Longitudinal Development of Conservation Skills in Learning Disabled Children

Abstract

A three-year longitudinal investigation was conducted on the development of conservation skills in learning disabled (LD) children. Six measures of conservation (space, number, substance, weight, continuous and discontinuous quantity) from the Concept Assessment Kit were administered to 31 newly identified LD students and 33 normally achieving children (NLD) during each of three years. Results indicated that the LD group demonstrated a developmental delay in attaining the stage of concrete operations compared to the NLD group. However, when this stage was achieved, the LD group appeared to acquire specific concepts at the same rate as normally achieving children. For the LD children, total conservation scores and age were more important predictors of academic achievement than was verbal intelligence during all three years of the study whereas, for the NLD group, this was true only during the first year. It appeared that delayed transition between preoperational and concrete operational thought may be an important factor in understanding the continued school failure of learning disabled children.