Figural problem-solving processes of children with intellectual disabilities: Interrogative strategies and solution time rates

Abstract

A comparison was made of the problem-solving abilities of children with intellectual disabilities, regular class children of comparable cognitive level and regular class children of approximately the same chronological age. The participants were asked to complete a problem-solving game which required them to ask questions of the experimenter in order to achieve solutions to set problems. The three dependent variables were time taken, total number of questions asked, and type of question generated to solve the problems. A fourth variable, level of motivation, was employed as a covariate. The most important finding was that there were no mean differences on any of the dependent variables between the children with intellectual disabilities and the regular class children of comparable mental age. Significant differences on these variables were revealed between the children with intellectual disabilities and regular class children of similar chronological age. These results suggest that children with intellectual disabilities and regular class children of comparable cognitive level employ much the same problem-solving strategies when involved in problem solving of game-like tasks. These findings give support to Zigler's developmental theory of mental retardation.