This study investigated the effect of socioeconomic status upon selected oral communication skills of 198 children.
Four subtests of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities and a portion of the Pre-School Inventory were administered to all subjects on an individual basis. The results showed that children from higher socio-economic backgrounds were more competent in certain areas investigated than were lower status children.
The results obtained also indicated the test instruments employed tended to be sensitive to socio-economic status and distorted measurement of actual linguistic skill.
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