FIFTY-THREE LEARNING ABILITIES
In 1967, Robert E. Valett was the Director of Special Education in the Sacramento City Unified School District. He was responsible for writing and publishing an "aid to the person working with a pupil with learning disabilities." (Valett, [1967] p. 1) The following learning abilities, operational definitions and educational rationale are adapted from his publication for the purpose of aiding the teacher-in-training. It is believed that a knowledge of these learning abilities will help the teacher-in-training conceptualize developmentally appropriate activities for teaching and learning. Much of the information that follows is either directly quoted or paraphrased from Valett's publication, "The Remediation of Learning Disabilities" [1967] Fearon Publishers, Belmont California. Even though itwas written over thirty years ago, it is still useful as an important framework to get students to think about how children learn.
GROSS MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
Gross motor development may be defined as "the development of and awareness of large muscle activity." There are fourteen (14) categories of learning abilities associated with gross motor development.
These are:
Rolling, Sitting,
Crawling, Walking, Running, Throwing, Jumping, Skipping, Dancing, Self-identification,
Body Localization, Body Abstraction, Muscular Strength, General Physical
Health.
1. ROLLING
Operational definition:
Rolling is the ability to roll one's body in a controlledmanner.
Description of the Learning Ability:
From a prone position, with arms over head, 'the student can roll from back to stomach. The student can also do sequential rolling to right and left, and can roll down or up an incline.
Educational Rationale:
Rolling -- either parts of one's body of the entire body itself in accord with specific instructions --furthers neurophysiological control and development. Physically immature and poorly coordinated children should be given increasingly difficult rolling tasks and taught fundamental body control skills.
2. SITTING
Operational Definition:
Sitting is the ability to sit erect in normal position without support or constant reminding.
Description of Learning Ability:
The student can demonstrate proper position sitting at a desk with feet on the floor, back straight, and head and arms ln correct position for work at hand.
Educational Rationale:
To work and learn effectively, children must be taught how to relax and maintain proper sitting posture for reading, writing, and participation in varied activities. The relationship of poise and body control to fatigue and poor performance should be demonstrated where and when required.
3. CREEPING
The ability to move on one's hands and knees in a smooth and coordinated way.
Description of Learning Ability:
With eyes fixed on target, the child first creeps in homolateral fashion. Child then progresses to cross-pattern creeping.
Educational Rationale:
Creeping is a developmental skill furthering neurophysiological integration. Children should be provided with ample opportunity to creep and should be taught specific coordination skills through varied creeping activities.
4. WALKING
Operational Definition:
The ability to walk erect in a coordinated fashion without support.
Description of Learning Ability:
With head up and shoulders back, student walks specified path and walking line. Student can walk backward and sideways without difficulty.
Educational Rationale:
Walking is a neuromuscular act requiring balance and coordination. Children should be presented with opportunities to develop increasing skill in more difficult walking tasks.
5. RUNNING
Operational Definition:
The ability to run a track or obstacle course without a change of pace.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student runs a straight track of easy distance without difficulty. Student can change direction through a simple obstacle course without stopping or significantly changing pace.
Educational Rationale:
The ability to run requires muscular strength, coordination, and endurance, and contributes to total psychomotor learning. Running skills and related activities should be taught as an integral part of any physical education program.
6. THROWING
Operational Definition:
The ability to throw an object with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
Description of Learning Ability
Student throws an object to another person so that it may be caught. Student can throw object accurately into a box or basket.
Educational Rationale:
Student should be taught to throw various types of objects with a fair degree of accuracy. Children should be provided with specific remedial instructions if their throwing skills are notably impaired.
7. JUMPING
Operational Definition:
The ability to jump simple obstacles without falling.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can jump from chair to floor without difficulty. Student can jump from jumping board without falling; and can jump over knee-high obstacles.
Educational Rationale:
Children should be taught to coordinate themselves asrequired in simple jumping tasks. Physical education programs should include personalized instruction in jumping skills and activities.
8. SKIPPING
Operational Definition:
The ability to skip in normal play.
Description ofLearning Ability:
Student can skip, alternating feet, around circle ofplayers; can skip rope forward by hopping and alternate-foot skipping.
