize indicators of intellectual ability. The Strang Informal Observation of Capacity Inventory and Thurstone's Primary Mental Abilities Test were administered to 195 kindergartners who were enrolled in the classes of 11 teachers in 11 different elementary schools. Findings indicate that an informal inventory of intellectual capacity was valid, that teachers can successfully use an informal inventory to make decisions regarding children's intellectual capacity, that accuracy of teachers' assessments was of a high level, and that the Strang Informal Observation of Capacity Inventory was appropriate for use with a heterogeneously grouped class. (KS)

In a forced-choice recognition task children's memory for some dimensions of pictured events was investigated. Seventy-two children (12 boys and 12 girls each in kindergarten, second, and fourth grades) were shown pictures of simple events. In four response conditions, distractors differed from stimulus pictures in (1) who the participants were, (2) which participants were paired, (3) what type of action was occurring, and (4) each participant's role. There was a highly reliable effect of conditions on recognition accuracy, but no effect of age or interaction of age with condition. All children remembered the participants, role and type of action, in that order. They did not consistently remember which participants had been paired. It was inferred that: (1) children used semantic information to organize these pictured events; (2) they seem to have had available in memory a set of participants, with information about role relation and action of each participant; (3) the ability to use role and action information for picture recognition apparently develops very early. (Author/MS)

The Sex Stereotype Measure II (SSM II), a 32-item picture-story technique, was developed to assess children's knowledge of conventional, adult-defined, sex-trait stereotypes. The procedure was based on stereotype characteristics identified by college students using the Adjective Check List item pool. A second procedure, the Sex Attitude Measure (SAM), was developed to assess general evaluative bias toward male and female persons. Both procedures were composed of brief stories presented with human figure silhouettes to preschool, third, and sixth grade Euro-American children. Both the male and female stereotypes were found to increase linearly with age, with more male traits than female traits being known to each age level. Item analyses revealed differences in the age at which children become aware of various stereotype traits, with the learning of some traits still incomplete at age 12. Although there was generally good agreement between boys and girls, there were some apparent sex differences in acquisition of knowledge of certain items. The SAM scores indicated no age-related effects and at all three age levels girls were clearly pro-female and anti-male, while boys were unbiased toward females and only slightly anti-male. No consistent relationship was found between sex-stereotype knowledge and evaluative sex bias. It was concluded that the SSM II was a useful procedure for the study of the existence of sex stereotypes in a variety of populations and for investigations of the determinants of sex-trait stereotype learning. (Author/MS)

The study was undertaken to determine the possibility of a relationship between the selected traits of cognitive ability, conceptual development, emotional maturity, and perceptual-motor development in disadvantaged kindergarten children, since the knowledge of the relationship between traits might make it possible to strengthen a child's deficiencies in one area through training in a related area. All incoming kindergarteners in an urban elementary school in a small city in Westchester County, New York were screened early in kindergarten using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, and the Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test. A significant positive correlation between each of the selected traits was found. (Author/MS)

Evaluation results are reported for the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory's Thinking and Reasoning Program, designed to develop analytic thinking and problem-solving skills in young children in multicultural classroom settings. Results are based on a pilot test of the program conducted during the 1974-75 school year. Mastery activities, constructed to serve as transfer tasks for several lesson sequences, were administered on a pre/post sequence basis to six kindergarten and three first-grade project classrooms and to three kindergarten and two first-grade comparison classrooms. Classrooms were ethnically mixed. Analyses of covariance demonstrated that both the kindergarten and first-grade project groups significantly outperformed their respective comparison groups in the analytic thinking areas of observing, causal reasoning, and flexibility. (Author/BF)

This study attempts to determine if individual differences in multitask performance are due in part to the cognitive competence (i.e., the consistent, rule-based strategy) the subject brings to the task. A battery of learning (discrimination shift, transposition, incidental learning and paired-associate learning), cognitive-developmental (seriation, conservation of amount and transitivity) and psychometric (Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices) measures were administered to 120 children from kindergarten and second grades. Similarities and differences underlying children's problem-solving performance during this time were then assessed. Subjects were categorized into one of three performance levels for the criterion tasks, e.g., conserver/nonconserver/inconsistent conserver. Overall performance, as a function of age, sex and the respective performance categories, was assessed via canonical correlations and multiple regression analyses. The results indicated that performance on reversal shift and conservation alone predicted overall multitask performance (p<001). Moreover, there appeared to be a trend toward improved overall performance from nonperformers through inconsistent performers to perfect performers on the conservation task. The results suggest that while both reversal and conservation are indices of mediation, albeit rule-based strategies, conservation is a far more powerful predictor of overall task performance. These results suggest the feasibility of using multitask, multidomain research to better understand the nature of the development of cognition in children. (Author/MS)

