Relationship between self-concept and verbal skills in mildly mentally handicapped children

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-concept and verbal skills in mildly mentally handicapped (MMH) children.The subjects for this study were sixty children who had been identified as MMH, and who attended classes at the intermediate level. The sample consisted of twenty-six girls and thirty-four boys, with ages ranging from nine years, two months to twelve years, seven months. The children who served as subjects had attended the program for at least one and one-half school years. They were "mainstreamed" only into non-academic classes for approximately one-fourth of the school day.The data were collected through the administration of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale and the verbal scale of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. Each student responded to items on each of the two instruments which were administered individually in two separate sessions on subsequent days.One null hypothesis was tested. The null hypothesis stated that there is no relationship between global self-concept and verbal skills among intermediate level MMN children. The null hypothesis was tested using the Pearson product-moment correlation index and a one-tailed test significance. The .05 level of significance was designated as the standard criterion value. Data analysis indicated that the relationship between the two variables was substancially significant at the .05 level. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected.The results of this study support the theory that there is a direct correlation between an MMH child's perception of himself and his level of development in verbal skills.The data also suggests that if either verbal skills or self-concept of MMH children increase, a gain could be anticipated in the other.Thesis (D. Ed.