The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the patterns of psycholinguistic abilities of lower and middle class Negro and white children. The subjects for the study were 160 second grade children in the 90 to 110 IQ range from Northeast Louisiana. They were subgrouped by race and social class (lower-lower, upper-lower, lower-middle,…

This investigation compares child language obtained with standardized tests and samples of spontaneous speech obtained in natural settings. It was hypothesized that differences would exist between social class and racial groups on the unfamiliar standard tests, but such differences would not be evident on spontaneous speech measures. Also, higher…