One population at risk of academic failure comprises students who are of average ability, but who score significantly higher in nonverbal aptitude than verbal aptitude. Careful identification and instructional intervention can help these students to perform better. The findings of two studies are presented. The first study was conducted in 1964…

Factor analyses of two forms of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Aptitude Test were undertaken to better understand the abilities affecting test performance. Results suggest that three global abilities--two verbal and one quantitative--are consistently tapped by the GRE Aptitude Test. Other less prominent dimensions--some of which appear to…

Neuropsychological research on the effects of hemispherectomy-the excision of one of the cerebral hemispheres-in children and adults adds to knowledge about the division of labor between the left cerebral hemisphere, which specializes in language and verbal cognitive functions, and the right hemisphere, which specializes in nonlanguage functions.…

This report discusses the relationship between bilingualism and mental development of bilingual children. After a review of the relevant literature, a specific study is described. The linguistic background of 648 children from 29 schools, age 10 through 12 inclusive, was measured with the Welsh Linguistic Background Scale. General intelligence was…

An experiment was conducted to investigate three topics of current interest in education: critical thinking, programed instruction, and aptitude-treatment interaction. Thirty college students and 31 ninth graders with extreme discrepancies between their verbal and quantitative aptitude scores were taught eight principles of class reasoning by…

Sixteen individuals with autism and sixteen with Down's Syndrome, aged 10-29, were matched for verbal mental age. The groups' scores did not differ on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. However, the adaptive skills of Down's Syndrome individuals kept pace with mental age, while the skills of autistic subjects did not change. (Author/JDD)

An intervention study of 7-year-old, poor readers examined the extent to which factors of phoneme manipulation, rhyme, verbal ability, nonverbal ability, and phonological memory were predictive of responsiveness to teaching interventions. Only phoneme manipulation was a predictor for reading accuracy. However, for reading comprehension, verbal…

The number skills of groups of 7- to 9-year-old children with specific language impairment (SLI) attending mainstream or special schools were compared with an age and nonverbal reasoning matched group (age control [AC]) and with a younger group matched on oral language comprehension. The SLI groups performed below the AC group on every skill. They…

This study sought to find out if (a) the performance of 113 Jamaican 11th-graders on a mole concept test was satisfactory or not; (b) there were significant differences in their performance linked to their chemical and mathematical abilities, gender and socioeconomic background (SEB); and, (c) there were significant relationships among the four…

This investigation examined whether articulation problems represent a more pervasive linguistic or cognitive disability and whether a genetic component exists, by following up a longitudinal articulation study of 394 normally developing children begun in 1960. A group of 24 individuals, aged 31-33, who had participated in the original study and…

Literature dealing with the disadvantaged is cursorily reviewed and questions raised by the literature are considered. Specifically, this study concerns the relationship between social class and the rate of processing of visual information in young children. Although various sources of slowness in learning are mentioned, this study focused only on…

The Spanish-speaking school pupulation in the Northeast has grown significantly in size, but not in success in recent years. The Coleman Report revealed widespread and sustained inequality of educational opportunity for Puerto Ricans. However, the limited amount of other research on Puerto Rican students indicates that the problem lies in the…

Describes study conducted in England, Scotland, and Wales based on a national sample of 11-year-olds that investigated the relationship between large verbal and non-verbal differences in ability and underachievement in mathematics and reading. Sex differences are also examined and further research needs are suggested. (14 references) (LRW)

Language and reading outcomes at 13 years of age were examined in 28 children identified at 24 to 31 months as late talkers, all of whom came from middle--to upper-class socioeconomic status (SES) families and had normal nonverbal ability and age-adequate receptive language at intake. Late talkers were compared with a group of 25 typically…

A study analyzed the relationship between foreign language learning and four variables, including: nonverbal intelligence, conceptual level, mother tongue, and mathematics. The aim of the study was to investigate whether the same mental processes are involved in poor and good language learning, regardless of the learner's mother tongue. The study…