Educational Rationale:
For many children, skipping is a difficult task ofcoordination and timing that also requires strength and endurance. Childrenshould be taught to skip by direct imitation and guidance and throughinvolvement in games and activities.
9. DANCING
Operational Definition:
The ability to move one's body in coordinated response tomusic.
Description of Learning Ability:
In young children, free movement and eurhythmic expression.Progression to more formal dance steps with older students.
Educational Rationale:
Children need to be taught the enjoyment of free movementand emotional response to musicand rhythm. Danclng and related skills should be a fundamental part of allphysical education, language development and remedial eurythmic programs.
Operational Definition:
The ability to identify one's self.
Description of Learning ability:
Student can identify self by name, respond to name whencalled, identify self in pictures and mirrors.
Educational Rationale:
Primary to all conceptual learning is the awareness of selfas a separate identity. The young preschool child must be taught todifferentiate himself from other objects in the environment and to respond tohis name.
11. BODY LOCALIZATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to locate parts of one's body.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can locate eyes, hands, mouth, hair, nose, feet,eyebrows, fingernails, shoulders, elbows, knees, back, neck, chin, forehead,wrist, arms legs, toes.
Educational Rationale:
Before a child can develop am adequate self-concept, heneeds to be able to locate himself in space. Children should be taught tophysically find and point out body parts and to describe them by name andfunction.
12. BODY ABSTRACTION
Operational Definition:
The ability to transfer and generalize self-concepts and body localizations.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can identify others by names and pictures.StudentŐs also locate body parts on others, generalize to pictures, andcomplete body picture puzzles.
Educational Rationale:
Children should be provided with varied experiences wherebythey may gain psycho-physical awareness and control themselves. Educationalprograms should allow for the child to consider himself relative to givensituations and should contribute to the development of a sound self concept.
13. MUSCULAR STRENGTH
Operational Definition:
The ability to use ones's muscles to perform physical tasks.
Student can touch floor from standing position; from proneposition can sit up and touch toes. Student can raise legs of floor from proneposition for a few seconds. Student can do one push-up and chin self from bar.
Educational Rationale:
Muscular strength is best developed through a systematic physicalfitness program adapted to individual growth patterns. Exercises and gamesinvolving all major body muscles should be included in the program.
14. GENERAL PHYSICAL HEALTH
Operational Definition:
The ability to understand an apply the principles of healthand hygiene and to evidence good general health.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student has good personal health and hygiene habits--nochronic absences for health reasons, no unusual accidents or health history, nosignificant physical disabilities interfering with learning.
Educational Rationale:
The child must be taught proper health habits that mayeffect his entire efficiency in learning. Educational consideration must begiven to significant health, nutrition, and physical limitations.
SENSORIMOTOR INTEGRATION
SensorimotorIntegration may be defined as "the psychophysical integration of fine andgross motor activities. There are seven (7) categories of learning abilitiesassociated with sensorimotor integration. These are:
Balance and Rhythm, Body-Spatial Organization, Reaction-Speed Dexterity, Tactile Discrimination, Directionality, Laterality, and TimeOrientation.
15. BALANCE AND RHYTHM
Operational Definition:
Theability to maintain gross and fine motor balance and to move rhythmically.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student is able to balance on balance beam or rail. Studentcan move rhythmically in playing jacks and in bouncing on a trampoline etc.
16. BODY-SPATIAL ORGANIZATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to move one's body in an integrated way aroundand through objects in a spatial environment.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can run through a maze on playground or in classroomwithout bumping; can move easily through tunnels and use playground monkey barsand can imitate body positions in space.
17. REACTION-SPEED DEXTERITY
Operational Definition:
The ability to respond efficiently to general directions orassignments.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can attend to the teacher sufficiently to comprehendtotal directions. Student can proceed to organize self and respond adequatelyto complete the given assignment within a normal time expectancy.
18. TACTILE DISCRIMINATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to identify and match objects by touching andfeeling.
Description of Learning Ability:
With hidden toys and materials, student can match objectswith both left and right hands, name or classify materials or substances,differentiate weights, discriminate temperatures.
