Conceptual Tempo as a Predictor of First-grade Reading Achievement

The primary purposes of this study were to (1) ascertain the effects of kindergarten conceptual tempo classification on middle of first-grade reading performance; (2) compare the results obtained by the traditional Matching Familiar Figures Test double median split classification procedure with results obtained by computing a linear score for each child which combined his MFF standard scores for latency and errors. Regardless of the classification procedure, conceptual tempo did not significantly influence reading achievement at the .05 level. When equated for kindergarten reading readiness scores, significant vocabulary and comprehension differences were not found for tempo, sex, or interaction. It was concluded that the conceptual tempo of kindergartners does not appear of utility in predicting their middle of first-grade reading performance. Conceptually impulsive children have been found to perform significantly more poorly than their reflective peers on measures of word recognition (Kagan, 1965), auditory-visual integration (Margolis, 1976) and auditory discrimination (Margolis, 1977). Keogh and Donion (1972) found that seriously learning disabled boys were more conceptually impulsive than moderately disabled boys. While this might suggest that conceptually impulsive children are more likely than reflective children to develop reading difficulties, other evidence mitigates against this supposition. Margolis, for example, found no significant differences between impulsive and reflective kindergartners on measures of reading readiness {Margolis, 1976) and auditory memory (Margolis, 1977). Moreover, the magnitude of the correlations found by Kagan (1965) between word recognition errors in the fall of grade two and MFF performance some six months earlier in Reprints may be requested from Dr. Margolis, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122