A scale for the assessment of hand apraxia was developed on a population of 239 institutionalized mentally retarded adults. Guttman scaling indicates adequate reliability and validity.
A follow-up study was undertaken of 38 children who had attended a preschool language unit with detailed assessments of 25 by speech therapists and an educational psychologist. The subjects were assessed in a number of areas (language, learning and social skills) using standardized tests and rating schedules completed by teachers and parents. The initial results are presented in terms of group characteristics. At a mean age of 8.3 years the children were still making progress in all areas of development. Although some 16% of the children were attending specialist schools or classes (language unit, physically handicapped unit, schools for children with severe speech and language problems), the majority (84%) were within the mainstream of education. A continuing language difficulty was apparent on standardized tests. Reading and spelling were slightly depressed, but not significantly so. However, parents and teachers saw the children as differing little from their peers. The conclusion is reached that preschool intervention can prevent later educational failure.
A scale to assess sleep disturbance of children with developmental disabilities is reported. The scale has been used with a small sample of 14 children diagnosed as having Tourette Disorder, 36 physically handicapped children (cerebral palsy). Also, a group of 115 nonhandicapped Native American children were surveyed to assess whether the items might be appropriate for use with such children. The scale has 6 distinct factors and appears to have adequate reliability and validity.
One aspect of the validity of the BAS was assessed for 20 children, mean age 10 years, from British Columbia, comparing their BAS scores with those for the WISC-R and WRAT-R. Correlations were found to be high, especially for general ability measures and for verbal 1Q scores. Lower but still significant correlations were found between all other scales and the Visual IQ of the BAS, suggesting that the Visual IQ may be more independent of verbal factors than the Performance IQ of the WISC-R. When using the BAS in North America, it is suggested that individual scores will need to be adjusted upwards by about 3 or 4 points.
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