The Parent Teacher Kindergarten Student Assessment instrument (PTKSA) described here was developed over a 4-year period and used extensively at each stage of its revision, with the goal of evolving a feasible and sensitive pre-primary pupil profile or early childhood education inventory. Intended for use by both parents and teachers at the beginning and end of the kindergarten year, the PTKSA is presented as a vehicle for meaningful home-school interaction early in a child's school life. The items are described as developmental and easily observed in a home or school setting. The basic idea involves: (1) parents making judgments about their own child at home, (2) the teacher making independent judgments on the same items at school, and (3) parent and teacher reviewing these judgments together and planning accordingly. A sample is given, involving 243 pupils and 11 teachers, of eight items from the 28-item PTKSA. Items are from four categories: (1) Use of Symbols (counting, reading words, time-awareness); (2) Motor Skills; (3) Language Development; and (4) Behavior (cooperation, consideration for others, choice-making). Also presented are correlations between PTKSA and other test instruments, including the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, used in the formal assessment procedure by the school district in which PTKSA has been developed. (BF)

Two conflicting hypotheses were investigated in this study. The first is based on an interference theory of forgetting and assumes that forgetting is largely a function of proactive interference, i.e., a result of interference by previously learned material. The second is based on the improvement of memory due to basic mechanisms that may operate to produce marked increases in retentive abilities over the first few years of a child's life. The subjects were 45 kindergartners and 45 third graders randomly assigned to three experimental groups. The experimental conditions varied the amount of retention time between the original learning task and the retention tests. The retention intervals were six minutes, 48 hours, and four weeks. The learning task was a list of four paired associates. In each pair, the response term was a high frequency, one-syllable English noun and the stimulus term was the Latin equivalent. The learning task and the retention tests were all conducted orally. The number of items correct on the three retention tests served as the dependent measure for analysis. The results indicated that when the degree of original learning is equated, children as young as five years of age can remember materials as well as third-graders over a retention interval as long as four weeks. (WR)

This study dealt with the identification of potential learning problems and the modification of the readiness program at the kindergarten level. Only the pre- and post-tests were administered to the control group. Experimental group A was tested, learning profiles were developed for each child and a team of specialists evaluated the profiles with the teacher. Experimental group B was tested, a learning profile on each child was written and a team of specialists worked with the children twice a week. All groups were taught using the traditional kindergarten program. A (t) test of the difference between means of pre- and post-tests was found significant for all three groups. A degree of difference was noted favoring the experimental groups. An analysis of variance between the three groups indicated a significant difference between both experimental groups and the control group. However, no significant difference was noted between the two experimental groups. The information gathered from the test results provided the teachers with data which enabled them to make meaningful and judicious decisions concerning the children's educational future. Early screening and identification can allow the kindergarten teacher to design a meaningful program and remediate the child's learning problems within the classroom setting. (Author/CS)

This paper presents the initial efforts in the development of the Prediction with Diagnostic Qualities (PDQ) instrument. The contents include: "Evidence Relating to Correlational Items," which discusses the concepts of correlation, statistical significance, and the more commonly used criteria or tests used for prediction and diagnosis--chronological age, mental age IQ, socioeconomic status, neurological deficits, emotional problems, reading readiness tests, teacher judgment, visual-motor integration, and knowledge of letter names; "What Is Necessary for Success in Reading," which looks at what children need for success in reading and how to diagnose for those needs; "PDQ Procedures," which discusses the PDQ battery and lists the tests included such as auditory discrimination, listening comprehension, vocabulary, categorization, picture sequence, oral language development, following oral directions, and using oral context; "Preliminary Results of PDQ," which presents the results and findings of the use of PDQ in a kindergarten program; "Implications for Instruction," which presents examples of the kinds of kindergarten activities appropriate for children who need additional work in a given area; and "Summary." (WR)

This research was designed to compare the responses of disadvantaged and advantaged 5-year-olds in typical Piagetian experiments, in order to determine whether differences exist in the normative characteristics of centering, conservation, egocentricity, space conception, and irreversibility. A sample of 60 children was drawn from a metropolitan kindergarten population. The ethnic composition of the disadvantaged group was approximately one-third black, one-third Puerto Rican, and one-third white. The advantaged group was mostly white with a very small percentage comprising Asian and black minorities. Disadvantagement was determined from Federal guidelines. Five tasks were given to each of the children. The results indicated that both groups are typically incapable of taking another's point of view. Both groups were also unable to conceptualize what something might be like without experiencing or perceiving it directly. However, the advantaged group seemed to be further along in other aspects of operational thought in comparison to the disadvantaged children--decentration, reversibility, and conservation. The advantaged 5-year-olds seemed to be able to respond more correctly to the before-after facets of a particular experience, to the coordinating relationships of the various characteristics of objects, and to the maintenance of the substance of an object while it undergoes change. (Author/JM)

