Alt Title

Mothers' accuracy in predicting their children's performance on a vocabulary test : the PPVT-R

Publication Date

1981

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Green, Herman G.

Degree Name

M.S. Ed. (Master of Education)

Legacy Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

LCSH

Vocabulary; Children--Language

Abstract

It is the attempt of this study to provide a viable alternative to preschool screening programs which use the child as their only source of information and to determine the mothers' skill in assessment so necessary for effective use of at-home teaching programs. This research focuses on the accuracy of mothers' prediction of their children's level of performance on a vocabulary test. Also considered are the effects of the child's age, sex, birth order, family size; mother's age, mother's education; and the mother's separation hours, on the accuracy of the mothers' prediction. The sample was drawn from a middle-income suburban area, 30 miles west of Chicago, Illinois. The mother and one preschool age (2^ to 6% years of age) child in 93 families completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test- Revised (Dunn, 1981) . The child was given the PPVT-R in his/her home during the first part of the testing session. During the last portion of the session the mother completed a questionnaire composed of information necessary to explore the relevant variables and the PPVT-R answering as she felt her child would answer. When the difference between the mean of the score predicted by the mothers and the mean of the scores actually achieved by the children were analyzed there was no significant difference found. It was then concluded that mothers are accurate predictors of their children's level of performance on the PPVT-R. An analysis was conducted to study the strength of relationships among the variables. The child's age, sex, birth order and family size jointly produced no significant change in the mothers' accuracy in predicting their children's vocabulary scores. No multiple relationship was found among mother's age and education and the mothers' accuracy of prediction score. The one variable which did prove significant was separation hours, the number of hours weekly the mother is unavailable to the child (i.e., employment, school, etc.) during the child's waking day. It was concluded that as the mother's separation hours increased, the mothers' accuracy in predicting their children's performance level on a vocabulary test decreased.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

v, 67 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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