19. DIRECTI0NALITY
Operational Definition:
The ability to know right from left, up from down, forwardfrom backward. and directional orientation.
Description ofLearning Ability:
Student can write and follow picture story or readingmaterial from left to right, discriminate right and left body parts and thoseof other people, locate directions in room and school.
20. LATERALITY
Operational Definition:
The ability to integrate one's sensory-motor contact withthe environment through establishment of homolateral hand, eye, and footdominance.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student has consistent right or left-sided approach in usec. eyes, hands, and feet in tasks such as kicking ball, cutting paper, sightingwith telescope.
21. TIME ORIENTATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to judge lapses in time and to be aware of timeconcepts.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student is prompt in attending class. completing timedassignments, and following directions. Student is aware o. day, month, year,time of day and seasons.
PERCEPTUAL-MOTOR SKILLS
Perceptual-motorskills may be defined as "the functional utilization of primary auditory,visual, and visual-motor skills." There are fifteen (15) categories oflearning abilities associated with perceptual-motor skills. These are:
Auditory Acuity, Auditory Decoding, Auditory-VocalAssociation, Auditory Memory, Auditory Sequencing, Visual Acuity, VisualCoordination and Pursuit, Visual-Form Discrimination, Visual Figure-GroundDifferentiation, Visual Memory, Visual Motor Memory, Visual Motor Fine Muscle Coordination,Visual-Motor Spatial-Form Manipulation, Visual Motor speed of Learning, VisualMotor Integration.
22. AUDITORY ACUITY
Operational Definition:
The ability to receive and differentiate auditory stimuli.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student responds functionally to watch tick, hidden soundtoys, and general normal conversational directions. Student has no significantdecibel loss.
Educational Rationale:
The ability to receive and respond to auditory stimuli is aresult of the integration of experience and neurological organization. Thetraining of children in listening skills with emphasis on the development ofgood habit patterns of auditory attention and motivation should be stressed.
23. AUDITORYDECODING
Operational Definition:
The ability to understand sounds or spoken words.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can follow simple verbal instructions. Studentsindicate by gesture or words the meaning or purpose auditory stimuli such asanimal sounds, nouns, or verbs.
Educational Rationale:
Children need to be taught to listen carefully and tounderstand and respond to oral stimulation and instructions. Trainingactivities should stress behavioral responses and simple "yes-no"answers rather than long verbal replies.
24. AUDITORY-VOCAL ASSOCIATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to respond verbally in a meaningful way toauditory stimuli.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can associate with verbal opposites, sentencecompletion or analogous verbal responses.
EducationalRationale:
Children must be taught to listen and to verbally respond inmeaningful ways through the use of association, logical inference, andjudgment. Expressive fluency should be recognized as a secondary goal.
25. AUDITORY MEMORY
Operational Definition:
The ability to retain and recall general auditoryinformation.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can act out (charades) Santa Claus, simple plots ofcommon nursery rhymes ("Jack and Jill"), can verbally relateyesterday's experiences, meals, television and story plots, etc.
Educational Rationale:
Children must be taught that what they are hearing isimportant and that they will be expected to recall and use auditory informationfollowing training activities. Students should be rewarded for increasing theirauditory memory span as evidence through individual improvement records.
26. AUDITORY SEQUENCING
Operational Definition:
The ability to recall in correct sequence and detail priorauditory information.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can imitate special sound patterns, follow exactlycomplex series of directions, repeat digit and letter series.
Educational Rationale:
Students need to be provided with instruction in attendingto specific directions and in the identification and location of sound patternsand sequences.
27. VISUAL ACUITY
Operational Definition:
The ability to see and to differentiate meaningfully andaccurately objects in one's visual field.
Description ofLearning Ability:
Student sees without notable fatigue, holds material atappropriate working distance, has no significant loss of acuity on Snellen or IlliterateF Chart.
Educational Rationale:
What an individual sees is the result of a psychophysicalprocess which integrates gravitational forces, conceptual ideation,spatial-perceptual orientation, and language functions. Children should beprovided with varied experiences and practice in their interpretation andutilization.
