The performance of a group of Mangaung children in the Gesell preschool test
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Date
1993-11
Authors
Mohlahle, Seiso Julius
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
The high failure rate in the first school years, created a need for early
intervention and led to a search for school-readiness tests that will detect school
problems. No tests have been designed to evaluate school-readiness among
black preschoolers, who grew up in cultural settings that differ from that within
which the group of children for whom existing tests have been standardized,
reside. Although various tests from overseas are locally implemented, most of
them are not suitable for the blacks whilst others are still being standardized for
such use. Gesell's Developmental Test for School-readiness seems suitable for
use with the Sotho and Tswana culture groups in that it focuses on the totality of
human development and maturation and is based on four developmental
components, namely motor, adaptive, language and personal-social behaviour.
Gesell's test has been used in America at the beginning of the century and the
norms have been established in America. In order to establish the suitability of
this test for South African conditions, the theoretical background of various
developmental theories was looked into, Gesell's developmental perspective was
more extensively explained, and general school-readiness criteria were
identified. The effect of differences between cultures and the implications this
holds for cross-cultural research, were taken into consideration, with the aim of
furthering culture fairness in the testing of children. Following this, a study was
conducted with the aim of assessing the developmental milestones of Mangaung preschoolers by means of the Gesell Preschool Test, and comparing the data of
boys and girls, as well as of the five and six year age groups, with that of the USA
normative group.
The subject sample of 48 boys and 52 girls (N = 100) was drawn randomly from
three preschools in Mangaung. Children were tested, by means of the Gesell
Test, at their respective preschools and the test languages were South Sotho and
Tswana.
An ex post facto design was used to compare the data of boys and girls, and of
the Mangaung, versus the New Haven, USA norm groups. The X2-test, for
establishing the homogeneity of two independent samples, was used. The
discrete categories were used to determine the significance of differences
between the two independent groups. The comparison of Mangaung boys and
girls yielded no significant differences. The data of the Mangaung preschoolers
was subsequently compared with that of the USA normative group. In this case,
significant differences arose mainly from subtests incorporating language, such
as Picture Vocabulary and Action Agent where cultural variance for both the
five and six year old groups were indicated. Apart from the problems
mentioned, the study has confirmed that the Gesell test with it's 13 subtests can
be considered to be culture-fair in the local situation.
These results indicate that the Gesell Developmental Test, with follow-up
studies and more data, can be considered for application among members of the
black population group as a measure of school-readiness in preschool children.
Description
Keywords
Preschool tests, Infants -- Testing, Readiness for school, Blacks -- Education -- South Africa, Education, Preschool -- South Africa -- Bloemfontein -- Mangaung, Dissertation (M.A. (Psychology)) - University of the Free State, 1993