THE RELATIONSHIP OF CERTAIN ‘PRE‐READING’ SKILLS TO GENERAL ABILITY & SOCIAL CLASS IN NURSERY CHILDREN

Abstract

A Review is given of previous investigations into visual perception as a basis for reading readiness and the differences generally shown between different social groups as to their language ability. The study reported here attempted to determine the extent to which visual perception skills are related to language and general ability in nursery school children. A number of perceptual and language tests were administered to a sample of 160 pre‐school children and the results analysed by a number of methods to test four hypotheses put forward. A large general ability factor was found to be present in pre‐school children but on language and perceptual tests it seems that a part of the children's attainment is determined simply by how they are to answer the test questions. An analysis of social group differences shows no significant difference in any visual perceptual tests only in language skills. The findings generally confirm that in pre‐school years competence in visual and perceptual skills is highly related to language ability.