28. VISUAL COORDINATION AND PURSUIT
Operational Definition:
The ability to follow and track objects and symbols withcoordinated eye movements.
Description of Learning Ability:
With head steady, student can move eyes to fixate on stableobjects in varied places, pursue moving objects such as finger positions,follow picture and word stories left or right without jerky movements.
Educational Rationale:
Coordinated eye movements are essential in order tosuccessfully attend to sequentially-arranged symbolic learning material such asreading matter. Child should be provided with systematic instruction in visualcoordination and ocular control activities.
29. VISUAL-FORM DISCRIMINATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to visually differentiate the forms and symbolsin one's environment.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can match identical pictures and symbols such asabstract designs, letters, numbers, and words.
EducationalRationale:
The ability to see likenesses and differences in one'senvironment is requisite to symbolic differentiation and interpretation asrequired in reading. Basic educational programs should include opportunities topoint out, indicate, and comment on the details and differences perceived inone's vision field.
30.VISUAL FIGURE-GROUND DIFFERENTIATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to perceive objects in foreground and backgroundand to separate them meaningfully.
Description of Learning ability:
Student can differentiate picture of self and friends fromgroup picture, differentiate objects in "front" and "back"part of pictures and mock-ups, differentiate his name from among others onpaper or chalkboard, perceive simple forms and words embedded in others.
Educational Rationale:
The differentiation of meaningful objects in the environmentrequires visual concentration, attention, and stability. Children should betrained in the skills of visual scanning, peripheral discrimination ofboundaries and detecting significant details; pointing, matching, describingand kinesthetic-motor modalities should all be used in the regularinstructional program.
31.VISUAL MEMORY
Operational Definition:
The ability to recall accurately prior visual experiences.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can recall from visual cues where he stopped inbook, can match or verbally recall objects removed or changed in theenvironment, can match briefly exposed symbols.
Educational Rationale:
Visual recall and retention must be sufficiently developedto insure success in reading and related abstract learning tasks. Trainingshould be provided in the recall of material through pointing, matching andverbal description from memory.
32. VISUAL-MOTOR MEMORY
Operational Definition:
The ability to reproduce motor-wise prior visualexperiences.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can draw designs and symbols following briefexposure, can reproduce letters, numbers, simple words on demand, can portrayprior objects or events through gestures or drawings, can reproduce variedpatterns and identify hidden materials.
Educational Rationale:
The ability to recall what one has learned or experiencedand to act on this information is essential to all sequential tasks ineducation. Without an adequate visual-motor memory span, tasks must constantlybe learned anew with great loss of time and efficiency. Retention of sequentialvisual-motor patterns is an essential element of this learning ability.
33. VISUAL-MOT0R FINE MUSCLE COORDINATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to coordinate fine muscles such as thoserequired in eye-hand tasks.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can write legibly, trace, and imitate precise bodymovements without difficulty, can cut, manipulate and judge fine physicalresponses without gross errors.
Educational Rationale:
The coordination of perception of stimuli with fine motorresponses required in many educational tasks is prerequisite to academicsuccess.
34.VISUAL-MOTOR-SPATIAL FORM MANIPULATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to move in space and to manipulatethree-dimensional materials
Description ofLearning Ability:
Student can build block houses and designs, drawthree-dimensional pictures,complete shop and craft projects; integrate form andspace puzzles.
Educational Rationale:
The perception of forms in space and the ability to judgemotor skills required to manipulate objects relative to one another is basic tothe solution of nonverbal performance problems encountered in everyday life.
35.VISUAL M0T0R SPEED OF LEARNING
Operational Definition:
The ability to learn visual-motor skills from repetitiveexperience.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can respond with increasing speed to rote learningtasks such as copying digit or letter sequences, spelling, specific arithmeticprocesses, and gross motor skills such as jumping over a rope.
Educational Rationale:
Most visual-motor skills can be improved through refinedpractice and drill. The specific skill to be learned must be broken down intoits component movements or processes and a systematic approach developed toaccomplish the task to the point of over learning.
36.VISUAL-MOTOR INTEGRATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to integrate total visual-motor skills incomplex problem-solving.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can play complex team sports, swim, draw accuratepictures including people, may play musical instrument, write extended letters,move freely about neighborhood and community.
