The performance of Gozitan kindergarten and year 1 pupils on three ability tests

Abstract

Three ability tests were administered to 175 kindergarten pupils (87 boys, 88 girls) and 318 Year 1 pupils (156 boys, 162 girls) aged 53 to 85 months attending state schools in Gozo. The tests were: a) The Seguin Formboard Test: the time taken to put 10 variously shaped wooden pieces into appropriate loose fitting holes. b) The Naming Vocabulary Test: the naming of pictures from the British Ability Scales Booklet (Elliott et al., 1978). c) The "Copying" Sub-Test: the copying of simple designs from the British Ability Scales Booklet (Elliott et al., 1978). The study gives norms of performance for each of the three tests. The effect of gender, age and handedness on performance in each of the three tests is investigated. Item validity for Naming Vocabulary and "Copying" Sub-Test was also carried out. Intercorrelations of F ormboard, Vocabulary and Copying tests were found to be moderate. Intercorrelations between the three F ormboard sub-tests were high. Girls outperformed boys in the Formboard Test and the "Copying" Sub-Test. No differences emerged between the genders in the performance on the Naming Vocabulary Test. There was a weak correlation between the teacher's informal assessment on one hand and the performance on each of the tests on the other.