Field dependence and the Gesell developmental tests.

Abstract

In a program for screening readiness for first grade, kindergarten children in the Parsippany-Troy, N. J. School District are given the Gesell Developmental Tests (2) by specially trained paraprofessionals. The Gesell tests measure readiness in the percepmal-motor, adaptive, language, and personal-social areas of functioning. The scoring system used is + (definitely ready for first grade placement), 2 (questionable) and - (definitely not ready for first grade placement). Children designated as - and 2 are recommended for a special remedial program fomsing on perceptual-motor skills. A group of 26 kindergarten children (17 males and 9 females) also were given the Children's Embedded-figures Test ( 3 ) by present authors blind to the Gesell scores, a measure of the field independence dimension of perceptual functioning. Performance on the Children's Embedded-figures Test has been found to correlate with a number of characteristics relating to school readiness. For example, Bruininks (1) found a positive correlation with reading performance. The two tests were administered independently by different examiners within a period of about 1 mo. In the particular group of children studied, 16 received a + evaluation on the Gesell Developmental Tests, and 10 received a & evaluation; there were no - evaluations. The biserial correlation between the two tests was .62. A r rest showed rhe two Gesell-test groups differed significantly on the Children's Embedded-figures Tes? (t = 2.44, df = 24, p < .05). The mean score for the + group was 10.56 (SD = 3.72), while that for the e group was 7.00 (SD = 3.58). Since the Gesell tests heavily sample perceptual-motor behaviors, the obtained correlation between Gesell performance and that on the Children's Embedded-figures Test is understandable.