Motor Development of Retarded Children

Abstract

Numerous reports have linked the level of childhood retardation to neuromuscular efficiency. Modern interest in the topic may be traced to the research of Terman and of Hollingworth during the first quarter of this century. Each report may be criticized methodologically. The requirement for physiological development control was satisfied routinely by matching for chronological age of normal and gifted, or normal and retarded Ss. In this research 163 low and high IQ Ss were assigned to groups matched for race, sex, socioeconomic factors, chronological age, and test time. A measure of static grip strength indicated statistically significant superiority (p < 0.05) for the high IQ group. Rematching of Ss with weight and height included as indicative of physiological development resulted in a small and statistically insignificant mean difference. It was concluded that physiological development may account for a significant portion of the variation in strength of normal and retarded children.