Auditory and Visual Inadequacies in Maturation at the First Grade Level

Abstract

This paper reports a series of studies of the neurological maturational status of six-year-old, first grade children in the areas of visual and auditory learning modalities. Three studies in visual perception published by the authors are reviewed; the prevalence of maturational unreadiness in “normal” samples is emphasized, and evidence is presented to show how testing techniques can obscure capability. A new study of 204 first graders is reported in full in which the emphasis is on auditory learning modalities. A correlation matrix is offered showing correlations among any combination of auditory memory, auditory discrimination, visual perception, and visual memory. The highest order correclation is -.27. The point is made that at the six-year, beginning school level, variability in intercorrelations of ability among children is so great as to be the rule rather than exception. Within the child, capability within one modality does not imply capability in any other. Implications for the concept of specific learning disability are that deviation from a particular norm, by itself, is not as clear an indicator of disability as is currently thought.