An investigation into the language and generalization abilities in the brain-injured and non brain-injured mentally retarded child.

Abstract

Five brain-injured children were compared with five non brain-injured children on the ITPA and a Generalization Test devised by the writer. These children were aged between 7 and 11 years, and their IQ scores were between 65 and 80. All the children were in special classes in government schools in Johannesburg, and were free of auditory, visual and physical disabilities. The results of this investigation were presented and discussed in terms of whether any difference in language ability of the subjects in this study was present, so as to see whether there was a "typical" profile for each diagnostic group. It was concluded that there are different types of peaks in the profiles of the two groups, and that both groups have poor generalization ability. A close inter-relationship between language and generalization abilities was considered to exist.