Part of a Head Start longitudinal study on disadvantaged children and their first school experience, this report provides: 1) a description of interrelationships among certain demographic indices, maternal attitudes, and behaviors reported in the parent interview using factor analytic techniques, and 2) plans for obtaining a reduced set of scores…

This is the eighth report describing the progress of the ETS-Head Start Longitudinal Study. The study began in 1969 with the collection of data on over 1800 children ranging from 4 through 8 years in age. Data collection on these children and their families, communities and schools is planned to continue through spring of 1972. This report…

In a continuing description of a Head Start longitudinal study, analyses are presented of the interrelationships among individual measures of the child's performances prior to school entry, accompanied by brief descriptions of the tasks and the scores used. Despite the size and extensiveness of the data base, the findings are considered tentative…

The project report summarized here describes the interrelationships of the individually administered tests given to 820 Head Start children from three urban sites in the second year of a longitudinal study. These results are compared with those obtained in Year 1, the year prior to the students' attendance in a group program. The tests tapped…

The Children's Auditory Discrimination Inventory (CADI) was used in the longitudinal study to evaluate the child's ability to identify, between two pictures that have been given oral word equivalents, the picture that represents the orally presented stimulus word. The task, which takes 10 minutes, uses 38 cards with two pictures on each and 38…

The Johns Hopkins Perceptual Test, a brief measure of intelligence in children, requires the child to choose a form identical to a standard. It consists of 3 practice and 30 test items, all involving black geometric figures printed on white cards. There is one booklet for stimulus cards and one for response cards. The child is presented with a…

An adaptation of a technique devised by Mischel (1958) was used in the longitudinal study to measure delay of gratification. Adaptations involved (1) asking the child to identify the larger of two pieces of candy to facilitate comprehension of the rewards, (2) specifying a standard time limit for receipt of the delayed reward which would be…

Data obtained from the administration of the Brown IDS Self-Concept Referents Test as part of the longitudinal study are provided and discussed. The Brown IDS Self-Concept Referents Test is a technique for assessing self-concept which uses a photograph of the young child to induce him to take the role of another toward himself. While looking at…

The Form Reproduction task was included in the longitudinal study test battery to: (1) examine visual-motor performance over time; (2) study processes associated with visual analysis and synthesis and visual-motor integration; and (3) examine its predictive validity for later academic/skill behaviors, e.g., writing. Form Reproduction in Year 1…

The Massad Mimicry Test is an individually administered task for 3-1/2--4-1/2 year-old children. Part I evaluates the child's ability to reproduce phonemes in 30 nonsense words upon hearing each no more than three times from a tape recorded model. Similarly, Part II assesses the child's ability to reproduce meaningful words and phonemes as they…

The Sigel Object Categorization Test (SOCT) is used for studying classification abilities in young children, the criteria for which is considered indicative of both cognitive ability and style. The test consists of two types of stijuli--one set of 12 relatively familiar three-dimensional objects and a second set of colored photographs of these…

The fixation task used in this study measures the amount of time a child fixates or looks at a given picture as it is repeated over six trials and then is followed by a novel picture on the seventh. Two series of slides were used. The first was a redundant nonsocial visual stimulus: six trials of a slide showing 20 chromatic straight lines and a…

The TAMA was designed specifically for the Longitudinal Study as a nonverbal test of general knowledge. The test requires the child to point to the correct picture among three alternatives in response to a question. The two practice items and 25 test items are printed on bound cards, mostly in black and white. Items can be classified as follows:…

This document on early characteristics of high and low achieving black children of low socioeconomic status is part of the ETS Head Start longitudinal study, Disadvantaged Children and Their First School Experiences. In the study reported here, intensive case studies were prepared for those study children who, on a 3rd-grade achievement test,…

The Seguin Form Board Test is used to assess visual discrimination and matching and eye-hand coordination. Previous analysis has shown the vactor loadings for the same scale to differ among age levels, so the test may be measuring different abilities at different age levels. Test materials consist of ten differently shaped wooden blocks and a…