EducationalRationale:
The degree of integration of visual motor skills isevidenced in complex tasks requiring coordination of eyes, hands and large muscles.Varied educational experiences need to be planned in these areas to provideopportunity for integration to develop.
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Languagedevelopment may be defined as "the current functional stage of totalpsycholinguistic development." There are seven (7) categories of learningabilities associated with language development. These are:
Vocabulary, Fluency and Encoding, Articulation, Word AttackSkills, Reading Comprehension, Writing, and Spelling.
37. VOCABULARY
Operational Definition:
The ability to understand words.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student has a basic receptive vocabulary in according tochronological age and educational opportunity.
Educational Rationale:
Vocabulary develops as a result of experience andneurological integration. Children must be provided with varied educationalopportunities as a basis for language development. Directive teaching of basicnouns through concrete aids imitation and reinforcement techniques should befollowed with sequential instruction in verbs, adverbs, and adjectives.
38. FLUENCY AND ENCODING
Operational Definition:
The ability to express oneself verbally.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can communicate verbally, has average fluency ofspeech without undue hesitation or stuttering; uses coherent sentencestructure.
EducationalRationale:
Fluent verbal expression and communication develop graduallyas a result of experience and verbal stimulation. When the child has the needto express himself and feels free to do so, he should be rewarded andencouraged to engage on extended form of verbal communication.
39. ARTICULATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to articulate words clearly without notablepronunciation or articulatory problems.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student uses words with correct pronunciation of initial,medial, and final sounds.
Educational Rationale:
During preschool and kindergarten years, most childrenevidence articulatory difficulties which gradually disappear as a result ofmaturation and experience. By the middle primary grades, however, the childwith notable articulation problems may require special education and speechcorrection.
40.WORD ATTACK SKILLS
Operational Definition:
The ability to analyze words phonetically.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can make proper phonetic associations, break downwords phonetically, recognize component words.
Educational Rationale:
In order to read effectively, the child must be able toassociate sounds with their written symbols and to analyze new wordsaccordingly. Context clues must also be recognized and utilized by the studentwith increasing speed and facility. Students should have a basic sightvocabulary prior to introducing phonics.
41.READING COMPREHENSION
Operational Definition: .
The ability to understand what one has read.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can recall story and paraphrase plot, can explain orrelate meaning in what has been read.
Educational Rationale:
Comprehension of reading material requires an accuratevocabulary knowledge and the ability to relate words meaningfully in sentence,paragraph, and story form. Comprehension develops through the feedback andconsideration of what one has read.
42.WRITING
Operational Definition:
The ability to express oneself through written language.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can write simple sentences and communicate ideasthrough paragraph, letter, story, or essay.
Educational Rationale:
Writing is a basic form of language communication requiringintegration of visual-motor skills and practice. Development of basic writingability begins with training of finger and hand muscles through scribblingexercises, tracing, copying, and the increasing refinement of free writingexercises.
43. SPELLING
Operational Definition:
The ability to spell in both oral and written form.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student spells within general age expectancy.
EducationalRationale:
Spelling is higher-order skill requiring integrationtogether with basic vocabulary knowledge and phonic awareness. Correct spellingdevelops through good habits and practice, proceeding from simple to complexwhich are meaningful to the student.
CONCEPTUAL SKILLS
ConceptualSkills may be defined as "the functional level of concept attainment andgeneral reasoning ability." There are six (6) categories of learningabilities associated with language development. These are:
Number Concepts, Arithmetic Processes, Arithmetic Reasoning,General Information, Classification, Comprehension.
44. NUMBERCONCEPTS
Operational Definition:
The ability to count and use simple numbers to representquantity.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can count forward and backward to 100, count bytwo's group simple quantities upon request.
Educational Rationale:
Arithmetic understanding and usage begins with basic numberconcepts--being aware of simple numbers from one to ten and corresponding setsrepresenting such numbers. Facility in dealing with numbers in combinations to100, and in manipulating numbers such as counting by groups of twos, fives andtens is preliminary to mastery of more advanced basic processes.
