The efficacy of special class placement for the educable mentally retarded as indicated by measures of academic achievement and social adjustment

• Main Author: Burden, Melvin
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 1971
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/7279/; https://research.library.mun.ca/7279/1/Burden_Melvin.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/7279/3/Burden_Melvin.pdf

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the present effectiveness of special class placement for the educable mentally retarded children in Urban Newfoundland as indicated by measures of academic achievement and social adjustment. -- The study was carried out among educable mentally retarded children attending ten different schools under the jurisdiction of the Avalon Consolidated School Board, St. John's. Twenty-four children between the ages of eleven and thirteen who had attended special classes for at least a period of two years were selected for the study. Twenty-two children from the regular classes were selected with the same chronological age and the same WISC IQ range as the sample from special classes. The arithmetic and reading subtests of the Wide Range Achievement Test and the Vineland Social Maturity Scale were administered to all students in the total group. -- Although the mean score on each achievement subtest was higher for the regular class group, no significant statistical difference was found between the mean arithmetic and reading scores of both groups when a t-test for independent samples was applied at the .05 level of significance. -- No significance difference was found to exist between the two groups with respect to the mean social quotient scores of the Vineland Social Maturity Scale at the .05 level of significance. -- A significant positive correlation was found to exist between performance IQ and full scale IQ and performance IQ and social maturity for the educable mentally retarded in special classes. A significant negative correlation was found between performance IQ and reading for the same group. -- In the regular class group a significant positive correlation was found between verbal IQ and all other variables in the study except performance IQ, namely: full scale IQ, social maturity, arithmetic and reading. Other significant positive correlations were found between performance IQ and full scale IQ, full scale IQ and arithmetic, social maturity and arithmetic, and ...