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Psychology
in rhc
Schwls
1981.
18.
394-401
MINNESOTA PRESCHOOL INVENTORY IDENTIFICATION
OF
CHILDREN AT RISK FOR KINDERGARTEN FAILURE
HAROLD IRETON KIN SHING-LUN
University
of
Minnesota Foirview/Southdale Hospital
Minneapolis, Minnesota
MAUREEN KAMPEN
Santa Barbara, Calijbrnia
The Minnesota Preschool Inventory provides a systematic, standardized method for
screening prekindergarten children based upon the mother’s report of the child’s
current development, adjustment, and symptoms. The inventory format and the
Minnesota Preschool Inventory Profile norms provide a convenient means for ob-
taining developmental information and for identifying those children who are at risk
for
kindergarten failure. Normative data are based upon a sample
of
360
Bloomington. Minnesota prekindergarten children. Validity data are presented in
terms
of
correlation and congruence betwan the mothers’ Minnesota Preschool
Inventory descriptions of the children obtained at kindergarten roundup and teachers’
ratings of overall kindergarten performance obtained at the end
of
the school year.
Among the developmental scales of the Inventory, Comprehension, Memory, Letter
Recognition, and Number Comprehension were related to kindergarten performance;
the %If-Help, Fine Motor, and Expressive Language scales were not. The adjustment
scales were not significantly related to kindergarten performance. The Comprehen-
sion, Memory, Letter Recognition, and Number Comprehension scales together iden-
tified
12
of
the
20
students who were rated in the bottom
5%
of
students by their
teachers, while misidentifying only
3%
of successful students as at risk. The symptoms
items
of
the Inventory identified an additional three of the eight poorly performing
students who were not identified by the developmental scales.
Early identification of children with developmental problems
or
handicaps requiring
special educational services has received its most recent impetus from Public Law
94-
142:
The Education
for
All Handicapped Children Act of
1975.
While much effort has
gone toward the identification
or
creation of developmental screening tests for preschool
children, less attention has been given to the systematic utilization of parental informa-
tion
in
developmental screening. Early identification programs have solicited
developmental information from mothers by means
of
questionnaires or interview,
typically without reference to norms
for
interpreting this information.
Alternatives for obtaining developmental information from parents include inter-
view, either informal
or
structured (Boll
&
Alpern,
1975),
questionnaires, inventories,
and parent testing
of
children. The authors’ research and clinical experience have been
with a maternal report inventory format, beginning with the Minnesota Child Develop-
ment Inventory (Ireton
&
Thwing,
1974, 1977).
The Minnesota Child Development
Inventory was designed to provide a standardized assessment of the child’s current
development according to the mother’s report for children age one to six years. The
Minnesota Preschool Inventory was designed
to
be utilized specifically
in
prekindergarten screening (Ireton
&
Thwing,
1979).
This report describes the Minnesota
Preschool Inventory an provides data regarding its validity for the identification of
prekindergarten children who are at risk
for
kindergarten failure.
Requests
for
reprints should be sent to Harold Ireton. Dept.
of
Family Practice, Medical School.
Box
381
Mayo Memorial
Bldg.,
University
of
Minnesota, Minneapolis. MN
55455.
394