Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Field, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Field, T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Journal of Pediatric Psychology 6(2) pp. 155-163, 1981
© 1981 Society of Pediatric Psychology

other

Ecological Variables and Examiner Biases in Assessing Handicapped Preschool Children1

Tiffany Field2

Mailman Center for Child Development, University of Miami Medical School

2All correspondence should be directed to Tiffany Field, Mailman Center for Child Dvelopment, University of Miami Medical School, P.O. Box 016820, Miami, Florida 33101

A number of modifications were made of the clinical assessment situation for 200 developmentally handicapped preschool children. These included altering the waiting-room environment by presence or absence of toys, the examination sequence so that developmental assessments preceded or followed physical examinations, the familiarity or unfamiliarity of the examiner, the examiner's familiarity or unfamiliarity with the child's clinical record, and the examiner's recent experience testing normal children. The children's developmental assessment performance and test-taking behaviors were positively affected by the presence of toys in the waiting room and by being given the developmental prior to the physical assessment. Having an examiner familiar with the child or the child's record tended to deflate scores, suggesting that the familiar examiner may have had lesser expectations of the child which, in turn, may have limited attempts at eliciting optimal performance of the child. Examiners who had recent experience in testing normal children systematically assigned lower scores to the handicapped children suggesting that examiners without recent experience in testing normal children may have been assessing handicapped children with a handicapped, rather than a normal distribution as a frame of reference.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 ptjournalHome page
A. K Doty, I. R McEwen, D. Parker, and J. Laskin
Effects of Testing Context on Ball Skill Performance in 5-Year-Old Children With and Without Developmental Delay
Physical Therapy, September 1, 1999; 79(9): 818 - 826.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.