Comprehension of “before” and “after” by normal and educable mentally retarded children

Abstract

This study reports findings on appreciation of the “before” and “after” event sequence with normal and educable mentally retarded (EMR) children matched on verbal mental ability (MA). Before and after constructions were associated with three variables at a time: semantics (logical vs. arbitrary event sequence), syntax (complex when conjunction preposed vs. simple when conjunction embedded), and an order of mention strategy (coinciding with the event occurence or reversing the event occurence). The data show that normal children perform significantly better than EMR children and suggest that the linguistic performance of EMR children cannot be best predicted on the basis of MA. Before is better understood than after, in general, by both groups, but a number of interactions between syntax, semantics, and an order of mention strategy suggests that differences in performances between normal and EMR children are of a quantitative rather than a qualitative nature. Linguistic (PPVT IQ) and cognitive (WISC-Picture Arrangement) factors are, as MA, poor predictors of before and after comprehension by normal and EMR children.