精神遅滞児の保存概念形成をめざす実験的研究(その2)

The hypothesis considered the special training with "USE OF MEASURE" employed in this study was to test of the effectiveness for the facilitation of conservation acquisition. The "USE OF MEASURE" is defined as the abstraction and measurement an attribute of the material. The subjects of the experimental group consisted of seven mentally retarded children, means of chronological age and I.Q. were 163 months (S.D. 5. 89) and 60.6 (S.D. 16.19). The respectivily experiment was conducted through four phases; pretest, training, posttest and relayed posttest. The process aimed the improvement of measurment skills and the formation of reversibility and compensation in the subjects. Thirteen session with forty minutes training were applied. The results of the experiment were as follows; (1) Concerning the conservation of substance, five out of six non-conservers showed the improvement in the acquisition of conservation. A subject improved to conservation from transitivity stage. Concerning the conservation of weight, four out of five non-conservers achieved the acquisition. A subject showed the shift from transitivity to conservation. The significant difference with respect to the improvement were confirmed between the experimental group and the controlled group. Consequently, the special training applied was regarded as an effective method for the subjects. (2) All the subjects who acquired the conservation were able to understand the concept of "USE OF MEASURE". Reversely, a subject who did not acquired the conservation failed in understanding of "USE OF MEASURE" concept. (3) Although four out of seven subjects had not acquisited conservation of length and number at the phase "pretest", three out of these four subjects successfully acquired conservation of the two concepts at the phase "posttest" followed by "training". The results indicated that the conservation training of substance and weight was transferred into the conservation of length and number, and also indicated that these three subjects had the logical explanation on their task. (4) No difference was observed between the result of the posttest immediately after the training and that of the related posttest which was applied three month after the training. This indicated the fact that the ability obtained at the phase "training" holds certain level. (5) The analysis of the record of the training method also confirmed generality and stability. Throughout the training, special emphasis was placed on the programization, visualization and simplification of the instructional materials, in order to compensate the inferiority of abstract ability of the subjects. In conclusion, the effective training applied for mentally retarded children was originally prepared by the author in order to facilitate their conservation. This appears to indicate the fact that mentally retarded children's ability had similar developmental features with those of the normal children.