Randomly selected fourth grade teachers completed the Peterson and Quay Behavior Problem Checklist on 304 inner city children classified according to their age at entry into kindergarten. Findings revealed that earlier entry age children (children who were comparatively young when they started school) scored highest on the conduct subtest of the Behavior Problem Checklist, indicating more behavior problems; average entry age children scored second highest; and, children in the later entry age the lowest. These indicate higher behavior problem scores among earlier entry age children. Comparisons which reached statistical significance were between earlier entry age and later entry age groups on the conduct subtest, and between sexes on the conduct and inadequacy-immaturity subtests, with males manifesting more problems than females. (Author/RJ)

The effectiveness of acceleration training with children who were in a transition period was examined. Forty-eight kindergarten children were separated into four groups on the basis of their status (Preoperational vs. Transitional) and whether or not they received three sessions of inversion-negation training. The results of the immediate and delayed posttests indicated no difference due to the status dimension. However, differences as a function of training were manifest. The results of the investigation do not support Inhelder's contention that acceleration can only occur during transition periods between stages. (Author/CS)

The effects of modeling and corrective feedback on the conservation of equalities and inequalities were studied with items spanning three stimulus dimensions (length, number, and two-dimensional space). Observation of a model, correction training (joining positive feedback with verbal rule provision), and the combination of observation and correction were all successful in producing learning and, without further training, transfer and retention of conservation. Unlike the controls (who also never correctly answered any equality items), the trained experimental groups gave evidence of spontaneously generalizing their new learning to a task that required nonverbal behavior to manifest conservation. (Author)

The stimulus properties of the letters b, d, p, and q were investigated in an attempt to demonstrate that the common reversal of these letters by beginning readers is in part determined by the vertical aspect of the stimulus figure. One hundred eighty kindergarteners were randomly selected from a racially mixed population and randomly assigned to one of four visual matching of letters tasks. All tasks presented letters of uniform size, shape, density, and presentation except for certain variations relevant to each of the four experimental treatments. All four treatments required subjects to match lower case letters to one lower case stimulus letter printed in the center of the page two inches from the top. Subjects were instructed to draw a cross on each letter on the rest of the page that was exactly the same as the stimulus letter at the top. The letters presented on the rest of the page were designated response letters. The response letters included those identical to the stimulus letter and three foils. The results indicated that the vertical properties of b, d, p, and q influence the letter reversal behavior of kindergarteners. In addition, reducing the dominance of the vertical aspects of these letters resulted in marked reduction of reversal errors. (WR)

This study was designed to determine whether subjects who received one of three treatments of color cues in an instructional program differed significantly on three learning tasks. Subjects were randomly selected from the kindergarten populations of two Michigan public schools and were assigned to one of three treatment groups. Eight letter-like figures were presented to the 102 subjects in one of the three treatments: no color, maximum color, and maximum color added and then vanished. Subjects were pretested on the ability to match the figures to form and to match the figures from memory. Following the completion of a teaching sequence, subjects were posttested on the ability to match the figures to form, to match the figures from memory, and to associate a meaningless trigram with each figure. The results indicated that the vanished color treatment was significantly better than the no-color treatment. From the results it was concluded that the vanished color treatment enhanced the learning of visual discrimination, visual memory, and paired-associate tasks when compared to the no-color treatment and that this enhancing effect seemed to result from improved attention to the distinctive feature of a stimulus. (WR)

Designed as a diagnostic tool for assisting early childhood and kindergarten teachers, the Sentence Repetition Task seeks to distinguish children who speak a different dialect and are normal in language development from children who speak a different dialect and are developmentally delayed. This technique is based on the work of Menyuk (1964), Slobin (1967), and Baratz (1969). The instrument focuses on whether a child is repeating abstract terms (Function Words Correct), is developmentally delayed (Function Word Omission), or is reconstructing (word is changed to an equivalent form in poverty vernacular). Sentences were designed to yield two scores, the Reconstruction Score and the Function Word Omission Score. Included in this document are discussions of previous research, explanation of procedures for administering the instrument, mean scores derived from studies of a sample of low socioeconomic status children in New York City, sentences, lists of function and reconstruction words, scoring rules and key, and references. (JM)

