New Norms for and an Item Analysis of the Wepman Test at the First Grade, Six-Year-Level

Abstract

An item analysis and normative study of the Wepman test was conducted with 204 6-yr.-old first graders selected to be representative of the population at large. Serious discrepancies with the published norms were found not only with the criterion for identifying a child having problems of auditory discrimination but with the utility of the validity checks of excessive error counts (X errors) and the missing of same-sound phonemes (Y errors). For these 204 children the mean error was 7.0 ( SD = 3.5) which would identify 67% of these Ss as having auditory discrimination problems. Further, only one child would have been eliminated by the use of Y errors, and none of the six children who made excessive X errors missed two or more Y validity items. Those items which are “hard” for the first grader (sheaf-sheath, 76% miss) and which are “easy” (gum-dumb, ½% miss) are identified. Pearsonian correlations with other learning modalities, socio-economic level, and a measure of reading readiness are offered.