45 . ARITHMETICPROCESSES
Operational Definition:
The ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can demonstrate knowledge of basic processes withinexpectation of his chronological age.
EducationalRationale:
Student must be taught to apply basic number concepts inaddition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and other arithmetic processes.Over learning through the use of meaningful drill and practice is required forautomatic recall and use in more advanced problem solving.
46. ARITHMETIC REASONING
Operational Definition:
The ability to apply basic arithmetic processes in personaland social usage of problem solving.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can purchase goods and account for funds, knowscoinage and exchange, can calculate time differentials, understands weights andmeasures.
Educational Rationale:
The purpose of learning arithmetic processes is to be ableto apply this understanding in the solution of everyday problems. Educationalprograms should provide ample opportunity for the student to test his knowledgein practical situations.
47. GENERAL INFORMATION
Operational definition:
The ability to acquire and utilize general information fromeducation and experience.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student is aware of major local and national current events,knows local geography, has concept of city, state and nation.
Educational Rationale:
A child's fund of information is acquired through a varietyof experiences and formal education. Early preschool and childhoodopportunities for exploring the immediate environment may aid in thedevelopment of interest and motivation essential to the acquisition andretention of general information. -
48. CLASSIFICATION
Operational Definition:
The ability to recognize class identities and to use them inestablishing logical relationships.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can sort objects by classification, recognizesubclasses, verbalize common elements in class identity.
Educational Rationale:
A child's mental development is gradual, progressing fromsensory-motor and concrete stages to recognizing relationships inherent ingroupings and classification systems. Experience in dealing with likenesses anddifferences in many varied sequential learning situations provides thefoundation for later development of formal logical thought.
49. COMPREHENSION
Operational Definition:
The ability to use judgment and reasoning in common sensesituations.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student responds to factual reasoning when situation isexplained to him, and can recognize alternatives in situations. Student canjudge actions accordingly, can identify logical reason for given actions.
Educational Rationale:
Comprehension develops through experience resulting i.nincreasing attention and in the understanding of varied situations and theirimplications for problem-solving. General exploration, directive instructionand practice in making inferences and behavioral responses are essential to anyrelevant educational program.
SOCIAL SKILLS
SocialSkills may be defined as "the skills involved in social problem solving." There are four (4) categories of learning abilities associated withsocial skills. These are:
Social Acceptance, Anticipatory Response, Value Judgments,and Social Maturity.
5O. SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE
Operational Definition:
The ability to get along with one's peers.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can relate meaningfully to others and is accepted inboth one-to-one and group situations. -
Educational Rationale:
To become socially acceptable, children must be taughtself-control, cooperation and good manners. The school must cooperate with thehome in both direct and indirect teaching of these important personal habitsand the related skills of social behavior.
51.ANTICIPATORY RESPONSE
Operational Definition:
The ability to anticipate the probable outcome of a socialsituation by logical inference.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student can predict the consequences of his own behavior andthat of others in given situations.
Educational Rationale:
Children must be taught to consider alternate behavioralresponses in specific learning situations and to judge the consequences anddesirability of possible choices. The development of foresight is essential insocial learning and should be emphasized throughout the curriculum.
52. VALUE JUDGMENT
Operational Definition:
The ability to recognize and respond to moral and ethicalissues.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student has a sense of right and wrong, controls ownactions, demonstrates proper behavior.
EducationalRationale:
Children need to be taught consistent standards of right andwrong in keeping with their culture so that they may develop respect for thecommon humanity and dignity of all mankind. Students should also be instructedin the respect for individuality and the values of democracy. Character education should enable thechild to develop from egocentric to rational-altruistic behavior.
53. S0CIAL MATURITY
Operational Definition:
The ability to assume personal and social responsibility.
Description of Learning Ability:
Student is socially mature and independent, demonstratesappropriate citizenship, and assumes social responsibilities.
Educational Rationale:
In order to foster social maturity, the school must provideopportunities for students to learn expectations appropriate to theirdevelopmental level. Instruction and practice in the acceptance ofresponsibility and the obligations of good citizenship should be planned toguarantee increasing personal success.