The purpose of the present study was to determine if a developmental sequence could be established for the appearance of conservation. A series of four dimensional tasks and a conservation task were administered to 25 kindergarten girls and 25 kindergarten boys. The dimensional tasks tested understanding of comparative and superlative terms along one and two dimensions and the ability to define the relevant dimension in a given situation. A scalogram analysis indicated the existence of a developmental sequence consisting of understanding relational terms along one dimension, defining the relevant dimension, coordinating relational terms along two dimensions, and conservation. The sequence was valid for girls, but was only a "quasi-scale" rather than a true sequence for boys due to more variability in the boys' response pattern. (ED)

This study was designed to determine if the sociodramatic play behavior of two groups of children would be similar when socioeconomic status was held constant. Subjects were 54 black and 54 white kindergartens of high socioeconomic status. Sociodramatic play is defined as play in which a child takes on a role, elaborates a theme in cooperation with at least one other role player, and interacts with at least one other child both actively and verbally. Play ability was evaluated in terms of six elements: imitative role play, persistence, interaction, verbal communication, and make-believe in regard to objects and situations. Each group of four subjects (two boys and two girls) was studied for one 30-minute period in a special playroom with housekeeping, grocery store, and doctor's office areas. Each child's mental ability was measured immediately after the play period using the Goodenough Drawing Test. Black subjects played significantly better than whites, but no significant relationship was found between IQ scores and level of sociodramatic play. (ED)

This paper presents a review of research studies and theories involving sociodramatic play and its effect on the learning power of middle class children. Discussion centers on definitions, criteria, and principles of play, and ways for teachers to identify and encourage sociodramatic play in the classroom. Play, and especially sociodramatic play, is presented as an essential part of a child's learning process and a medium through which a child can express and organize his feelings. (ED)

Two experiments were conducted with children to determine the units of word perception used in recognizing isolated words. In the first experiment, kindergarten children practiced visually discriminating whole words (big, pig, dig), single letters (b, p, d), or geometric forms (triangle, circle, square) before learning to read three words (big, dig, pig). The children having whole word discrimination read the words more accurately than those under other conditions. The purpose of the second experiment was to determine if spelling patterns also operate in recognizing isolated words. The experiment involved a same-different reaction-time design in which second graders decided if a word semantically matched a picture. The words were typed with spaces that either preserved possible spelling patterns (bl ast) or were inconsistent with proposed units (b last). Reaction time to the "bl ast" condition was approximately 300 milliseconds faster than to the "b last" stimuli. No differences in reaction time occurred between the control (blast) and "bl ast" conditions. Both experiments showed that units larger than single letters seem to be used by children in word recognition. (Author)

This paper presents a review of research in which correlations between short term visual memory and reading achievement have been found. Included is a table summarizing the major research which made use of commercially available tests of short term visual memory suitable for use with children 8-years of age and older. The researcher, tests used, subject characteristics, and results are given for each experiment. Research relating to the development of a motor-free, multiple-choice visual memory scale, which eliminates the developmental biases of the commercial tests and is, therefore, suitable for 5-, and 6-year-olds, is described in greater detail. Several experiments are described which sought to remediate visual memory problems through visual mnemonic devices and visual memory training. It is concluded that a great deal more research in these areas is necessary. (ED)

The effect of stimulus prefamiliarization on children's discrimination learning was investigated. Kindergartners were prefamiliarized with pictures which were identical, similar, or unrelated to pictures used in the learning task. Consistent with predictions derived from previous research, the learning of subjects who were prefamiliarized with unrelated pictures was superior to that of subjects who were prefamiliarized with identical pictures. In addition, improvement over trials in the similar picture condition resembled that of the unrelated (rather than identical) picture conditions, thereby suggesting that the particular pictorial representations of the experimental materials are at least partially responsible for the effect. (Author/CS)

This study investigated how reading begins in speech. The subjects were nonreading kindergarten children divided into a control group of 20 students and an experimental group of 20 students. Both groups had an equal amount of discrimination practice upon the same sentences prior to test for word identification. The sentences for the experimental group differed from those for the control group in that the subjects and objects of the verb in their sentences had exchanged places. The results indicated that the subjects in both groups succeeded in identifying words as wholes, as predicted. The experimental group, as predicted, identified more words than did the control group. The mean number of responses per subject capable of responding did not differ significantly. Also, the data suggested that phrase structure indicators, "the" and "did," tended to be identified more often by a higher number of experimental subjects and that once these words were identified, several other identifications also occurred. (WR)