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The primary index of reflection-impulsivity is Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF), which yields both a latency and an error score. To evaluate further the construct validity of these measures, both the latency and error scores of 9- and 15-year-old normal and "acting-out" behavior-disordered children were compared. Young behavior-disordered children were found to be more impulsive than the other groups on the MFF error measure. No differences occurred on the MFF latency measure. This result is consistent with previous findings with normal children in supporting the construct validity of the MFF error score and raising questions about the construct validity of the MFF latency score. Findings were inconsistent with Kagan's assertion that normal children become more reflective with age. The older behavior-disordered children were more reflective on the error measure than the younger behavior-disordered children and had equivalent error scores to both age groups of normals. This finding suggested a lag in the development of reflection in behavior-disordered children.

This experiment investigated teacher judgments of functionally equivalent speech samples obtained from middle and lower socioeconomic status black and white children. Fifty-six female preschool and primary-grade teachers (9 black and 47 white) enrolled in an early childhood education graduate course rated and ranked taped picture descriptions. These descriptions were equivalent on features described but were different in speech patterns used to describe them. A Friedman analysis of variance yielded significant differences (p < .05) in both rating and ranking scores assigned to the four groups. Post hoc analyses indicate that the differences occurred between both the social class and racial groups. Results indicate that middle socioeconomic status children are rated and ranked more positively than lower socioeconomic status children and that white children are rated and ranked more positively than black children.Although children who speak nonstandard dialects may not experience difficulty in comprehending standard English (Hall & Turner, 1974;Quay, 1975), their nonstandard speech may indirectly hinder their academic success. That is, nonstandard speech may negatively influence teacher evaluations of the speaker's abilities, resulting in differential treatment of the nonstandard-speaking child. A first step in ascertaining whether this situation occurs is the examination of teacher evaluations of the performance of children whose speech patterns differ from middleclass speech patterns, when such performance is known to be equivalent for all speakers.Previous research findings have suggested that teachers consider the speakers of nonstandard dialects to be less adequate in their speech than speakers of standard English (Naremore,

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Three types of communication--verbal, nonverbal, and private speech--were investigated in 4- and 5-year-old children. Multiple analyses of variance (MANOVAs) without IQ controlled and multiple analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs) with IQ as a covariate were computed and followed by ANOVAs and ANCOVAs to determine the effects of sex, age, and socioeconomic status (SES) on each of these types of communication. The ANOVAs and the ANCOVAs yielded the same conclusions. Results indicated that age and SES, but not sex, influence the use of the three communication types. From age 4 to age 5, private speech decreased for middle SES children and remained the same for lower SES children. Although lower SES children had more nonverbal communication at both age levels than middle SES children, nonverbal communication decreased for middle SES children and increased for lower SES children between the ages of 4 and 5 years. Both lower and middle SES groups increased in verbal communication between the two ages. The middle SES 4-year-olds used more verbal communication than their lower SES counterparts, and the difference was maintained at age 5. Although IQ is related to verbal communication, statistically controlling for the effects of IQ did not change the conclusions.