Attentional and perceptual measures: developmental changes.

A battery of 37 tasks was assembled for neuropsychiatric assessment of cognitive functioning, motor control, perceptual abilities, vigilance, and neuromaturational status. In order to determine developmental changes within a normal population, a test battery was administered to 90 middle-class grade school children (50 boys and 40 girls), who ranged in age from 4 to 14. Statistical assessment of left- and right-handed differences produced only one significant finding, which was probably due to environmental adaptation. The only clear sex difference indicated a gross motor advantage for boys walking backward on the balance beam. All 37 tests correlated with age--with true value correlations ranging from .39 to .87.