A COMPARISON OF GEOGRAPHICALLY DIFFERENTIATED RURAL MEXICAN CHILDREN USING THE SPANISH VERSION OF THE ILLINOIS TEST OF PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ABILITY.

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the cognitive and psycholinguistic processes of rural Mexican children and compare them to urban Mexican children using the Spanish Version of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Ability as the primary diagnostic instrument. Additionally, Physical, Environmental, and Psychological test correlates are surveyed to demonstrate their application in the diagnostic and interpretive processes. Fifty-nine children, aged four to nine, were tested in this project. The children were all monolingual Spanish speaking, and they all lived in or very near Santa Rosalillita, a small mid-peninsula fishing cooperative in Baja California, Mexico. The cumulative total of the I.T.P.A. subtest raw scores for the Santa Rosalillita children are compared to the scores of two samples of urban children which were used in the I.T.P.A. standardization procedure. A series of t tests are used to analyze the data. The Physical, Environmental, and Psychological test correlates are examined by using obtained I.T.P.A. profiles, a questionnaire, and the author's on-site observations. The relevant results of this study are: (1) There appears to be a significant difference between the five year old children of Santa Rosalillita when they are compared to the two groups of five year old urban Mexican children. (2) There were no significant differences between the seven and nine year old groups of Santa Rosalillita children when they were compared to the seven and nine year old groups of urban Mexican children. (3) Physical, Environmental, and Psychological test correlates can provide important information in the diagnosis and interpretation of the Spanish I.T.P.A. It was concluded that extreme caution be used with the Spanish I.T.P.A. when it is employed with rural Mexican children below the age of six. The results suggest that the Spanish I.T.P.A. be used as one of several sources of information in the effort to serve the educational needs of Mexican children, but not as the only source of information. Further research may focus on rural children living in other geographic locales of Mexico, or on the development of appropriate and useful educational methods and materials for assimilating Mexican youngsters into American schools.