Jules Schrager

The Hyperkinetic Child: Some Consensually Validated Behavioral Correlates

ment, in college, of high school students who participated in a program permitting enrollment in college courses concurrent with their high school studies. It seemed important to know whether such students, when they were later full time college matriculants, were as well adjusted as their nonparticipating peers of comparable ability and achievement, or if indeed these students were better adjusted because of their prior exposure to the college environment. The subjects were 131 students of superior mental ability and educational achievement Who were qualified for enrollment in college courses during their junior and senior years of high school. One group of these students (USP) enrolled for and completed college courses (at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio) concurrent with their high school studies, while another group having comparable ability and achievement (NUSP) did not enroll for such work. Subsequently, both groups of students completed in the second semester of their first year of full time college matriculation an informational questionnaire and the College of Adjustment Inventory (CAl). The CAl, a self report inventory, provides scores in the following areas of college adjustment: curricular adjustment, maturity of goals and level of aspiration, personal efficiency, planning the use of time, study skills and practices, mental health, personal relations (with faculty and associates), and composite score. The analysis of these scores and other related information represents the data of the study. The results revealed that with the exception of personal adjustment (for USP girls) there were no significant differences (as revealed by t ratios; p<.05) between the CAl scores of USP and NUSP students. The significantly lower scores on personal adjustment could have reflected the fact that even prior to their college enrollment, USP girls were more poorly adjusted, although there are undoubtedly other possible interpretations. In addition, a more detailed investigation of 32 former USP and NUSP students enrolled as full time matriculants at Miami University revealed no differences between the groups in the kinds of academic or personal problems presented to

Hyperkinetic Children: Early Indicators of Potential School Failure

Hyperkinetic children are identified as a “population-at risk” upon admission to kindergarten. The etiology of hyperkinetic behavior is controversial. “Organic driveness,” “hyperkinetic behavior disorder,” “postencephalitic behavior,” “brain damage with behavioral and conceptual deficit,” “Strauss syndrome,” have all been used to label essentially similar symptom constellations. Bypassing the area of controversy, a study is reported that demonstrates that children who were identified as “hyperkinetic” (using behavioral criteria developed in an earlier study) were (1) absent from school more frequently, and (2) did remarkably less well on standardized tests of school readiness than their peers rated “nonhyperkinetic.” The implications are discussed and suggestions made for the development of intervention programs.