Fuchs, D., Featherstone, N., Garwick, D. R., & Fuchs, L. S. (1981). The importance of situational factors and task demands to handicapped children’s test performance (Report No. IRLD-RR-54). University of Minnesota, National Center on Educational Outcomes.

(Report No. IRLD-RR-54). University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Institute for Research on Learning Disabilities. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 217 046)

Students were tested by both their classroom teachers (familiar examiners) and by unfamiliar examiners. All examiners were female, certified, and had several years of experience. The administration of the Action Pictures task was also modified: the 'No Instruct' condition examiners gave the children adequate time to complete their response while the 'Instruct' condition examiners allotted a constant amount of response time.

Participants were 79 preschool children with moderate to profound speech and/or language disabilities. Children with intellectual disabilities as well as mild speech or language disabilities were not included.

The Sounds-in-Words subtest of the Test of Articulation (Goldman & Fristoe, 1972). Neither the participants' imitative or spontaneous performance were scored since previous findings failed to indicate differential responses to familiar and unfamiliar examiners. The Action Pictures task, during which the students had to describe two ambiguous pictures, was given. Participants' responses were evaluated in terms of the total number of intelligible words and syllables employed to the describe the illustrations. A Symbolic Mediation Test, a test incorporating three levels of complexity of symbolic mediation (low, medium, and high), was given. At each level of complexity, three items required a verbal response and three items required a gestural response. One point was given for each correct response with 18 as the maximum number of points awarded for the total score. The Schenectady Kindergarten Rating Scale (Conrad & Tobiessen, 1967), a 17-item instrument that examines classroom behavior, was given. Each item was rated along a 3 to 7 point scale.

The participants did not perform differentially when tested by familiar and unfamiliar examiners on the Action Pictures task. Student performance on the Symbolic Mediation Test, however, was significantly better with the familiar examiner than with the unfamiliar examiner. On the Action Pictures task, the students' syllabic productions were significantly greater in the 'Instruct' than in the 'No Instruct' condition. Students also employed a greater number of words in the 'Instruct' than in the 'No Instruct' condition."