Perceptual, motor, memory, and quantitative elements of language behavior: differences between 3- and 4-year-old performance.

Abstract

Language performance is comprised of many related subskills (3) including perceptual, quantitative, memory, and motor elements. The McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities is a multidomain assessment instrument for 2%- to 8-yr.-old children which derives scale scores for these four subskills (2) of established efficacy and utility (1). Preschool children's developing verbal ability is typically thought to reflect each of these subskills. However, finer age distinctions of component contributions to language performance suggest that different combinations of subskills constitute language at 3 and 4 yr. of age. To examine language performance and its subskills, the McCarthy scales were administered to 30 3- and 4-yr.-olds, and correlations computed between scores for verbal and other scales. Significant correlations existed with all scales (perceptual, r = .57, p < .001; quantitative, r = .71, p < .001; memory, r = .52, p < .01; motor, r = .50, p < .01). In an examination by age, however, the relationship between verbal performance and McCarthy constituent scales was not consistent wirh the total group's findings. Means and standard deviations for each scale were computed for 3-yr.-olds (verbal: 58.60 and 8.80; perceptual: 59.53 and 7.68; quantitative: 59.06 and 8.60; memory: 55.60 and 8.06; motor: 56.33 and 9.02) and 4-yr.-olds (verbal: 59.20 and 9.25; perceptual: 55.33 and 9.96; quantitative: 56.20 and 12.27; memory: 58.93 and 9.94; motor: 53.06 and 11.05). Verbal performance was significantly related to quantitative (I = .64, p < .01) and memory (s = 32, p < ,001) scales at the 3-yr.-old level, and with perceptual (r = .64, p < .01), quantitative (r = .80, p < .001), and motor (r = .74, p < .001) scales for the 4-yr.-old age group. Developmental psychology emphasizes that at different levels of development specific domains' contribution to over-all behavioral performance is not equivalent. Yet, for assessment, programming and remediation purposes, language performance has often been considered a univariate ability with stable contributory subskills across the age range of early childhood. This is reflected in the types of assessment instruments currently used to measure language ability, including tests of receptive vocabulary, syntactic development, phonetic development, and the like. The contradictory finding of this report tentatively suggests that the component skills contributing to verbal language behavior may vary significantly with age in the preschool years